diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index acd8010d7da231857e99863cbed3545c9c5de47b..26b1db7d50d53b3e0a72b2913da855f2e4ae9186 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ It will be difficult to perform one-to-one comparisons between our network and t However, we can offer analysis as to why we believe our approach is substantially better than current offerings - or has a better problem-solution fit than other technologies. -**Realtime / Convergence Free Multipath Routing** +**Realtime / Convergence Free Multipath Routing in a Distance-Vector Routing Protocol** - Existing Multipath Routing Technologies offer multipath routing (which eliminates the switching-bottleneck issues associated with switched ethernet), however, they do so using link-state routing that requires each router to share common knowledge about the complete network graph. In the face of link outages or router failures, networks must re-converge - a process that interrupts flows and causes massive increases, or complete failures, in message deliveries. For example - ECMP (Equal Cost Multipath Routing) - OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) @@ -58,14 +58,15 @@ However, we can offer analysis as to why we believe our approach is substantiall We seek to demonstrate that these re-convergence times would cause operational failure in NCS, thus eliminating ECMP and OSPF as possible solutions to the NCS problem. -@Dougie +**@Dougie** - can you try to work through the literature to build this argument, including references to measured convergence times? actually, I looked at the wikipedia pages (bad scholar!) for most of these protocols, and I think that simply stating that these are all link-state routing policies allows us to poo-poo them for convergence - the key would be to find particular references to expected scales and convergence times. - also, many of these protocols add information to the header, and in the interest of minimizing Message Delivery Times this is BNB (bad news bears) -**Switching Bottlenecks** +**Avoiding Switching Bottlenecks with Multipath Routing** - In a careful literature review and analysis, we will show that Layer-2 Solutions (switched ethernet) necessarily cause switching bottlenecks that create Single Points of Failure and increases in Message Delivery Times to NCS. -@Nick, can you review that worst-case-packet-delay-time paper and see if we can add more beef to this argument, including some charts & graphs & references? +**@Nick** +- can you review that worst-case-packet-delay-time paper and see if we can add more beef to this argument, including some charts & graphs & references? ## Our Cost Functions @@ -104,13 +105,15 @@ In particular, hardware design for embedded systems in the open source (i.e. non # TinyNet Protocol & Architecture -We develop a switch, protocol and implementation of a software-defined network that: +We develop a router, protocol and implementation of a network that: + - Implements a Multipath Distance-Vector Routing Protocol - Does Realtime Route Selection - Does Automatic, Convergence-free Route Discovery and Optimization + - Is robust in the face of link losses and router failures - Can be arbitrarily implemented in software on numerous microcontrollers ## Addressing - - 10-bit address (1024 Unique in System) + - 10-bit address (1024 Unique in System, scalable by systems designers at the cost of larger packet size) - Addresses are assigned in software (Ethernet: Hardware Addresses) - Can be location-based (e.g. first five MSBs correspond to x, last five correspond to y)