A semantic checkpoint framework for enabling runtime-reconfigurable applications

Abstract

This thesis proposes to enable runtime-reconfigurable applications through the use of semantic checkpointing. We view applications here as a collection of inter-connected components, and reconfigurations as the reconstitution of components that make up an application. By checkpointing only values that are deemed to be of semantic significance, application state is maintained across reconfigurations even if the two configurations have completely different implementations. Such an ability is especially useful for mobile applications where the resources available may change frequently, and reconfigurations are desirable for making optimal use of these resources as they come and go. Here we present a semantic checkpointing framework for use by developers to easily write adaptive applications that maintain state within a general-purpose checkpointed execution environment. A prototype implementation was built using these framework recommendations and served to demonstrate the feasibility of using semantic checkpointing as a means for enabling runtime-reconfigurable applications.