U‐Net/SLE: A Java‐based user‐customizable virtual network interface

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Welsh, Matt^; | Oppenheimer, David | Culler, David

Affiliations: Computer Science Division, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Tel.:+1 510 643 7566; Fax:+1 510 642 5775; E‐mail: {mdw,davidopp,culler}@cs.berkeley.edu

Note: [] Corresponding author.

Abstract: We describe U‐Net/SLE (Safe Language Extensions), a user‐level network interface architecture which enables per‐application customization of communication semantics through downloading of user extension applets, implemented as Java classfiles, to the network interface. This architecture permits applications to safely specify code to be executed within the NI on message transmission and reception. By leveraging the existing U‐Net model, applications may implement protocol code at the user level, within the NI, or using some combination of the two. Our current implementation, using the Myricom Myrinet interface and a small Java Virtual Machine subset, allows host communication overhead to be reduced and improves the overlap of communication and computation during protocol processing.

Journal: Scientific Programming, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 147-156, 1999