Peer-to-Peer Computing: Building Supercomputers with Web Technologies (Computer Communications and Networks) - Softcover

Loo, Alfred Wai-Sing

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846283817 ISBN 13: 9781846283819

Publisher: Springer, 2006

Synopsis

An organisation usually has many microcomputers and workstations, which may be connected by a local network. However, many of these microcomputers and workstations are not used at all after office hours. Even when they are used, most of them are doing word processing, web browsing, etc., which take up less than 5% of the CPU power. By incorporating methods presented in this book, a peer-to-peer system can be built quickly. The CPU power of all computers can be shared by users who need more CPU power. Such a system may exceed the performance of supercomputers in some applications.

About this title

About the Author

The author is a lecturer at Lingnan University in Hong Kong and also has the following accreditations.

BSc, MSc, PhD.

Chartered Engineer, United Kingdom.

Chartered Mathematician, United Kingdom.

Chartered Information Technology Professional, United Kingdom.

 

He has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference on Distributed Computing and Applications to Business, Engineering and Science in 2001, 2002 and 2004. They are planning to hold the next conference in London in late 2005 or early 2006.

From the Back Cover

Client/Server architecture was first proposed in the late 1980s as an alternative to conventional mainframe systems. Mainframe processing quickly becomes a bottleneck in any information system, but client/server models shift the processing burden to the client computer. Through workload sharing, client/server systems can improve overall efficiency while reducing budgets.

Companies are again searching for ways to improve their processing power without further investment in new hardware and software. Many client computers are idle most of the time, and have unused disk space. The next logical step is to maximise the resources of these computers, and the peer-to-peer (P2P) model is the answer.

A new and simple peer-to-peer model will be introduced in this book. In it:

• Readers will be taught to install peer-to-peer systems which can then manage and distribute the processing power of any number of clients.
• The size of network can range from two to over a million computers.
• The software necessary to implement peer-to-peer systems quickly can be downloaded from the book’s website at www.springer.com/1-84628-381-7/

The deployment of web technologies will enable individuals and organisations of all sizes to use computers across a network as though it were a single supercomputer to solve complex problems, and after reading this book, readers will be able to install a peer-to-peer system of any size.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846283817
• ISBN 13: 9781846283819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278