An inclusive session level protocol for distributed applications

ABSTRACT

The design of an inclusive session level protocol targeted at distributed applications on local networks is presented. The session protocol is motivated by the observation that application requirements, as well as network characteristics, for current and future distributed systems are not well matched to available protocol suites. The nature of services provided in the proposed protocol are derived from typical application requirements, and include group communications, synchronization and recovery, and integrated distributed primitives such as mutual exclusion and consensus. The protocol is also influenced by the characteristics of typical local networks that support sequenced delivery with data integrity, have low latency and high throughput, and are well suited to global addressing schemes. Initial experiences with a test implementation indicate that high level service support is valuable and can be provided with good performance.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Distributed networks

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Network communications

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation