Understanding and visualizing full systems with data flow tomography

It is not uncommon for modern systems to be composed of a variety of interacting services, running across multiple machines in such a way that most developers do not really understand the whole sysabstraction is layered atop abstraction, developers gain the ability to compose systems of extraordinary complexity with relative ease. However, many software properties, especially those that ss abstraction layers, become very difficult to understand in such compositions. The communication patterns involved, the privacy of critical data, and the provenance of information, can be difficult to find and understand, even with access to all of the source code. The goal of Data Flow Tomography is to use the inherent information flow of such systems to help visualize the interactions between complex and interwoven components across multiple laybstraction. In the same way that the injection of short-lived radioactive isotopes help doctors trace problems in the cardiovascular system, the use of &quo...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ASPLOS
• Authors: Shashidhar Mysore, Bita Mazloom, Banit Agrawal, Timothy Sherwood
• Keywords: ASPLOS 2008, Data Flow, Data Flow Tomography, Programming Languages, Short-lived Radioactive Isotopes