Atomic Remote Procedure Call

Abstract

Remote procedure call (RPC) is a programming primitive that makes building distributed programs easier. Atomicity, whkh implies totality and serializability, has been recognized as an important property to assure consistency in spite of computing node crashes. We have implemented an atomk remote procedure call mechanism which provides users a simple and reliable language primitive. Concurrency is controlled by attaching a call graph path identifier to each message representing a procedure call. Procedures keep their last accepted calling message paths to compare against incoming message paths. Only calls that can be serialized are accepted. Associated states of static variables are saved in backup processors on procedure entry and restored to corresponding variables in case of procedure crash. Detailed concurrency control and recovery algorithms are given, and illustrated with examples.