The Internet Backplane Protocol: Storage in the Network

For distributed and network applications, efficient management of program state is critical to performance and functionality. To support domainand application-specific optimization of data movement, we have developed the Internet Backplane Protocol (IBP) for controlling storage that is implemented as part the network fabric itself. IBP allows an application to control intermediate data staging operations explicitly as data is communicated between processes. As such, the application can exploit locality and manage scarce buffer resources effectively. In this paper, we discuss the development of IBP, the implementation of a prototype system for managing network storage, and a preliminary deployment as part of the Internet-2 Distributed Storage Initiative.