Scalable processing and communication performance in a multi-media related context

The PATHS system for configuring an application on one or multiple clusters in a grid is described and then used on three applications to demonstrate scalability with regards to processing and communication. The PATHS system use a "wrapper" to provide a level of indirection to the actual run-time location of data. A wrapper specifies where data is located, how to get there, and which protocols to use. Wrappers are also used to add or modify methods accessing data. Wrappers are specified dynamically. A "path" is comprised of one or more wrappers. Sections of a path can be shared among two or more paths. The PATHS system is used to configure a global sum, a wind tunnel, and a video distribution application with the purpose of scaling processing performance when the number of processors increases, and scaling data distribution performance when the number of clients increases. The performance measurements show that the PATHS system can be used to both scale the processing and communication performance.