Transport-Level Protocol Coordination in Cluster-to-Cluster Applications

摘要

Future Internet applications will increasingly use multiple communications and computing devices in a distributed fashion. In this paper, we identify an emerging and important application class comprised of a set of processes on a cluster of devices communicating to a remote set of processes on another cluster of devices across a common intermediary Internet path. We call applications of this type cluster-to-cluster (C-to-C) applications. The networking requirements of C-to-C applications present unique challenges that current transport-level protocols fail to address. In particular, these applications require aggregate measurement of network conditions across all associated flows and coordinated transport-level protocol behavior. A Coordination Protocol (CP) is proposed which allows a C-to-C application to coordinate flow behavior in the face of changing network conditions. CP provides cluster endpoints with a consistent view of network conditions, as well as cluster membership and bandwidth usage information. An application may use CP to define and implement a coordination scheme supporting particular flow priorities and other objectives.