U-Net: A User-Level Network Interface for Parallel and Distributed Computing

Abstract

The U-Net communication architecture provides processes with a virtual view of a network device to enable user-level access to high-speed communication devices. The architecture, implemented on standard workstations using off-the-shelf ATM communication hardware, removes the kernel from the communication path, while still providing full protection. The model presented by U-Net allows for the construction of protocols at user level whose performance is only limited by the capabilities of network. The architecture is extremely flexible in the sense that traditional protocols like TCP and UDP, as well as novel abstractions like Active Message can be implemented efficiently. A U-Net prototype on an 8-node ATM cluster of standard workstations achieves 15Mbytes/s TCP bandwidth with 1Kbyte buffers and demonstrates performance equivalent to Meiko CS-2 and TMC CM-5 supercomputers on a set of Split-C benchmarks. 1 Introduction The increased availability of high-speed local area networ...