Alessandro Bassi

The internet backplane protocol: a study in resource sharing

In this work we present the Internet Backplane Protocol (IBP), a middleware created to allow the sharing of storage resources, implemented as part of the network fabric. IBP allows an application to control intermediate data staging operations explicitly. As IBP follows a very simple philosophy, very similar to the Internet Protocol, and the resulting semantic might be too weak for some applications, we introduce the exNode, a data structure that aggregates storage allocations on the Internet.

Managing data storage in the network

The Internet backplane protocol, or IBP, supports logistical networking to allow applications to control the movement and storage of data between nodes. The protocols name reflects its purpose: to enable applications to treat the Internet as if it were a processor backplane. IBP provides access to remote storage and standard Internet resources and directs communication between them with the IBP API. In short, the motivation behind IBP is to design, develop, implement, and deploy a layer of middleware that allows storage to be exploited as part of the Internet. IBP alpha versions have been in use since February 1999, and version 1.0 has been available since March 2001. The article describes the IBP API and presents some examples that show its strategic potential for builders of distributed applications. We also discuss a layered approach to functionality and deployment that uses IBP as a basic service and builds more useful services on top of it.

The Internet Backplane Protocol: A Study in Resource Sharing

In this work we present the Internet Backplane Protocol (IBP), a middleware created to allow the sharing of storage resources, implemented as part of the network fabric. IBP allows an application to control intermediate data staging operations explicitly. As IBP follows a very simple philosophy, very similar to the Internet Protocol, and the resulting semantic might be too weak for some applications, we introduce the exNode, a data structure that aggregates storage allocations on the Internet.

Middleware for the use of storage in communication

The Logistical Computing and Internetworking (LoCI) project is a reflection of the way that the next generation internetworking fundamentally changes our definition of high performance wide area computing. A key to achieving this aim is the development of middleware that can provide reliable, flexible, scalable, and cost-effective delivery of data with quality of service guarantees to support high performance applications of all types. The LoCI effort attacks this problem with a simple but innovative strategy. At the base of the LoCI project is a richer view of the use of storage in communication and information sharing.

Mobile management of network files

Common opinion holds that a precise definition of the concept of middleware is elusive because it is highly dependent on ones design perspective regarding application environments and system architectures. The approach to the mobile management of network files discussed in this paper, which involves issues of process mobility and architecture/OS independent execution, represents one such a perspective. Our previous work in the area of logistical networking has focused on the Internet Backplane Protocol (IBP), a technology for shared network storage that can scale in terms of the size of the user community, the aggregate quantity of storage that can be allocated, and the breadth of distribution of service nodes across network borders. To achieve this end we have followed a layered, bottom-up design philosophy that draws on the engineering principles well known from the design of the Multics operating system, RISC microprocessors, and most especially the Internet protocol stack. In this paper we introduce the exNode, a data structure intended to provide the basis for reliable and efficient implementation of a file abstraction on top of the primitive storage service defined by IBP and discuss its application in network-based file management.

Logistical computing and internetworking: middleware for the use of storage in communication

The Logistical Computing and Internetworking (LoCI) project is a reflection of the way that the next generation internetworking fundamentally changes our definition of high performance wide area computing. A key to achieving this aim is the development of middleware that can provide reliable, flexible, scalable, and cost-effective delivery of data with quality of service (QoS) guarantees to support high performance applications of all types. The LoCI effort attacks this problem with a simple but innovative strategy. At the base of the LoCI project is a richer view of the use of storage in communication and information sharing.

Towards an IPv6-based security framework for distributed storage resources

Some security problems can be often solved through authorization rather than authentication. Furthermore, certificate-based authorization approach can alleviate usual drawbacks of centralized systems such as bottlenecks or single point of failure. In this paper, we propose a solution that could bring an appropriate security architecture to the Internet Backplane Protocol (IBP), a distributed shared storage protocol. The three basic building blocks are IPsec, Simple Public Key Infrastructure (SPKI) certificates and Crypto-Based Identifiers (CBID). CBID allows entities to prove ownership of their identifiers, SPKI allows entities to prove that they have been authorized to performs specific actions while IPsec provides data origin authentication and confidentiality. We propose to use them to bring some level of ‘opportunistic’ security in the absence of any trusted central authority. This is particularly tailored to ad-hoc environments where collaborations might be very short-termed.

Active and logistical networking for grid computing: the e-Toile architecture

While active networks provide new solutions for the deployment of dynamic services in the network, exposing network processing resources, logistical networking focuses on exposing storage resources inside networks, optimizing the global scheduling of data transport, data storage and computation. In this paper, we show how active and logistical environments working together can improve grid middleware, and provide new and innovative high-level services for grid applications. We have experimented with this approach by combining the Internet Backplane Protocol suite with the Tamanoir Active Node environment. Our target architecture is the French e-Toile Grid infrastructure based on a high performance backbone (Vraiment Tres Haut Debit, VTHD).

The Need for a Common Ground for the IoT: The History and Reasoning Behind the IoT-A Project

The Internet of Things concept has evolved rapidly in recent years. It can be seen as an umbrella term for interconnected technologies, devices, objects and services. Nevertheless, after many years of heavy discussion, there is still no clear and common definition of the concept. And yet the application scenarios and market opportunities offered by objects communicating actively and autonomously extend far beyond the foreseeable horizon.

Information Security on the Logistical Network: An End-to-End Approach

We describe the information security aspects of logistical networking. The security model adopted by logistical networking is an end-to-end model that provides tunable security levels while maintaining the scalability of the network as a whole.