Application specific optimization: Rethinking protocol layering and standards
John Peng, Stephen G. Wilson · 2016
There is a confluence of recent trends involving data center technology, software defined networks (SDN), and network function virtualization (NFV) that may open a way for general purpose networks to support application specific optimization (ASO). While traditional communications protocol architecture mandates layering where the lowest layers are application agnostic, research in cross layer design attests to the inefficiencies inherent in the “dumb pipes” networking paradigm. This paper investigates the potential of significant performance gains possible over the access network by departing from the traditional layered protocol approach and using a software defined protocol in conjunction with subscriber and application partitioning to provide ASO over the access network, while still maintaining a TCP/IP protocol stack to provide connectivity to the rest of the Internet. As a case study, we examine the potential performance gains provided by ASO of video streaming over the ADSL access network.