Axon Network Virtual Storage Design

James P.G. Sterbenz and Gurudatta M. Parulkar,
“Axon: Network Virtual Storage Design”,
SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, Vol.20 #2,
ACM SIGCOMM, New York, April 1990, pp. 50–65.
[ PostScript | WUCS-89-13.ps ]

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the design of network virtual storage (NVS) in the Axon host communication architecture for distributed applications. The Axon project is investigating an integrated design of host architecture, operating systems, and communication protocols to allow applications to utilise the high bandwidth provided by the next generation of communications networks. NVS extends segmented paged virtual storage management and address translation mechanisms to include segments located across an internetwork. This provides the ability to efficiently use the shared memory paradigm in non-local envinronments, as well as the support for a very high speed end-to-end data path between demanding applications such as scientific visualisation and imaging.

Keywords

High-bandwidth low-latency gigabit zero-copy host-network interface, very high-speed internet, VHSI, distributed virtual shared memory, DVSM, DSM, network virtual storage, Multics, NVS, application-oriented lightweight transport protocol, ALTP, distributed scientific visualisation

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Overview of the Axon Architecture
   1. IPC in the Axon architecture
      • Generalised remote procedure call (GRPC)
      • Segment streaming
   2. System level IPC support
   3. Transport protocol
   4. Host architecture
   5. Communications processor architecture
3. Network Virtual Storage
   1. Address translation extended across the network
   2. Implementation
      • Segment types
      • Host name binding
        • KST – known segment table
        • KHT – known host table
        • HAT – host address table
        • HND – host name database
      • Segment descriptors
        • SDT – segment descriptor table
        • AST – active segment table
        • PDT – page descriptor table
      • Remote segment location
        • UDir – user directory
        • ACL – access control list
        • WSD – well-known segment directory
        • MST – multipoint IPC segment table
        • AIT – active IPC table
      • Performance aspects
   3. Example NVS segment transfer
4. NVS Storage Management Strategies
   1. Fetch policy
   2. Real placement policy
   3. Replacement policy
   4. Remote segment placement policy
      • AS – auxiliary (or extended) storage
        • ASL – auxiliary storage local
        • ASR – auxiliary storage remote
      • RS – real storage
        • RSN – real storage nailed
        • RSS – real storage swappable/nailed
      • FB – frame buffer
      • [RAS – real and auxiliary storage]
5. Related Work
6. Conclusions

• References
• Acknowledgments
  • Work performed while James P.G. Sterbenz on leave of absence from IBM Corp., Rochester MN.
  • This work supported in part by Bellcore, BNR, Itatel SIT NEC, Southwestern Bell, and NSF grant DCI-8600947

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©2003 James P.G. Sterbenz <jpgs@sterbenz.org>