Evaluation of rate-based transport protocols for lambda-grids
Xinran Wu, Andrew A. Chien · 2004
Abstract- The notion of lambda-Grids posits collections of plentiful computing and storage resources richly interconnected by dedicated dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical paths. Many researchers have proposed new transport protocols to address the opportunities and challenges of this radically different network. We evaluate several promising rate-based transport protocols [1-3], using a range of performance metrics. In lambda-Grids, the DWDM links form a network with plentiful bandwidth, pushing contention and sharing bottlenecks to the end systems (or their network links), inspiring our new Group Transport Protocol (GTP). Our studies for single flows show that several rate-based protocols achieve dramatically better throughput than TCP. As multiple parallel flows are introduced, RBUDP and SABUL incur significant packet loss rates. For converging flows, packet loss rates as high as 50 % are observed. Our new group transport protocol (GTP) which focuses on managing end system contention achieves both high throughput and much lower loss rates. I.