Paper Info
Title
Signals, timers, and continuations for multithreaded user-level protocols
Abstract
Precise timing and asynchronous I/O are appealing features for many applications. Unix kernels provide such features on a per-process basis, using signals to communicate asynchronous events to applications. Per-process signals and timers are grossly inadequate for complex multithreaded applications that require per-thread signals and timers that operate at finer granularity. To respond to this need, we present a scheme that integrates asynchronous (Unix) signals with user-level threads, using the A RIADNE system as a platform. This is done with a view towards support for portable, multithreaded, and multiprotocol distributed applications, namely the C LAM (connectionless, lightweight, and multiway) communications library. In the same context, we propose the use of continuations as an efficient mechanism for reducing thread context-switching and busy-wait overheads in multithreaded protocols. Our proposal for integrating timers and signal-handling mechanisms not only solves problems related to race conditions, but also offers an efficient and flexible interface for timing and signalling threads. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1002/spe.v36:5
Softw., Pract. Exper.
Keywords
DocType
Volume
� 2006 john wiley & sons,ltd. key words: timers,continuations,multithreading,parallel protocols,user-level protocols,asynchronous
Journal
36
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
5
0038-0644
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.42
18
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Juan Carlos Gomez18412.89
Jorge R. Ramos252.36
Vernon Rego332642.85