Rapid prototyping of distributed algorithms

Rapid prototyping is expected to be especially effective in designing, evaluating, and tuning new software whose real-time performance and quality of service are difficult to determine analytically. Distributed algorithms and protocols fall into this category of software. In this paper we present the design and implementation of a rapid prototyping system for distributed algorithms. The system provides a library of interprocess communication routines and supports dynamic reconfiguration of network topology, automatic process loading and performance monitoring of the prototyped algorithms. We discuss our experiences in developing the rapid prototyping system on a transputer network and describe examples of using the system.