Abstract: A method for improving the performance of a distributed object model over a network is disclosed. A client computer contains a client object which can call an interface on a server object located on a server computer. On the server side, the RPC dispatching layer is circumvented by providing a pointer into the DCOM dispatching layer directly from the RPC utility layer. The client can therefore specify an interface using only an interface pointer identifier, and need not also specify a RPC interface identifier. The DCOM dispatching can then call the appropriate stub for the interface specified by the client with the interface pointer identifier, while taking advantage of the RPC utility layer to perform security checking, thread management, socket management, and association management.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for evaluating the effectiveness of data encryption for hiding the identity of the source of Web traffic. A signature is constructed from encrypted Web traffic for a Web page sent by a target Web site, and the signature is compared with archived traffic signatures obtained by accessing various Web pages of interest in advance. If the signature of the detected encrypted Web traffic matches a stored traffic signature beyond a pre-set statistical threshold, a positive match is found, and the source of the traffic is identified. Countermeasures for reducing the reliability of source identification based on traffic signature matching are provided.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for handling network communications between a client and a target server on the Internet to protect the privacy and anonymity of the client. For a session between the client and the target server, a routing control server sets up a routing chain using a plurality of Web servers randomly selected from a pool of participating Web servers as routers for routing messages between the client and the target server. To prevent traffic analysis, an “onion encryption” scheme is applied to the messages as they are forwarded along the routing chain. A payment service cooperating with the routing control server allows a user to pay for the privacy protection service without revealing her real identity.

Abstract: A spiral inductor, and manufacturing method therefore, is provided including a substrate and an inductor dielectric layer over the substrate having a spiral opening provided therein. A spiral inductor is in the spiral opening with the spiral inductor including a plurality of parallel spiral vias connected together at center proximate and center distal ends of the spiral inductor.

Abstract: A device adapter for an automation system is disclosed. The device adapter includes at least a transmitter, a receiver, and a logic mechanism. The transmitter announces joining and leaving of the non-intelligent power line device to the automation system. The receiver receives commands from the automation system, and acts as a controller to control electricity to the non-intelligent power line device, depending on the commands received from the system. The logic mechanism determines when to instruct the transmitter to announce joining and leaving. The device adapter can also include a sensor. The sensor determines the on/off status of the power line device.

Abstract: A centralized alert delivery system receives alerts for its subscribers from various alert sources. It categorizes these alerts according to the source of the alert or the content of the alert. Subscribers pre-specify delivery modes for each of the alert categories they are interested in. The delivery mode includes one or more delivery, blocks which in turn include one or more delivery actions. Delivery actions specify a delivery method, whether an acknowledgement to the alert is expected, and a time to wait for the acknowledgement. When the delivery mode contains more than one delivery block, then these delivery blocks are ranked designated as primary, secondary, and tertiary according to the subscriber's preference. The delivery method may be e-mail, instant messaging or short message system (SMS) messaging. An attempt is made to deliver the alert via the delivery actions indicated in the primary delivery block. If the alert is successfully delivered, the process terminates.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for hosting a network service on a cluster of servers, each including a primary and a secondary Internet Protocol (IP) address. A common cluster address is assigned as the secondary address to each of the servers in the cluster. The cluster address may be assigned in UNIX-based servers using an ifconfig alias option, and may be a ghost IP address that is not used as a primary address by any server in the cluster. Client requests directed to the cluster address are dispatched such that only one of the servers of the cluster responds to a given client request. The dispatching may use a routing-based technique, in which all client requests directed to the cluster address are routed to a dispatcher connected to the local network of the server cluster. The dispatcher then applies a hash function to the client IP address in order to select one of the servers to process the request.

Abstract: The following description provides direction-based topology control to a distributed wireless multi-hop network. The network includes multiple potentially mobile nodes. Each node sends a discovery message in all directions. Each node discovers a set of neighboring nodes using a set of incoming signals from the neighboring nodes that are responsive to the discovery message. Responsive to receiving the incoming messages, each node makes a local decision about a substantially optimal transmission power with which to communicate with at least a portion of the discovered neighboring nodes. The decisions are based on the incoming signals and are also independent of positional information (e.g., latitude and longitude). Each node in the network maintains communications with the decided portion of nodes to provide connectivity between each of the nodes.

Abstract: An optimistic distributed simulation method applicable to event-driven simulation that requires only a single rollback announcement per straggler message, with no need for other simulation processes to announce their roll backs. The method is accomplished by maintaining transitive dependency information between the simulation processes in the form of a simulation vector. The present invention eliminates the need for output queues and also the possibility of multiple roll backs per simulation process and avalanche of anti-messages. Alternatives to reduce blocking and minimize the size of the simulation vectors are also disclosed thereby reducing the overhead requirements for systems with large numbers of logical processes.

Abstract: A process of fabricating a sub-micron MOSFET device, featuring a high dielectric constant gate insulator layer, and a metal gate structure, has been developed. Processes performed at temperatures detrimental to the high dielectric, gate insulator layer, such as formation of spacers on the sides of subsequent gate structures, as well as formation of source/drain regions, are introduced prior to the formation of the high dielectric, gate insulator layer. This is accomplished via use of a dummy gate structure, comprised of silicon nitride, used as a mask to define the source/drain regions, and used as the structure in which sidewall spacers are formed on. After selective removal of the dummy gate structure, creating an opening in an interlevel dielectric layer exposing the MOSFET channel region, deposition of the high dielectric, gate insulator layer, on the surface of the MOSFET channel region, is performed.

Abstract: By checkpointing and restoring a user application process, that includes a volatile state and a persistent state, recovery of an application process from the checkpoint position is possible. Specifically, a volatile state is checkpointed in a checkpoint position. Next, the persistent state is monitored to detect a file operation following a checkpoint position that will modify the persistent state. Then, portions of the persistent state are checkpointed if a modification of the persistent state is about to be performed. Then, a recovery to the checkpoint position can be performed such that modifications to the persistent state since the checkpoint position are undone. This allows for resumption of the user application process from the checkpoint position.

Abstract: A checkpoint and restoration system is disclosed to provide checkpoint and restoration techniques for user application processes which save the process state, including the volatile state and desired portions of the persistent state, during normal execution, and thereafter restore the saved state. A lazy checkpoint technique is disclosed which delays the taking of the persistent state checkpoint until an inconsistency between the checkpointed volatile state and a portion of the persistent state is about to occur. The disclosed checkpoint and restoration system allows a user or a user application process to specify selected portions of the persistent state to be excluded from a checkpoint. A selected portion of the pre-restoring process state, such as a return value argument, may be protected before restoring the user application process to a checkpointed state, so that the pre-restoration values of the protected state are retained following restoration of the checkpoint.

Abstract: An optimistic distributed simulation method applicable to event-driven simulation that requires only a single rollback announcement per straggler message, with no need for other simulation processes to announce their roll backs. The method is accomplished by maintaining transitive dependency information between the simulation processes in the form of a simulation vector. The present invention eliminates the need for output queues and also the possibility of multiple roll backs per simulation process and avalanche of anti-messages. Alternatives to reduce blocking and minimize the size of the simulation vectors are also disclosed thereby reducing the overhead requirements for systems with large numbers of logical processes.

Abstract: A registration applet embedded in a registration page of a browser program allows a user to associate a user-specified group name with a plurality of UTRLs, HTTP POST or GET requests or other network service identifiers, such that the group name designates a category of information provided by corresponding network services. An access applet embedded in an access page of the browser allows a user to select one of several previously-registered group names, and an access mode for processing responses to service requests. A processor running the access applet automatically issues parallel requests to the network services associated with a selected group name in response to entry of a command by the user.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems for sharing idle workstation computers that are connected together through a network and shared file system. More particularly, a user of a local host workstation may submit jobs for execution on remote workstations. The systems of the present invention select a remote host that is idle in accordance with a decentralized scheduling scheme and then continuously monitor the activity of the remote host on which the job is executing. If the system detects certain activity on the remote host by one of the remote host's primary users, the execution of the job is immediately suspended to prevent inconvenience to the primary users. The system also suspends job execution if the remote host's load average gets too high. Either way, the suspended job is migrated by selecting another idle remote workstation to resume execution of the suspended job (from the point in time at which the last checkpoint occurred).

Abstract: A fault tolerant message passing system includes a plurality of interconnected processors with storage and a watchdog process wherein the processors may undergo failure. A method restores a consistent system state using optimistic logging protocol with asynchronous recovery. Each process comprises a sequence of state intervals and includes checkpoints for saving in storage the state of the process sufficient to re-start execution of the process. Non-deterministic event messages are logged in storage by each process for replay after process re-start to reconstruct pre-failure state intervals. Transitive dependency tracking of messages and process states is performed to record the highest-index state interval of each process upon which a local process depends. A variable size dependency vector is attached to each outgoing message sent between processes. An integer K is assigned to each outgoing message as the upper bound on the vector size.

Abstract: A method for deadlock recovery in a shared resource multiprocess message passing computer system. The processes executing in the computer system perform periodic local checkpoints and communicate via inter-process messages. Upon detection of a deadlock in the computer system, inter-process rollback dependency is analyzed in order to choose a resource to reclaim. The choice of a resource to reclaim is made such that a resource manager which manages the resource can be rolled back so as to reclaim the resource, and such that an application process which is waiting for the resource is not rolled back past the point at which deadlock was detected. Thus, upon system restart, the reclaimed resource can be provided to the waiting process, and the waiting process can execute past the deadlock point.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for error recovery in a multiprocessing computer system of the type in which each of the processes periodically takes checkpoints. In the event of a failure, a process can be rolled back to a prior checkpoint, and execution can continue from the checkpointed state. A monitor process monitors the execution of the processes. Upon the occurrence of a failure, a target set of checkpoints is identified, and the maximum consistent global checkpoint, which includes the target set of checkpoints, is computed. Each of the processes is rolled back to an associated checkpoint in the consistent global checkpoint. Upon a subsequent occurrence of the same failure, a second set of checkpoints is identified, and the minimum consistent global checkpoint, which includes the target set of checkpoints, is computed. Each of the processes is rolled back to an associated checkpoint in the consistent global checkpoint.

Abstract: A progressive retry recovery system based on checkpointing, message logging, rollback, message replaying and message reordering is disclosed. The disclosed progressive retry system minimizes the number of involved processes as well as the total rollback distance. The progressive retry method consists of a number of retry steps which gradually increase the scope of the rollback when a previous retry step fails. Step one attempts to bypass a software fault by having the faulty process replay the messages in its message log. Step two will attempt to bypass the software fault by having the faulty process reorder and then replay the messages in its message log. Step three will attempt to bypass the software fault by having the processes which have sent messages to the faulty process resend those messages to the faulty process. Step four will attempt to bypass the software fault by having the processes which have sent messages to the faulty process reorder and then resend their in-transit messages.