Efficiency of Interprocess Communication Protocols for Computer Networks

Reliable and efficient communication in computer networks requires specialized communication protocols. Previous research has emphasized system performance at lower levels, within the communication network itself, while this work considers the efficiency of protocols for communication between processes in the host computers attached to a computer network. Throughput and delay are chosen as the primary performance measures. Network transmission characteristics, protocol parameters, and process behavior all interact in determining the efficiency of communication between remote processes. Models are developed to determine the impact of protocol parameters such as retransmission interval, window size, buffer allocation, packet size, and acknowledgment strategy on protocol performance. Several graphs showing quantitative performance results for representative situations are included.