This project will support experimentation with the eXtensible Session Protocol (XSP) and the Phoebus network accelerator platform across various GENI substrates and platforms. XSP and Phoebus are innovative network initiatives that enable improved network performance and functionality. Phoebus will provide dramatically improved performance across networks with diverse technologies and characteristics, including emerging ultra-high speed optical networks as well as ubiquitous wireless networks. XSP provides the scaffolding to address the various well-known limitations in the Internet architecture including support for enhanced security, separation of location and identity in the routing infrastructure, and dynamic network service qualities driven by the user.
These experiments will deploy a novel session layer framework on a wireless testbed, as well as in a high-performance environment, like the Supercharged PlanetLab Platform. Security mechanisms and the performance effects of the Phoebus performance inlay will be evaluated. A novel session rendez-vous technique will be developed. Graduate students will gain critical research experience working on this project.
This is a report describing our project to implement and study the eXtensible Session Protocol (XSP) as a key component in realizing our vision of an Optimizing Network Environment (ONE). The Internet offers amazing capabilities, but at the same time, there are many things that could be improved. For instance, when streaming video over the Internet, both client and server must make assumptions about the characteristics and state of the networks between them. XSP enables network components to communicate with applications and the goal of ONE is to allow them to work together for greater efficiencies. The primary goal of XSP is to provide a general and easily extensible protocol specification that is capable of defining the interaction between network devices, services, middleware frameworks, and applications. Applied to ONE, XSP enables an architecture of network control and adaptation through network service gateways with added visibility and control of the underlying infrastructure. The protocol is supported by an easy-to-use set of libraries that implement the core protocol routines and a set of interfaces that allows application developers to quickly create "XSP-aware" network code. In addition, the XSP library provides transparent wrappers, or "shim" libraries, that allow existing network applications to take advantage of the XSP architecture without extensive modifications. This grant has aided in the development of the XSP-based ONE architecture and its evaluation within the GENI environment through a number of experiments. The development efforts related to XSP have increased understanding about how networks and applications might work together in the ONE framework.
