Enabling Innovation Below the Communication API

TitleEnabling Innovation Below the Communication API
Publication TypeTechnical Report
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsAnanthanarayanan, G., Heimerl K., Zaharia M., Demmer M., Koponen T., Tavakoli A., Shenker S. J., & Stoica I.
Other Numbers3382
Abstract

Innovation in the network is notoriously difficult due to theneed to support legacy applications. We argue that this difficultystems from the API used to access the network. Theubiquitous Sockets API lets applications choose from a numberof communication mechanisms, but binds them tightlyto their chosen mechanism (e.g. specifying a destination usingIPv4). Applications must therefore be modified in orderto benefit from new network technologies. To addressthis problem, we propose a new communication API calledNetAPI that lets applications specify their communicationintents without binding to particular network mechanisms,enabling evolution below the API. We have built a NetAPIprototype for the iPhone, and use it to show that we can adddisconnection tolerance, content shaping and power savingpolicies under NetAPI without application modifications.

URLhttp://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/networking/ICSI_enablinginnovationbelow09.pdf
Bibliographic Notes

UC Berkeley Technical Report, UCB/EECS-2009-141

Abbreviated Authors

G. Ananthanarayanan, K. Heimerl, M. Zaharia, M. Demmer, T. Koponen, A. Tavakoli, S. Shenker, and I. Stoica

ICSI Research Group

Networking and Security

ICSI Publication Type

Technical Report