Eliminating Tight Coupling using Subscriptions Subgrouping in Structured Overlays

Abstract: Advertisements and subscriptions are tightly coupled to generate publication routing paths in content--based publish/subscribe systems. Tight coupling requires instantaneous updates in routing tables to generate alternative paths which prevents offering scalable and robust dynamic routing in cyclic overlays when link congestion is detected. We propose, OctopiA, first distributed publish/subscribe system for content--based inter--cluster dynamic routing using purpose--built structured cyclic overlays. OctopiA uses a novel concept of subscription subgrouping, which divides subscriptions into disjoint sets called subscription subgroups. The purpose--built structured cyclic overlay is divided into identical clusters where subscriptions in each subgroup are broadcast to an exclusive cluster. Our advertisement and subscription forwarding algorithms use subscription subgrouping to eliminate tight coupling to offer inter--cluster dynamic routing without requiring updates in routing tables. Experiments on a cluster testbed with real world data show that OctopiA reduces the number of saved advertisements in routing tables by 93%, subscription broadcast delay by 33%, static and dynamic publication delivery delays by 25% and 54%, respectively.