A Resource Query Interface for Network-Aware
Applications
Lowekamp, B. Miller, N. Sutherland, D. Gross, T. Steenkiste, P. Subhlok, J.
Abstract
Development of portable network-aware applications demands an
interface to the network that allows an application to obtain
information about its execution environment. This paper motivates and
describes the design of Remos, an API that allows network-aware
applications to obtain relevant information. The major challenges in defining
a uniform interface are network heterogeneity, diversity in traffic
requirements, variability of the information, and resource sharing in
the network. Remos addresses these issues with two abstraction levels,
explicit management of resource sharing, and statistical measurements.
The
{\em flows} abstraction captures the communication between nodes, and the
{\em topologies} abstraction
provides a logical view of network connectivity. Remos
measurements are made at network level, and therefore information
to manage sharing of resources is available.
Remos is designed to deliver
{\em best effort} information to applications, and it explicitly adds
statistical reliability and variability measures to the core information.
The paper also presents preliminary results and experience
with a prototype Remos implementation for a high speed IP-based
network testbed.