@InProceedings{rauch:partitioncast,
  author = {Felix Rauch and Christian Kurmann and Thomas M. Stricker},
  title = {Partition Cast--- Modelling and Optimizing the Distribution of Large
  Data Sets in {PC} Clusters},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Sixth International Euro-Par Conference},
  year = {2000},
  month = {August},
  series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  volume = {1900},
  pages = {1118--1131},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
  address = {Munich},
  URL = {http://www.cs.inf.ethz.ch/CoPs/report343/report343.pdf},
  keywords = {multicast, network, cluster, parallel I/O, pario-bib},
  abstract = {Multicasting large amounts of data efficiently to all nodes of a
  PC cluster is an important operation. In the form of a partition cast it can
  be used to replicate entire software installations by cloning. Optimizing a
  partition cast for a given cluster of PCs reveals some interesting
  architectural tradeoffs, since the fastest solution does not only depend on
  the network speed and topology, but remains highly sensitive to other
  resources like the disk speed, the memory system performance and the
  processing power in the participating nodes. We present an analytical model
  that guides an implementation towards an optimal configuration for any given
  PC cluster. The model is validated by measurements on our cluster using
  Gigabit- and Fast Ethernet links. The resulting simple software tool, Dolly,
  can replicate an entire 2 GByte Windows NT image onto 24 machines in less
  than 5 minutes.}
}