High-performance protocol architecture

Abstract

The development of high-speed networking applications requires improvements to data communication protocols in order to efficiently provide the required services to the applications. In this survey paper, we will first give a rapid presentation of protocol optimization techniques and of some high-speed transport protocols developed for specific application needs. We will then present a new protocol architecture based on the “Application Level Framing” (ALF) and “Integrated Layer Processing” (ILP) concepts. ALF states that applications send data as a sequence of autonomous “frames”, which will be at the same time the unit of transmission, the unit of control and the unit of processing. This allows for efficient design of application specific protocols. It also enables ILP, i.e., the integration of multiple transmission control layers in a single loop, maximizing the efficiency of modern processors. We will present both the architectural design aspects and the corresponding implementation problems. Practical experimentations with ALF and ILP will also be described and their benefits and limitations assessed. We will also present a new approach to network architecture namely the active networks approach, and discuss its pros and cons.