With the steadily dropping costs of computing and networking hardware, local area networks (LANs) have proliferated widely. Unfortunately, the software delays of the standard TCP/IP networking protocol suite (and its associated operating system services) grossly underutilizes the full performance potential of modern networks. We propose the development of an alternative version of TCP that speeds up the performance of Ethernet based LANs by as much as 8 to 10 times while maintaining full programming compliance with standard TCP. This allows applications to run without any change, but allows network applications within the LAN to run significantly faster. The basic product can also be extended to provide similar benefits to LANs that use modern technologies such as Myrinet, Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet and ATM. Such a product is obviously dual-use in nature and can significantly expand current markets and also create new markets in the cluster computing and data server arena. This product thus has the potential of enhancing the competitive advantage of the nation.
Keywords: TCP/IP, Low-latency communication , Local Area Networks
