Quality in Measurement: Beyond the deployment barrier

Network measurement stands at an intersection in the development of the science. We explore possible futures for the area and propose some guidelines for the development of stronger measurement techniques. The paper concludes with a discussion of the work of the NLANR and WAND network measurement groups including the NLANR Network Analysis Infrastructure, AMP, PMA, analysis of Voice over IP traffic and separation of HTTP delays into queuing delay, network latency and server delay

Automatic application object migration in sensor networks

Object migration in wireless sensor networks has the potential to reduce energy consumption for a wireless sensor network mesh. Automated migration reduces the need for the programmer to perform manual static analysis to find an efficient layout solution. Instead, the system can self-optimise and adjust to changing conditions. This paper describes an automated, transparent object migration system for wireless sensor networks, implemented on a micro Java virtual machine. The migration system moves objects at runtime around the sensor mesh to reduce communication overheads. The movement of objects is transparent to the application developer. Automated transparent object migration is a core component of Hydra, a distributed operating system for wireless sensor networks that is currently under development. Performance of the system under a complex performance test scenario using a real-world dataset of seismic events is described. The results show that under both simple and complex conditions the migration technique can result in lower data traffic and consequently lower overall energy cost

Performance, Validation and Testing with the Network Simulation Cradle

Much current simulation of TCP makes use of simplified models of TCP, which is a large and complex protocol with many variations possible between implementations. We use direct execution of real world network stacks in the network simulator ns-2 to compare TCP performance between implementations and reproduce existing work. A project called The Network Simulation Cradle provides the real world network stacks and we show how it can be used for performance evaluation and validation. There are large differences in performance between simplified TCP models and TCP implementations in some situations. Such differences are apparent in some reproduced research, with results using the Network Simulation Cradle very different from the results produced with the ns-2 TCP models. In other cases, using the real implementations gives very similar results, validating the original research

Validation of simulated real world TCP stacks

The TCP models in ns-2 have been validated and are widely used in network research. They are however not aimed at producing results consistent with a TCP implementation, they are rather designed to be a general model for TCP congestion control. The Network Simulation Cradle makes real world TCP implementations available to ns-2: Linux, FreeBSD and OpenBSD can all be simulated as easily as using the original simplified models. These simulated TCP implementations can be validated by directly comparing packet traces from simulations to traces measured from a real network. We describe the Network Simulation Cradle, present packet trace comparison results showing the high degree of accuracy possible when simulating with real TCP implementations and briefly show how this is reflected in a simulation study of TCP throughput

Distributed OpenGL Rendering in Network Bandwidth Constrained Environments

Display walls made from multiple monitors are often used when very high resolution images are required. To utilise a display wall, rendering information must be sent to each computer that the monitors are connect to. The network is often the performance bottleneck for demanding applications, like high performance 3D animations. This paper introduces ClusterGL; a distribution library for OpenGL applications. ClusterGL reduces network traffic by using compression, frame differencing and multi-cast. Existing applications can use ClusterGL without recompilation. Benchmarks show that, for most applications, ClusterGL outperforms other systems that support unmodified OpenGL applications including Chromium and BroadcastGL. The difference is larger for more complex scene geometries and when there are more display machines. For example, when rendering OpenArena, ClusterGL outperforms Chromium by over 300% on the Symphony display wall at The University of Waikato, New Zealand. This display has 20 monitors supported by five computers connected by gigabit Ethernet, with a full resolution of over 35 megapixels. ClusterGL is freely available via Google Code

The RIPE NCC internet measurement data repository

This paper describes datasets that will shortly be made available to the research community through an Internet measurement data repository operated by the RIPE NCC. The datasets include measurements collected by RIPE NCC projects, packet trace sets recovered from the defunct NLANR website and datasets collected and currently hosted by other research institutions. This work aims to raise awareness of these datasets amongst researchers and to promote discussion about possible changes to the data collection processes to ensure that the measurements are relevant and useful to the community

Design of a processor to support the teaching of computer systems

Teaching computer systems, including computer architecture, assembly language programming and operating system implementation, is a challenging occupation. At the University of Waikato this is made doubly true because we require all computer science and information systems students study this material at second year. The challenges of teaching difficult material to a wide range of students have driven us to find ways of making the material more accessible. The corner stone of our strategy for delivering this material is the design and implementation of a custom CPU that meets the needs of teaching. This paper describes our motivation and these needs. We present the CPU and board design and describe the implementation of the CPU in an FPGA. The paper also includes some reflections on the use of a real CPU rather than a simulation environment. We conclude with a discussion of how the CPU can be used for advanced classes in computer architecture and a description of the current status of the project

Improving the performance of HTTP over high bandwidth-delay product circuits

As the WWW continues to grow, providing adequate bandwidth to countries remote from the geographic and topological center of the network, such as those in the Asia/Pacific, becomes more and more difficult. To meet the growing traffic needs of the Internet some Network Service Providers are deploying satellite connections. Through discrete event simulation of a real HTTP workload with differing international architectures this paper is able to give guidance on the architecture that should be deployed for long distance, high capacity Internet links. We show that a significant increase in the time taken to fetch HTTP requests can be expected when traffic is moved from a long distance international terrestrial link to a satellite link. We then show several modifications to the network architecture that can be used to greatly improve the performance of a satellite link. These modifications include the use of an asymmetric satellite link, the multiplexing of multiple HTTP requests onto a single TCP connection and the use of HTTP1.1

Block-Based Distributed File Systems

Distributed file systems have become popular because they allow information to be shared be between computers in a natural way. A distributed file system often forms a central building block in a distributed system. Currently most distributed file systems are built using a communications interface that transfers messages about files between machines. This thesis proposes a different, lower level, communications interface. This `block-based' interface exchanges information about the blocks that make up the file but not about the files themselves. No other distributed file system is built this way. By demonstrating that a distributed file system can be implemented in a block-based manner, this thesis opens the way for many advances in distributed file systems. These include a reduction of the processing required at the server, uniformity in managing file blocks and fine-grained placement and replication of data. The simple communications model also lends itself to efficient implementation both at the server and in the communications protocols that support the interface. These advantages come at the cost of a more complex client implementation and the need for a lower level consistency mechanism. A block-based distributed file system (BB-NFS) has been implemented. BB-NFS provides the Unix file system interface and demonstrates the feasibility and implementability of the block-based approach. Experience with the implementation lead to the development of a lock cache mechanism which gives a large improvement in the performance of the prototype. Although it has not been directly measured it is plausible that the prototype will perform better than the file based approach. The block-based approach has much to offer future distributed file system developers. This thesis introduces the approach and its advantages, demonstrates its feasibility and shows that it can be implemented in a way that performs well

The NLANR NAI Network Analysis Infrastructure

The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research is creating a network analysis infrastructure to support network research and engineering of high performance research networks. The NAI includes a passive monitoring project, an active monitoring project, and collection of network management and control data. Together these projects have deployed more than 120 monitors around the high-performance research networks in the United States. This article describes NAI and the projects using it. The article concludes with a discussion of the future plans for the infrastructure