Axon:
A High-Speed Communication Architecture
for Distributed Applications

James P.G. Sterbenz and Gurudatta M. Parulkar,
“Axon: A High-Speed Communication Architecture for Distributed Applications“,
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (INFOCOM'90),
Vol.II, IEEE Computer Society, Washington D.C., June 1990, pp. 415–425.
[ postscript | WUCS-89-13.ps ]

ABSTRACT

There are two complementary trends in the computer and communications fields. Increasing processor power and memory availability allow more demanding applications, such as scientific visualisation and imaging. Advances in network performance and functionality ahve the potential for supporting programs requiring high bandwidth and predictable performance. However, the bottleneck is increasingly in the host–network interface, and therefore the ability to deliver high performance communication capability to applications has not kept up with the advances in computer and network speed.

We have proposed a new architecture that meets these challenges called Axon, whose novel aspects include: an integrated design of hardware, operating systems, and communication protocols; the proper division of hardware and software function; reorganisation of end-to-end protocols to take advantage of the increased functionality of the emerging high speed internetworks; and a pipelined interface between the network and the host memory with no packet buffering.

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, NVS, application-oriented lightweight transport protocol, ALTP, distributed scientific visualisation

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Motivation
   1. VHSI environment
   2. Limitations of the existing model
3. The Axon architecture
   1. Axon communication model
   2. IPC in the Axon architecture
   3. Network Virtual Storage
      • Segment types
      • Data structures
      • Storage management policies
   4. Transport protocol
      • Packet structure and format
      • Flow control
      • Error control
      • Retransmission strategies
        • granularity
        • fetch policy
        • preemption
      • Operations
        • connection
        • receive
        • transmit
   5. Network interface architecture
   6. Summary of Axon object transfer
4. Related Work
5. 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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