Constructing provenance-aware distributed systems with data propagation
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679661122-MIT.pdf
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Full printable version
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338.4 KB
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67b46e3b990956715e169d631930f263
Author(s)
Jacobi, Ian Campbell
Advisor(s)
Gerald Jay Sussman.
Date Issued
2010
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Is it possible to construct a heterogeneous distributed computing architecture capable of solving interesting complex problems? Can we easily use this architecture to maintain a detailed history or provenance of the data processed by it? Most existing distributed architectures can perform only one operation at a time. While they are capable of tracing possession of data, these architectures do not always track the network of operations used to synthesize new data. This thesis presents a distributed implementation of data propagation, a computational model that provides for concurrent processing that is not constrained to a single distributed operation. This system is capable of distributing computation across a heterogeneous network. It allows for the division of multiple simultaneous operations in a single distributed system. I also identify four constraints that may be placed on general-purpose data propagation to allow for deterministic computation in such a distributed propagation network. This thesis also presents an application of distributed propagation by illustrating how a generic transformation may be applied to existing propagator networks to allow for the maintenance of data provenance. I show that the modular structure of data propagation permits the simple modification of a propagator network design to maintain the histories of data.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-96).
Subjects
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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