User-level protocol servers with kernel-level performance

Author

Brustoloni, José Carlos ; Steenkiste, Peter

Author_Institution

Lucent Technol., Bell Lab., USA

Volume

2

fYear

1998

fDate

29 Mar-2 Apr 1998

Firstpage

463

Abstract

Compared to kernel-level servers, user-level ones can be debugged and maintained more easily and safely, but traditionally have had much worse performance. We describe a novel I/O-oriented inter-proces communication (IPC) facility that combines the emulated copy data passing scheme for monolithic systems with new copy avoidance techniques for microkernel systems. Unlike previous optimizations, I/O-oriented IPC does not require changes in existing user applications or complex restructuring of servers; it offers an API with copy semantics and allows the same servers to be installed at kernel or user level. In end-to-end experiments on an ATM network at 512 Mbps, I/O-oriented IPC gave user-level protocol servers performance approaching that of kernel-level ones. Performance differences scaled roughly inversely to the processor´s SPECint95 rating, projecting fast further improvement

Keywords

application program interfaces; asynchronous transfer mode; client-server systems; protocols; 512 Mbit/s; API; ATM network; I/O-oriented IPC facility; client server model; copy avoidance techniques; copy semantics; emulated copy data passing; end-to-end experiments; inter-proces communication; kernel-level performance; microkernel systems; monolithic systems; user-level protocol servers; Access protocols; Asynchronous transfer mode; Communication system control; Computer science; Contracts; Control systems; High-speed networks; Kernel; Network servers; Protection;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

INFOCOM '98. Seventeenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies. Proceedings. IEEE

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

ISSN

0743-166X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4383-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INFCOM.1998.665063

Filename

665063