MessageWay (msgway)
-------------------
Charter
Current status: active working group
Chair(s):
Danny Cohen <Cohen@myri.com>
Internet Area Director(s):
Frank Kastenholz <kasten@ftp.com>
Jeffrey Burgan <jburgan@baynetworks.com>
Area Advisor
Frank Kastenholz <kasten@ftp.com>
Mailing lists:
General Discussion:MsgWay@myri.com
To Subscribe: MsgWay-request@myri.com
Archive: ftp://ftp.isi.edu/msgway/msgway.mail
Description of Working Group:
THE APPROACH
Due to dramatic increases in circuits speed the traditional system
buses are limited in length (e.g., PCI is limited to 8") and cannot
provide the traditional system-wide support. Therefore, the system-wide
connectivity is provided by a high performance networks operating in
very close quarters, having the generic name System Area Networks
(SANs).
Many vendors today use such SANs inside computer platforms to connect
processors to IO devices, processors to memory, and processors to
processors. Most existing SANs are proprietary, and don't interoperate
with each other, not unsimilar to the early stages of LAN development.
In order to be able to interconnect Massively Parallel Processing
systems (MPPs) and to interconnect workstations into MPP-like clusters
there is a need to unify the SANs and to provide means for
interoperability among them.
MsgWay is designed to provide a uniform interface for a wide variety of
SANs, such that the higher levels (such as IP) would be able to use
SANs in a uniform manner. An IP driver for MsgWay would be able to use
MsgWay between heterogeneous processors as if they were all on a single
SAN.
MsgWay would be designed to provide interoperability among closely
located heterogeneous processors at high speed. Msgway will sacrifice
scalability and some generality for high performance. Hence, MsgWay
will supplement IP for high performance and for fine granularity of
processors.
802.1, the link level control protocol is above LANs, such as the
various Ethernets, FDDI, and Token Ring, at Level-2, and below IP, at
Level-3.
Similarly, MsgWay will be above the various SANs (such as RACEway and
Paragon) and below IP.
MsgWay will define separately:
* End-to-End protocol (and packet format)
* Router-to-Router protocol (and packet format)
* Resource discovery and allocation
The members of the MsgWay Working Group will design, specify, document,
propose, implement, and evaluate the above three protocols that define
the MsgWay operation.
The members of the working group will also produce reference software
for MsgWay.
Based on initial reactions it is expected that the working group will
include members from academia, government, and industry, covering the
software, hardware, and communication aspects of MsgWay.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
All the work that has been performed until now on MsgWay is in the
public domain. The MsgWay Working Group will only handle public domain
information. All the members of the MsgWay Working Group will be notified
that the working group cannot guard any trade secrets, nor limit the
distribution of any proprietary information presented to it.
Goals and Milestones:
Jul 95 Submit initial draft specification for the MsgWay-EEP
(End-to-End Protocol) as an Internet-Draft.
Oct 95 Conduct interoperability demo of the MsgWay-EEP (between 2 or 3
heterogeneous systems).
Dec 95 Meet at 34th IETF to prepare final specification for the
MsgWay-EEP (End-to-End Protocol).
Dec 95 Submit initial draft specification for the MsgWay-RRP
(Router-to-Router Protocol) as an Internet-Draft.
Feb 96 Conduct Interoperability demo of the MsgWay-RRP between 2 or 3
heterogeneous systems.
Mar 96 Submit final specification of the MsgWay-RRP (Router-to-Router
Protocol) as an Internet-Draft.
Mar 96 Submit initial draft specification of the MsgWay-REDAP
(Resource Discovery and Allocation Protocol) as an
Internet-Draft.
May 96 Conduct interoperabililty demo of the MsgWay-REDAP between 2 or
3 heterogeneous systems.
Jun 96 Submit final specification of the MsgWay-REDAP as an
Internet-Draft.
Internet-Drafts:
Posted Revised I-D Title <Filename>
------ ------- ------------------------------------------
Dec 95 Feb 96 <draft-ietf-msgway-protocol-spec-01.txt>
Proposed Specification for the MessageWay Protocol
Request For Comments:
None to date.