PATROCLOS: a flexible and high-performance transport subsystem

Increasing application demands together with the modern network technology towards gigabit speeds require new adequate transport systems. The transport subsystem PATROCLOS (parallel transport subsystem for cell based high speed networks) is based on a modular protocol architecture with a high degree of inherent parallelism. The primary goal of PATROCLOS was to allow efficient implementations of transport oriented protocols on multiprocessor architectures combined with specialized hardware for very time critical functions. Furthermore, the protocol architecture should offer an enhanced and flexible transport service to support a wide variety of applications providing a large set of different configurable protocol functions. Other important aspects of the transport subsystem are its efficient operation on top of modern cellbased high-speed networks such as ATM. This paper describes the PATROCLOS protocol architecture with special emphasis on the integrated protocol functions and mechanisms. The protocol architecture allows an easy integration of several kinds of transport service interfaces. Two different types of service interfaces (OSI95 [1], F-CSS interface [2]) are discussed. Moreover, the paper shows the advantages of the modular approach for parallel protocol processing by performance results of a multiprocessor implementation. The performance results show significant better throughput and speed-up values than other parallel protocol implementations. Keyword Codes: B.4.1; C.1.2; C.2.2 Keyword: Data Communication Devices; Multiprocessors; Network Protocols