[Haggle-arch] Forwarding Manager and Forwarding Algorithms

[Mirco M. <m.m...@cs...>]

Hi,

As you know, I am implementing a forwarding algorithm for Haggle based 
on periodic retransmissions to the final destinations or to intermediate 
message carriers -- using a more hagglish terminology, FO carriers.

I am trying to encapsulate all the code in a class implementing the 
ForwardingAlgorithm interface (and some accessory classes).

I have a suggestion about the specification of the interface 
ForwardingManager (and its current implementation 
DefaultForwardingManager). In the current implementation, the 
setForwardingTask() method is called periodically by the 
ForwardingManager. However, this call is repeated at a fixed interval 
(set using a sleep with a constant duration).

I suggest to add a primitive to allow the developers to set this value - 
  I think that this may be quite useful for all the protocols based on 
re-transmissions to reach the final destinations (also using 
intermediate carriers).

The downside of this solution may be that the creation of the Forwarding 
Object may be delayed (i.e., the first attempt of transmission of a DO 
may be delayed).

To avoid this, another method may be added 
(setPeriodicForwardingTask()?) that is called periodically (with an 
interval specified by the user).

Another alternative is the implementation of this mechanism in the 
forwarding algorithm (i.e. in the class implementing 
ForwardingAlgorithm). However, this is quite complicated, since the 
control of the list of the pending FOs is in the forwarding manager (in 
particular, the addition and deletion of FOs).

I am really interested in your opinion about these design issues...

Thanks,
Mirco

-- 
Mirco Musolesi
Dept. of Computer Science, University College London
Gower Street London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom
Phone: +44 20 7679 0391 Fax: +44 20 7387 1397
Web: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/m.musolesi