End - System Support for Idle - Time Networking Lars Eggert and Joe Touch USC

Processing and transmission of idle-time network traffic ideally only occurs when resources would have been idle in its absence. Proposed extensions to the Internet service model are similar to idle-time networking, but focus on network support. This paper investigates end-system extensions needed under such a service model. It introduces a simple model with two preempting prioritized traffic classes (regular and idle-time). Experimental results show that current OS mechanisms cannot provide effective idle-time service. Analysis of OS network processing identifies its event-driven nature as the key issue. Experiments with a proof-of-concept implementation of minimal extensions for idle-time networking show them more than 97% effective in isolating higher-priority traffic from the presence of concurrent low-priority traffic. Index Terms — idle-time, preemption, quality of service, precedence, differentiated services