Universal network device interface protocol (UNDIP)

Current host network interface protocols limit performance visible to applications, waste critical host resources such as system bus and main memory bandwidth, and offer little protection against network malfunctions or hostile remote users. The authors present UNDIP, a host-network interface protocol that addresses these problems. The protocol is adaptable to networks with widely different switching techniques, different host system architectures, and different transport protocols. The authors describe the key design aspects as well as an implementation of UNDIP on a prototype network adapter board for the VMP multiprocessor system. They also show the performance advantage of UNDIP using preliminary measurements derived from the prototype