Multi-subsystem protocol architectures: motivation and experience with an adapter-based approach

Bobby Krupczak, Mostafa Ammar, Ken Calvert

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Protocol software is often difficult and expensive to implement and test in today's computing environments. Several things are done to reduce this difficulty: communications software is subdivided into layers and organized into a protocol graph; communications software is developed within a protocol or networking subsystem; and it is often ported rather than developed from scratch. Today, a multitude of subsystems offer different features, functionality, and drawbacks; the differences among them often reduce portability and efficiency of protocol code. In this paper, we consider these differences in subsystems and their effect on the portability and performance of protocol implementations. We propose an approach for combining the better features of protocol subsystems by constructing protocol graphs composed of protocols residing in different subsystems. Our approach uses adapter modules spanning the inter-subsystem boundary. We relate our experiences designing, implementing, and measuring the performance of several such adapters using an AppleTalk protocol stack we have developed as a baseline.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1149-1156
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings - IEEE INFOCOM
Volume3
StatePublished - 1996
EventProceedings of the 1996 15th Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, INFOCOM'96. Part 1 (of 3) - San Francisco, CA, USA
Duration: Mar 24 1996Mar 28 1996

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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