A smart TCP socket for distributed computing

The middleware in distributed computing coordinates a group of servers to accomplish a resource intensive task; however, without resource monitoring, the server selection algorithms will not be sophisticated enough to provide satisfying results at all time. This paper presents a smart TCP socket library using server workload feedback to improve selection techniques. Users are able to specify server requirements by using a predefined meta language. Monitoring components such as the server probes and monitors are in charge of monitoring the server resource usage, network metrics and performing security measurements. Based on the user's request and available server resources, the user request handler called wizard will recommend the most suitable servers to user applications. The centralized and the distributed modes are both provided so that the socket library can be adapted to both small distributed systems and a large scale grid.