Google Tech Talks\nFebruary, 7 2008\n\nABSTRACT\n\nThe architecture of conventional networked systems has remained largely\nconstant for many years now. However, some specialised application domains\nhave adopted alternative architectures. For example, the HPC community\nuses message passing libraries which perform network processing in\nuser-space in conjunction with the features of user-accessible network\ninterfaces. Such user-level networking reduces networking overheads\nconsiderably without sacrificing the security and resource management\nfunctionality that the operating system normally provides.\n\nSupporting user-level TCP/UDP/IP networking for a more general set of\napplications poses considerable challenges, including: intercepting system\ncalls, binary compatability with existing applications, maintaining\nsecurity, supporting fork() and exec(), passing sockets through Unix domain\nsockets and advancing the protocol when the application is not scheduled.\n\nThis talk presents the OpenOnload architecture for user-level networking.\nWe describe our solutions to the challenges outlined above, and novel\ntechniques to reduce CPU overhead, avoid lock contention, minimise\ninterrupt overheads and improve cache efficiency. Finally we present\nperformance results of the OpenOnload stack including protocol compliance,\nand plans for further work within the open source community.\n\nSpeaker: Steven Pope\nSteven Pope is a CTO at Solarflare Communications. Previously he\nco-founded Level 5 Networks and prior to that was a post-doctorate\nresearcher in the field of high-speed networks and operating systems\nat Olivetti Research Labs, which later became AT&T Laboratories\nCambridge. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of\nCambridge.\n\nSpeaker: David Riddoch\nDavid Riddoch is Chief Software Architect at Solarflare\nCommunications. David joined Solarflare with the merger of Solarflare\nwith Level 5 Networks in April 2006. David co-founded Level 5\nNetworks in July 2002. Previously, David was the architect and lead\ndeveloper of the software for the CLAN high performance network\nproject at AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. David holds a first class\ndegree in computer science and a Ph.D. in high performance networking\nfrom the University of Cambridge. education, engedu, google, googletechtalks, talk, talks, techtalk, techtalks