From: kempson@ICSI.Berkeley.EDU (Mark Kempson)
Newsgroups: ba.seminars
Subject: 7/30/92 G.M. Lundy Talk at ICSI
Date: 23 Jul 1992 23:17:34 GMT
Organization: International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Distribution: ba
NNTP-Posting-Host: icsid.icsi.berkeley.edu
Keywords: Formal Model of a High Speed Transport Protocol

              The International Computer Science Institute
                     is pleased to present a talk:

                   Thursday, July 30, 1992  2:00 p.m.

                              G. M. LUNDY
                     Department of Computer Science
                     US Naval Postgraduate School

          ``Formal Model of a High Speed Transport Protocol''

           The development of  optical  fiber  as  a  transmission
      medium  has  led to the development of several standards for
      high  speed  networks;  these  include   FDDI,   DQDB,   and
      SONET/ATM. The networks using these standards will transport
      data packets from host to host, or end to end,  faster  than
      ever  before. Current end to end protocols, called transport
      protocols, were not designed for networks operating at these
      high   transmission   rates.   Thus,  they  could  become  a
      bottleneck to the network operation. A number of researchers
      have in recent years been examining current transport proto-
      cols and methods for improving their processing speed.

           Some of the more promising ideas  for  improving  tran-
      sport  processing  speed  include  distributing the protocol
      amongst a group of computers, [Cher86], implementing as much
      of  the  protocol as possible in hardware as a VLSI chip set
      [Ches88], transferring large blocks of  data  packets  using
      rate  control  and  implicit timing mechanisms [Clar88], and
      redesigning transport protocols to use extra bandwidth where
      a  payoff  in  terms  of  increased processing efficiency is
      achieved, to include models for parallel processing of stan-
      dard format packets.

           In  [Netr90],  a  high  speed  transport  protocol   is
      described  in  which complete state information is exchanged
      between  the  transmitting  and  receiving  machines  on   a
      periodic  and  frequent  basis,  independent  of significant
      events which may have occurred. This method reduces the com-
      plexity  of protocol processing by removing many of the pro-
      cedures required to recover from network  inadequacies  such
      as bit errors, packet loss, and out of sequence packets, and
      makes it more amenable to parallel processing. Additionally,
      the protocol used a modified selective repeat error recovery
      mechanism to perform packet retransmission efficiently.

           In this talk the formal model ``systems of  communicat-
      ing machines'' is used to specify and  partially analyze the
      high speed transport protocol in [Netr90],  called  the  SNR
      protocol. The precision of the protocol has been refined and
      some specific functions analyzed.

           Time permitting, some other network research which  the
      author  is  working  on  will  be  briefly  described. These
      include protocol testing, automated protocol  analysis,  and
      network security.

        This talk will be held in the Main Lecture Hall at ICSI.
          1947 Center Street, Sixth Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704
       (On Center between Milvia and Martin Luther King Jr. Way)
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