Parallel processing on heterogeneous networks for GIS applications

Abstract

The use of network-based parallel computing is gaining an increasing popularity for different reasons. Its exploitation depends on the availability of simple but effective methodologies to parallelize applications, and the availability of portable and efficient communication libraries to develop parallel programs. These two items are necessary to obtain performance advantages, and to ensure software portability and reusability. In this paper we present our experience in parallelizing, in a systematic way, a class of Geographical Information Systems applications. We discuss the use of two well-known communication libraries (PVM and Linda). Performance results are also reported.