The DiMaWo framework eases the development of distributed applications based on a Master/Worker architecture. The framework provides common services (broadcasting, leader election, etc.) that are implemented in a mostly decentralized way.

DiMaWo applications are composed of agents interacting in an asynchronous way. The user must at least provide 2 types of agents: the {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.WorkerAgent Worker Agent} (WA) and the {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.MasterAgent Master Agent} (MA). He does so through a specific implementation of {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.MasterWorkerFactory Master/Worker Factory interface}. The WA implements the workers of the application and the MA the master. DiMaWo provides generic "executable" (i.e defining a static main method) classes that can be used to easily deploy a DiMaWo application (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.exec exec} package).

In addition to user provided agents, a DiMaWo application implies several core agents:

• The Communicator (COM) implements a simple message passing interface based on Java objects serialization (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.middleware.communication communication} package).
• The Overlay Agent (OA) implements the overlay the computers running a DiMaWo application are part of. In addition, the OA gives access to high-level services like broadcasting, leader election, barrier synchronization and failure detection (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.middleware.overlay overlay} package).
• The Shared-Map Agent (SMA) implements a shared map into which key-value pairs can be stored (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.middleware.sharedMap sharedMap} package).
• The File System Agent (FSA) implements a distributed file system that enables DiMaWo agents to easily share files. It directly relies on SMA to access its file table (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.middleware.fileSystem fileSystem} package).
• The Distributed Agent (DA) instantiates the WA and/or the MA provided by the user (see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.middleware.distributedAgent distributedAgent} package).

Each core agent is instantiated one time per computer running a DiMaWo application's process. Each computer therefore also runs a WA and, if the computer is the elected leader, the MA.

DiMaWo provides agents that implement a simple file transfer protocol that uses DiMaWo's COM. In particular, these agents are used by the FSA. For more details, see {@link be.ulg.montefiore.dimawo.fileTransfer fileTransfer} package.