CogPiT | Configuration of Protocols in TIP

Burkhard Stiller ?

University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street
Cambridge, CB2 3QR, England, U.K.
Phone: +44 +1223 334476, FAX: +44 +1223 334678
E-Mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The variety of upcoming applications in terms of their performance and Quality-ofService (QoS) requirements is increasing. Besides almost well-known applications, such as teleconferencing, audio- and video-transmissions, even more contemporary ones, such as medical imaging, Video-on-Demand, and interactive tutoring systems, are introduced and applied to existing networks. On the contrary, traditionally data-oriented applications, such as file transfer and remote login, are considerably different in terms of their QoS requirements. Therefore, the consequences of this evolution effect the architectures of endsystems, e.g., workstations that have to be capable of maintaining all different kinds of multi-media data, and intermediate-systems as well.

Therefore, a configuration approach of communication protocols has been developed to support the variety of applications. This approach offers the possibility to configure communication protocols automatically depending on the application requirements expressed in various QoS parameters. The result, an application-tailored communication protocol, matches the requested application requirements as far as possible. Additionally, network and system resources (NSR) are taken into account for a well-suited configuration.

The Configuration of Protocols in TIP is called CogPiT and is part of the Transport and Internetworking Package (TIP). As an example, in the TIP environment the transport protocol TEMPO is used for configuration purposes.

? The author is currently on leave from Universit?at Karlsruhe, Institut f?ur Telematik, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany, and is sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities as a Research Fellow under the Human Capital and Mobility Scheme (RG 19327). This work has been performed in Karlsruhe within the Cooperation between the Universit?at Karlsruhe, Institut f?ur Telematik and Siemens AG, ZFE M?unchen, except for the final testing and evaluation phase, which has been done remotely distributed between Karlsruhe and Cambridge. The generation of this Final Report took place in Cambridge as well, which includes besides new results and details on the prototypical implementation of CogPiT, updated versions of former reports number 1, 2, and 3, respectively.