The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture currently under standardisation by the IETF RSerPool Working Group is an overlay network framework to provide server replication and session failover capabilities to applications using it. These functionalities as such are not new, but their combination into one generic, application-independent framework is. Initial goal of this project is to gain insight into the complex RSerPool mechanisms by performing experimental and simulative proof-of-concept tests. The further goals are to systematically validate the RSerPool architecture and its protocols, provide improvements and optimisations where necessary and propose extensions if useful. Based on these evaluations, recommendations to implementers and users of RSerPool should be provided, giving guidelines for the tuning of system parameters and the appropriate configuration of application scenarios.

In particular, it is also a goal to transfer the insights, optimisations and extensions of the RSerPool protocols from simulation to reality and also to bring the achievements from research into application by supporting and contributing relevant results to the IETF's ongoing RSerPool standardisation process. To achieve the described goals, a prototype implementation as well as a simulation model are designed and realised at first. Using a generic application model and appropriate performance metrics, the performance of RSerPool systems in failure-free and server failure scenarios is systematically analysed in order to identify critical parameter ranges and problematic protocol behaviour. Improvements developed as result of these performance analyses are evaluated and finally contributed into the standardisation process of RSerPool.

For further information on RSerPool and the details of the project, see Thomas Dreibholz's RSerPool Page at http://www.uni-due.de/~be0001/rserpool/ .