(Em português)

Past History of the Navigators

The team originating the Navigators gathered in 1985, leadered by Prof. Paulo Veríssimo, at INESC, where it worked for a number of years. Most of the research work has focussed in robustness of distributed systems, for applications ranging from office to safety-critical. Specialized communications architectures, using media redundancy, reliable multicast protocols, object oriented programming interfaces for group support, etc., have been developed, along with the relevant protocols. Formal specification/validation methods for complex protocols have been studied.

The team participated in a number of projects. One of the main projects was DELTA-4, one of the main European ESPRIT projects. There, the team leaded a workpackage on high-performance distributed and fault-tolerant real-time systems, and produced technologies (xAMp) that were incorporated in the project's industrial prototypes.

Among national and foreign companies with whom the team is/was involved in the course of past and present projects, are: EID-Centrel (P), Marconi (P), CTT (P), SMD (P), Setcom (P), Globalsis (P), Siii (P), Octal (P), Bull (F), Ferranti Computers (GB), MARI (GB), Renault (F), SEMA Group (F), GEC Ahlstom (F), Crédit Agricole (F), Jeumont-Schneider (F), Intracom (Gr), Hyperion (Ir), IDS (USA).

Relevant scientific facts:

• the team has over 80 international publications and elements of the team co-authored two international books
• the team took part in a number of research projects:
  • DELTA-4 - Definition and Design of an Open Dependable Distributed Computing Architecture.
  • CoDiCom - Distributed Real-time Computer Control System
  • ESTIMULO - Integrated multi-media workstation.
  • BROADCAST - Basic Research On Advanced Distributed Computing.
  • DINAS - DQS - Design and Implementation of CNMA-based Networks for CIME Applications
  • GODC - Group Oriented Distributed Computing, a joint project with the ISIS/Horus group of Cornell University.
• several prototypes resulted from the team's scientific work, namely a group communication suite (xAMp), non-stop duplicated Ethernet and Token-bus physical layers (EPL), clock synchronisation protocol (a posteriori agreement), distributed industrial information platform (NavCim).

Technology transfer to industry:

From an industrial perspective, the team has taken part on the successful development and transfer of a number of advanced technologies:

• industrial Delta-4 system pilot for the reliable control of an AGV-driven non-stop engine-block assembly cell in the Renault factory in Paris-France, in 1991 (Delta-4 consortium));
• industrial Delta-4 system pilot for the reliable, secure and non-stop operation of a distributed home-banking facility, for the Crédit Agricole bank, France, in 1991 (Delta-4 consortium));
• industrial Dinas system pilot for a distributed and scalable two-level industrial quality control system for the electronic assembly facility of Intracom, Athens-Greece, in 1994 (Dinas consortium);
• experimental large-scale trans-european information service for use of the Esprit Basic research community, based on the combination of AFS and WWW technologies, for reliability/availability, scalability and user friendliness, in 1994 (CaberNet Infrastructure Task Force).

Other relevant facts:

• organisation of some international events, such as the Advanced Course on Distributed Systems (LISBOA'92), the 4th IEEE workshop on Future Trends of Distributed Computing Systems (LISBOA'93), and the 5th European Dependable Computing Workshop, EWDC, 1993;

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