Session Layer Burst Switching for High Performance Data Movement

High performance data movement remains a key problem despite continuing advances in the link speed of networks. The resurgent trend of dynamic networks, in which dedicated network resources can be requested and reserved on-demand, is contributing to an increasingly heterogeneous network landscape that is pushing the limits of existing transport layer protocols. We argue that the effective use of such networks will benefit from a data movement service that departs from traditional approaches by using a session layer protocol to manage the end-to-end connection. This paper introduces Session Layer Burst Switching (SLaBS) as an architecture for improving efficiency and utilization of dynamically provisioned network resources. Instead of reserving a dedicated “circuit” per application, SLaBS forms data bursts, at transport-layer gateways in the network, which are able to intelligently schedule and switch these bursts along allocated network paths as they become available. Using session-layer protocol data units, called “slabs”, significant amounts of data can be buffered. This allows the burst size to be adapted to the characteristics of the network path and optimally transferred via explicit buffers negotiated between gateways. We have implemented a proof-ofconcept prototype of SLaBS and used it to carry out some initial transfer tests. An analysis of slab management and the role of buffering in the network is also presented.