Compilation and Automatic Optimization of Network Protocol Implementations

网络软件很难设计、实现、调试和维护。这个基本问题由于异构性和对高性能的需求而变得更加复杂。 异构导致必须开发和维护的网络软件数量成倍增加。为了提高性能，网络软件通常在操作系统内核中手工制作，其中软件特别难以调试和维护。 新兴的高速网络技术，加上下一代多媒体应用程序，导致对高性能和极其灵活的网络软件的需求增加。 该提案的一个基本主题是，网络软件的进步只能通过同时考虑编程简便性、平台多样性和性能的方法来实现。 该提案研究了使用编译器技术来快速原型化和自动优化复杂的协议软件。 其结果是网络软件更容易编写，更便携，更易于维护。 然而，通过适当的自动优化，这样的实现的性能应该可以与手工实现的性能相媲美。 我们建议的第一部分涉及自动优化网络软件以实现千兆位链路速度的技术。 这涉及发明新的优化技术（例如，将各个消息解复用定义融合在一起成为有效的解复用代码），自动化现有的优化范例（例如，报头预测和地址缓存），以及扩展关于自动优化技术的现有工作。 我们的计划要求建立在现有的理论基础上优化编译器，统一各种特设技术，并提供一个出发点，生产新的优化技术。 我们的建议的第二部分涉及到一个框架，集成了我们的优化技术，以支持快速原型的高效网络软件。 我们使协议代码的开发没有不适当的注意支付给低级别的有线数据格式，操作系统的具体机制，多路分解，同步，或错误处理。 这允许一个非常紧凑的协议描述，然后由我们的框架编译和优化到广泛的目标环境。 这些环境包括模拟器、应用级网络接口和共享内存多处理器平台。

Network software is hard to design, implement, debug, and maintain. This basic problem is compounded by heterogeneity and the need for high performance. Heterogeneity results in multiplying the amount of networking software that must be developed and maintained. To improve performance, networking software is often hand-crafted in an operating system kernel, where software is particularly hard to debug and maintain. Emerging high-speed networking technology, coupled with next generation multimedia applications, is resulting in increased demand for high performance and extremely flexible networking software. A fundamental theme of this proposal is that advances in network software can only be achieved by an approach that simultaneously considers programming ease, platform diversity, and performance. This proposal investigates the use of compiler technology to rapidly prototype and automatically optimize complex protocol software. The result is network software that is easier to write, more portable, and more maintainable. Yet, with the appropriate automatic optimizations, the performance of such implementations should compare favorably to the performance of hand-crafted implementations. The first part of our proposal concerns techniques for automatically optimizing network software to achieve Gigabit link speeds. This involves inventing new optimization techniques (e.g., fusing together individual message demultiplexing definitions into efficient demultiplexing code), automating existing optimization paradigms (e.g., header prediction and address caching), and extending existing work on automated optimization techniques. Our plans call for building on the existing theory underlying optimizing compilers to unify various ad hoc techniques, and to provide a point of departure for producing new optimization techniques. The second part of our proposal involves a framework that integrates our optimization techniques to support rapid prototyping of efficient ne tworking software. We enable protocol code to be developed without undue attention paid to low-level wire data formats; operating system specific mechanisms for demultiplexing, synchronization, or error handling. This allows an extremely compact protocol description that is then compiled and optimized by our framework to a wide range of target environments. These environments include a simulator, application-level network interfaces, and shared-memory multiprocessor platforms.