本篇論文提出一個合作計算架構，稱為VC2A(虛擬叢集計算架構)，VC2A是使用點對點(peer-to-peer)網路技術，將多台電腦組織成一個計算網格(computational grid)。這個計算架構的原始構想是由[10]所提出，並且採用了一些現存的系統作為底層元件[8,13,14]，本篇論文的貢獻在於VC2A的系統設計、整合、實作，並作進一步的問題討論。

網格計算與公用運算的研究，近年來逐漸從大型電腦與高速網路的領域，跨足至個人電腦與異質性網路的環境，許多研究開始以桌上型電腦網格(desktop grid)為目標，希望能整合並使用一個組織中閒置不用的個人電腦資源。桌上型電腦網格面臨了一些有異於傳統網格的議題，包括，這類型網格所連結的節點數量遽增，且這些節點加入或離開網格的頻率更為頻繁。這些現象是桌上型網格要面對的新的考驗，它必須能承受更大的規模，更不穩定的環境，與更沉重的管理負擔。

對於這些問題，點對點網路是一個可行的解決方法。點對點網路擅長於隱藏底層實體網路的動態狀況，提供一個邏輯的覆蓋網路(overlay network)，滿足高階應用程式的特定需求，例如路由(routing)、資源搜尋(resource discovery)、容錯(fault tolerance)、安全與管理等等。在本篇論文中，我們借重點對點網路的動態特性，將諸多主機連結為一個桌上型電腦網格，把上述的管理負擔分攤到網路之中。論文中描述的系統已經過真正的實作，與簡單的效能測試。

This thesis introduces a publicly shared architecture called VC2A (Virtual Cluster Computing Architecture), which leverages the virtue of P2P overlays to serve a computational grid. The basic idea and major system components are based on previous works [10,8,13,14]. This thesis contributes on further system design and integration, advance issues studied, and implementation of VC2A.

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