Welcome to Thomas Dreibholz's
Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) Page
The RSPLIB Project

📑 Quick Navigation

• 📰 Latest News
• 💡 What is Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)?
  • Introduction
  • Requirements to the Reliable Server Pooling Architecture
  • The Reliable Server Pooling Architecture
  • A Migration Path for Legacy Applications
  • The Protocol Stack
  • Further Details
• 📽️ Demonstration
  • ▶️ Demo Video
  • 🚚 Demo VM
• 😀 The Implementation RSPLIB
  • 💡 What is RSPLIB?
  • 📦 Binary Package Installation
  • 💾 Build from Sources
  • 🗃️ First Steps
  • 📚 Pool Elements (Servers)
  • 📚 Pool Users (Clients)
  • 📚 Registrar
  • 📚 Component Status Protocol
  • 🖋️ Citing RSPLIB in Publications
• 😀 The RSerPool Demo Tool
  • 💡 What is the RSerPool Demo Tool?
  • 📦 Binary Package Installation
  • 💾 Build from Sources
  • 😀 Running the RSerPool Demo
  • 🖋️ Citing RSerPool Demo Tool in Publications
• 😀 The Simulation Model RSPSIM
  • 💡 What is RSPSIM?
  • 💾 Build from Sources
  • 🗃️ First Steps
  • 🖋️ Citing RSPSIM in Publications
• 👨‍🏫 Teaching Material
• 📺 RSerPool/RSPLIB in the Media
  • November 30, 2009
  • September 26, 2008
• 📖 Publications
• 📖 Standardisation
• 🔗 Useful Links
  • RSerPool Introductions on Wikipedia in Different Languages
  • Networking and System Management Software
  • Simulation and Data Processing Software
  • Other Resources

📰 Latest News

• November 14, 2025

  New release: rspsim-6.3.0.

• October 31, 2025

  This website has been improved by merging a lot of useful information from the RSPLIB, RSPSIM and RSerPool Demo Tool READMEs.

• October 17, 2025

  New release: rsplib-3.5.6.

• October 7, 2025

  New release: rsplib-3.5.5.

• September 21, 2025

  New releases: rsplib-3.5.4, rserpooldemo-3.2.3, and rspsim-6.2.0.

• News Archive

  Go to the News Archive

💡 What is Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)?

Introduction

The development and standardisation of an application-independent server pooling architecture has been set as the goal of the IETF RSerPool WG. As a result, the working group has created their concept Reliable Server Pooling, abbreviated as RSerPool, which at the moment consists of eight RFCs, several Internet Drafts and RSPLIB as reference implementation.

Requirements to the Reliable Server Pooling Architecture

As key requirements to the Reliable Server Pooling architecture, the following points has been identified in RFC 3237:

• Lightweight: The RSerPool solution may not require a significant amount of resources (e.g. CPU power or memory). In particular, it should be possible to realize RSerPool-based systems also on low-power devices like mobile phones, PDAs and embedded devices.

• Real-Time: Real-time services like telephone signalling have very strict limitations on the duration of failovers. In the case of component failures, it may be necessary that a “normal” system state is re-established within a duration of just a few hundreds of milliseconds. In telephone signalling, such a feature is in particular crucial when dealing with emergency calls.

• Scalability: Providing services like distributed computing, it is necessary to manage pools of many hundreds or even thousands of servers (e.g. animation rendering pools). The RSerPool architecture must be able to efficiently handle such pools. But the amount and size of pools are limited to a company or organization. In particular, it is not a goal of RSerPool to handle the global Internet in one pool set.

• Extensibility: It must be possible to easily adapt the RSerPool architecture to future applications. In particular, this means to have the possibility to add new server selection procedures. That is, new applications can define special rules on which server of the pool is the most appropriate to use for the processing of a request (e.g. the least-used server). The configuration effort of RSerPool components (e.g. adding or removing servers) should be as small as possible. In the ideal case, the configuration should happen automatically, i.e. it should e.g. only be necessary to turn on a new server and it will configure automatically.

The Reliable Server Pooling Architecture

An RSerPool Scenario

The figure above shows the building blocks of the RSerPool architecture, which has been defined by the IETF RSerPool WG in RFC 5351:. In the terminology of RSerPool a server is denoted as a Pool Element (PE). In its Pool, it is identified by its Pool Element Identifier (PE ID), a 32-bit number. The PE ID is randomly chosen upon a PE’s registration to its pool. The set of all pools is denoted as the Handlespace. In older literature, it may be denoted as Namespace. This denomination has been dropped in order to avoid confusion with the Domain Name System (DNS). Each pool in a handlespace is identified by a unique Pool Handle (PH), which is represented by an arbitrary byte vector. Usually, this is an ASCII or Unicode representation of the pool, e.g. “Compute Pool” or “Web Server Pool”.

A Handlespace Example

Each handlespace has a certain scope (e.g. an organization or company), which is denoted as Operation Scope. It is an explicit non-goal of RSerPool to manage the global Internet’s pools within a single handlespace. Due to the limitation of operation scopes, it is possible to keep the handlespace “flat”. That is, PHs do not have any hierarchy in contrast to the DNS with its top-level and sub-domains. This constraint results in a significant simplification of the handlespace management.

Within an operation scope, the handlespace is managed by redundant Registrars. In literature, this component is also denoted as ENRP Server or Name Server. Since “registrar” is the most expressive term, this denotation is used here. PRs have to be redundant in order to avoid a PR to become a single point of failure (SPoF). Each PR of an operation scope is identified by its Registrar ID (PR ID), which is a 32-bit random number. It is not necessary to ensure uniqueness of PR IDs. A PR contains a complete copy of the operation scope’s handlespace. PRs of an operation scope synchronize their view of the handlespace using the Endpoint HaNdlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) defined in RFC 5353. Older versions of this protocol use the term Endpoint Namespace Redundancy Protocol; this naming has been replaced to avoid confusion with DNS, but the abbreviation has been kept. Due to handlespace synchronization by ENRP, PRs of an operation scope are functionally equal. That is, if any of the PRs fails, each other PR is able to seamlessly replace it.

By using the Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP), defined in RFC 5352, a PE can add itself to a pool or remove it from by requesting a registration or deregistration from an arbitrary PR of the operation scope. In case of successful registration, the PR chosen for registration becomes the PE’s Home-PR (PR-H). A PR-H not only informs the other PRs of the operation scope about the registration or deregistration of its PEs, it also monitors the availability of its PEs by ASAP Keep-Alive messages. A keep-alive message by a PR-H has to be acknowledged by the PE within a certain time interval. If the PE fails to answer within a certain timeout, it is assumed to be dead and immediately removed from the handlespace. Furthermore, a PE is expected to re-register regularly. At a re-registration, it is also possible for the PE to change its list of transport addresses or its policy information (to be explained later).

To use the service of a pool, a client – called Pool User (PU) in RSerPool terminology – first has to request the resolution of the pool’s PH to a list of PE identities at an arbitrary PR of the operation scope. This selection procedure is denoted as Handle Resolution. For the case that the requested pool is existing, the PR will select a list of PE identities according to the pool’s Pool Member Selection Policy, also simply denoted as Pool Policy. RFC 5356 defines some standard pool policies.

Possible pool policies are e.g. a random selection (Random) or the least-loaded PE (Least Used). While in the first case it is not necessary to have any selection information (PEs are selected randomly), it is required to maintain up-to-date load information in the second case of selecting the least-loaded PE. By using an appropriate selection policy, it is e.g. possible to equally distribute the request load onto the pool’s PEs.

After reception of a list of PE identities from a PR, a PU will write the PE information into its local cache. This cache is denoted as PU-side Cache. Out of its cache, the PU will select exactly one PE – again by applying the pool’s selection policy – and establish a connection to it by using the application’s protocol, e.g. HTTP over SCTP or TCP in case of a web server. Over this connection, the service provided by the server can be used. For the case that the establishment of the connection fails or the connection is aborted during service usage, a new PE can be selected by repeating the described selection procedure. If the information in the PU-side cache is not outdated, a PE identity may be directly selected from cache, skipping the effort of asking a PR for handle resolution. After re-establishing a connection with a new PE, the state of the application session has to be re-instantiated on the new PE. The procedure necessary for session resumption is denoted as failover procedure and is of course application-specific. For an FTP download for example, the failover procedure could mean to tell the new FTP server the file name and the last received data position. By that, the FTP server will be able to resume the download session. Since the failover procedure is highly application-dependent, it is not part of RSerPool itself, though RSerPool provides far-reaching support for the implementation of arbitrary failover schemes by its Session Layer mechanisms.

To make it possible for RSerPool components to configure automatically, PRs can announce themselves via UDP over IP multicast. These announces can be received by PEs, PUs and other PRs, allowing them to learn the list of PRs currently available in the operation scope. The advantage of using IP multicast instead of broadcast is that this mechanism will also work over routers (e.g. LANs connected via a VPN) and the announces will – for the case of e.g. a switched Ethernet – only be heard and processed by stations actually interested in this information. For the case that IP multicast is not available, it is of course possible to statically configure PR addresses.

A Migration Path for Legacy Applications

RSerPool is a completely new protocol framework. To make it possible for existing specialized or proprietary server pooling solutions to iteratively migrate to an RSerPool-based solution, it is mandatory to provide a migration path. For clients without support for RSerPool, the RSerPool concept provides the possibility of a Proxy PU (PPU). A PPU handles requests of non-RSerPool clients and provides an intermediation instance between them and the RSerPool-based server pool. From a PE’s perspective, PPUs behave like regular PUs. Similar to a PPU allowing the usage of a non-RSerPool client, it is possible to use a Proxy PE (PPE) to continue using a non-RSerPool server in an RSerPool environment.

The Protocol Stack

The RSerPool Protocol Stack

The figure above shows the protocol stack of PR, PE and PU. The ENRP protocol is only used for the handlespace synchronization between PRs, all communications between PE and PR (registration, re-registration, deregistration, monitoring) and PU and PR (handle resolution, failure reporting) is based on the ASAP protocol. The failover support, based on an optional Session Layer between PU and PE, is also using ASAP. In this case, the ASAP protocol data (Control Channel) is multiplexed with the application protocol’s data (Data Channel) over the same connection. By using the Session Layer functionality of ASAP, a pool can be viewed as a single, highly available server from the PU’s Application Layer perspective. Failure detection and handling is mainly handled automatically in the Session Layer, transparent for the Application Layer.

The transport protocol used for RSerPool is usually SCTP, defined in RFC 9260. The important properties of SCTP requiring its usage instead of TCP are the following:

• Multi-homing and path monitoring by Heartbeat messages for improved availability and verification of transport addresses,

• Dynamic Address Reconfiguration (Add-IP, see RFC 5061) to enable mobility and interruption-free address changes (e.g. adding a new network interface for enhanced redundancy),

• Message framing for simplified message handling (especially for the Session Layer),

• Security against blind flooding attacks by 4-way handshake and verification tag, and

• Protocol identification by Payload Protocol Identifier (PPID) for protocol multiplexing (required for the ASAP Session Layer functionality).

For the transport of PR announces by ASAP and ENRP via IP multicast, UDP is used as transport protocol. The usage of SCTP is mandatory for all ENRP communication between PRs and the ASAP communication between PEs and PRs. For the ASAP communication between PU and PR and the Session Layer communication between PE and PU, it is recommended to use SCTP. However, the usage of TCP together with an adaptation layer defined in draft-ietf-rserpool-tcpmapping is possible. This adaptation layer adds functionalities like Heartbeats, message framing and protocol identification on top of a TCP connection. But nevertheless, some important advantages of SCTP are missing – especially the high immunity against flooding attacks and the multi-homing property. The only meaningful reason to use TCP is when the PU implementation cannot be equipped with an SCTP stack, e.g. when using a proprietary embedded system providing only a TCP stack.

Further Details

A detailed introduction to RSerPool, including some application scenario examples, can be found in Chapter 3 of «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture»!

📽️ Demonstration

▶️ Demo Video

Watch an RSerPool/RSPLIB demonstration video here (Xvid codec required)!

A screenshot of our fractal graphics demo application: two PEs provide a fractal graphics computation service, which is requested by two PUs.

Click here to view in full size!

🚚 Demo VM

You want to try the demo by yourself? Get a VirtualBox VM image, and run the demo:

• All RSPLIB demo VMs: https://packages.nntb.no/rserpooldemo/
• Latest version: https://packages.nntb.no/rserpooldemo/latest/

Instructions for using the VM images can be found in the provided README file!

😀 The Implementation RSPLIB

💡 What is RSPLIB?

Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is the new IETF framework for server pool management and session failover handling. In particular, it can be used for realising highly available services and load distribution. RSPLIB is the reference implementation of RSerPool. It includes:

• The library librsplib, which is the RSerPool implementation itself;
• The library libcpprspserver, which is a C++ wrapper library to easily write server applications based on librsplib;
• A collection of server (pool element) and client (pool user) examples.

📦 Binary Package Installation

Please use the issue tracker at https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/issues to report bugs and issues!

Ubuntu Linux

For ready-to-install Ubuntu Linux packages of RSPLIB, see Launchpad PPA for Thomas Dreibholz!

sudo apt-add-repository -sy ppa:dreibh/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install rsplib

Fedora Linux

For ready-to-install Fedora Linux packages of RSPLIB, see COPR PPA for Thomas Dreibholz!

sudo dnf copr enable -y dreibh/ppa sudo dnf install rsplib

FreeBSD

For ready-to-install FreeBSD packages of RSPLIB, it is included in the ports collection, see FreeBSD ports tree index of net/rsplib/!

sudo pkg install rsplib

Alternatively, to compile it from the ports sources:

cd /usr/ports/net/rsplib make sudo make install

💾 Build from Sources

RSPLIB is released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL).

Please use the issue tracker at https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/issues to report bugs and issues!

Development Version

The Git repository of the RSPLIB sources can be found at https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib:

git clone https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib cd rsplib sudo ci/get-dependencies --install cmake . make

Note: The script ci/get-dependencies automatically installs the build dependencies under Debian/Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Linux, and FreeBSD. For manual handling of the build dependencies, see the packaging configuration in debian/control (Debian/Ubuntu Linux), rsplib.spec (Fedora Linux), and Makefile FreeBSD.

Contributions:

• Issue tracker: https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/issues. Please submit bug reports, issues, questions, etc. in the issue tracker!

• Pull Requests for RSPLIB: https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/pulls. Your contributions to RSPLIB are always welcome!

• CI build tests of RSPLIB: https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/actions.

• Coverity Scan analysis of RSPLIB: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/dreibh-rsplib.

Current Stable Release

The tarball has been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Its authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rsplib-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rsplib-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rsplib-3.5.6.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file)
• rsplib-3.5.6.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• ReadMe file with installation instructions
• The RSPLIB Handbook

If you do not want to use kernel SCTP, you also need our userland SCTP implementation sctplib/socketapi. The latest versions can be found at sctplib and socketapi – The User-Space SCTP Library (sctplib) and Socket API Library (socketapi). If you are unsure, just use kernel SCTP. See the handbook for details!

Old Releases

The tarballs have been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Their authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rsplib-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rsplib-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rsplib-3.5.5.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.5.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.5.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.5.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.5.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.5.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.5.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.5.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.10.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.10.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.9.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.9.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.8.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.8.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.7.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.7.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.6.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.6.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.5.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.5.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.4.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.4.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.3.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.3.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.3.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.3.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.3.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.3.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.3.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.3.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.7.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.7.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.6.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.6.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.5.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.5.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rsplib-3.2.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.2.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.2.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.2.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.8.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.8.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.7.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.7.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.6.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.6.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.5.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.5.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.4.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.4.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.3.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.3.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.2.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.2.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.1.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.1.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.0.3.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.0.3.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.0.2.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.0.2.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-3.0.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-3.0.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.13.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.13.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.12.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.12.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.11.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.11.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.10.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.10.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.8.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.8.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.7.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.7.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.6.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.6.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.5.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.5.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.4.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.4.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.3.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.3.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.2.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.2.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.7.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.7.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.6.4.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.6.4.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.6.2.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.6.2.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.6.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.6.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.6.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.6.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.5.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.5.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.4.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.4.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.3.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.3.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.2.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.2.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.1.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.1.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.0.1.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.0.1.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-2.0.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-2.0.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-1.0.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-1.0.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-0.3.2.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-0.3.2.tar.gz.asc (Signature)
• rsplib-0.1.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rsplib-0.1.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)

🗃️ First Steps

Ensure that multicast is working!

You need a configured network interface with:

• at least a private address (192.168.x.y; 10.a.b.c; 172.16.n.m - 172.31.i.j)
• having the multicast flag set (e.g. sudo ifconfig <dev> multicast)

In a typical network setup, this should already be configured.

Ensure that your firewall settings allow UDP packets to/from the registrar (ASAP Announce/ENRP Presence), as well as ASAP/ENRP traffic over SCTP.

Start at least one registrar

rspregistrar

See Registrar for registrar parameters.

Start at least one pool element

rspserver -echo

You can start multiple pool elements; they may also run on different hosts, of course. If it complains about finding no registrar, check the multicast settings!

Start a pool user

rspterminal

If it complains about finding no registrar, check the multicast settings! Now, you have to manually enter some text lines on standard input.

Testing a failover

If everything works, you can test RSerPool functionality by stopping the pool element and watching the failover.

Monitor the component status

You can monitor the status of each component using the Component Status Protocol monitor cspmonitor. Simply start it by cspmonitor. It will listen for status messages sent via UDP on port 2960. The components (rspregistrar, rspserver, etc.) accept the command line arguments -cspserver=<server>:<port> and -cspinterval=<milliseconds>. For example, if you want a status update every 300 ms and your CSP client is listening on port 2960 of host 192.168.11.22, use the arguments

... -cspserver=192.168.11.22:2960 -cspinterval=300

Note: You must specify address and interval, otherwise no messages are sent.

Run Wireshark

You can use Wireshark to observe the RSerPool and demo protocol traffic. Coloring rules and filters can be found in the directory rsplib/src/wireshark. Simply copy colorfilters, dfilters and optionally preferences to $HOME/.wireshark. Dissectors for the RSerPool and application protocols are already included in recent Wireshark distributions!

📚 Pool Elements (Servers)

All example PE services can be started using the rspserver program. That is:

rspserver <OPTIONS> ...

It takes a set of common parameters as well as some service-specific arguments. These parameters are explained in the following.

The following example PE services are provided:

• Echo Service: A simple echo service. The server-side returns the received payload as-is, i.e. echoes it.
• Discard Service: A simple discard service. The server-side just ignores the received payload.
• Daytime Service: A simple daytime service. The server-side responds with the current date and time.
• Character Generator (CharGen) Service: A simple character generator service. The server-side generates test data.
• Ping Pong Service: A simple request-response service.
• Scripting Service: An example workload-offloading service. It is for example used by SimProcTC.
• Fractal Generator Service: The fractal graphics computation service, for testing and illustratively demonstrating RSerPool features. It is also used for the RSerPool Demo Tool.
• Calculation Application (CalcApp) Service: A simulated calculation application, for evaluating load distribution. Details can be found in «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture».

Notes:

• For all provided services, the latest version of Wireshark already includes the packets dissectors!

• See the manpage of “rspserver” for further options!

  man rspserver

Common Parameters

rspserver provides some common options for all services:

• -loglevel=0-9: Sets the logging verbosity from 0 (none) to 9 (very verbose).
• -logcolor=on|off: Turns ANSI colorization of the logging output on or off.
• -logfile=<filename>: Writes logging output to a file (default is stdout).
• -poolhandle=<poolhandle>: Sets the PH to a non-default value; otherwise, the default setting will be the service-specific default (see below).
• -cspserver=<address>:<port>: See Component Status Protocol below.
• -cspinterval=<milliseconds>: See Component Status Protocol below.
• -registrar=<address>:<port>: Adds a static PR entry into the Registrar Table. It is possible to add multiple entries.
• -asapannounce=<address>:<port>: Sets the multicast address and port the ASAP instance listens for ASAP Server Announces on.
• -rereginterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the PE’s re-registration interval (in milliseconds).
• -runtime=<seconds>: After the configured amount of seconds, the service is shut down.
• -quiet: Do not print startup and shutdown messages.
• -policy=<policy>: Sets the pool policy and its parameters:
  • Random
  • WeightedRandom:<weight>
  • RoundRobin
  • WeightedRoundRobin:<weight>
  • LeastUsed
  • LeastUsedDegradation:<degradation>
  • …

Echo Service

-echo: Selects Echo service. The default PH will be “EchoPool”.

Note: The Echo Service will be started by default, unless a different service is specified!

Example:

rspserver -echo -poolhandle=MyEchoPool

Discard Service

-discard: Selects Discard service. The default PH will be “DiscardPool”.

Example:

rspserver -discard -poolhandle=MyDiscardPool

Daytime Service

-daytime: Selects Daytime service. The default PH will be “DaytimePool”.

Example:

rspserver -daytime -poolhandle=MyDaytimePool

Character Generator Service

-chargen: Selects Character Generator service. The default PH will be “CharGenPool”.

Example:

rspserver -chargen -poolhandle=MyCharGenPool

Ping Pong Service

-pingpong: Selects Ping Pong service. The default PH will be “PingPongPool”.

The Ping Pong service provides further options:

• -pppfailureafter=<number_of_messages>: After the set number of messages, the server will terminate the connection in order to test failovers.
• -pppmaxthreads=<threads>: Sets the maximum number of simultaneous sessions.

Example:

rspserver -pingpong -poolhandle=MyPingPongPool \  -pppmaxthreads=4 -pppmaxthreads=8

Scripting Service

-scripting: Selects Scripting service. The default PH will be “ScriptingPool”.

The Scripting Service service provides further options:

• -sskeyring=<keyring>: The location of a GnuPG keyring to check the work packages and environments against. If a keyring is specified, only files that pass the validation are accepted.
• -sscachedirectory=<directory>: Sets the environment cache directory.
• -sscachemaxentries=<entries>: Sets the maximum number of environment cache entries.
• -sscachemaxsize=<kibibytes>: Sets the maximum size of the environment cache in kibibytes.
• -sskeepaliveinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive interval in milliseconds.
• -sskeepalivetimeout=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive timeout in milliseconds.
• -sskeeptempdirs: Turns on keeping all temporary files for debugging. Handle with care!
• -ssmaxthreads=<threads>: Sets an upper limit for the number of simultaneous sessions.
• -sstransmittimeout=<milliseconds>: Sets the transmission timeout in milliseconds.

Example:

rspserver -scripting -policy=LeastUsed -ssmaxthreads=4

The Scripting Service is used e.g. by the following open source tools, which provide more detailed examples:

• SimProcTC – A Simulation Processing Tool-Chain for OMNeT++ Simulations: Distributing simulation jobs in a compute pool.
• SCTP and RSerPool – A Practical Exercise: A tutorial to create a simple load distribution setup to run Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray) image computations.

Fractal Generator Service

-fractal: Selects the Fractal Generator service. The default PH will be “FractalGeneratorPool”.

The Fractal Generator service provides further options:

• -fgpcookiemaxtime=<milliseconds>: Send cookie after given number of milliseconds.
• -fgpcookiemaxpackets=<numner_of_messages>: Send cookie after given number of Data messages.
• -fgptransmittimeout=<milliseconds>: Set transmit timeout in milliseconds (timeout for rsp_sendmsg()).
• -fgptestmode: Generate simple test pattern instead of calculating a fractal graphics (useful to conserve CPU power).
• -fgpfailureafter=<number_of_messages>: After the set number of Data messages, the server will terminate the connection in order to test failovers.
• -fgpmaxthreads=<threads>: Sets the maximum number of simultaneous sessions.

Example:

rspserver -fractal -fgpmaxthreads=4

Calculation Application Service

-calcapp: Selects the Calculation Application (CalcApp) service. The default PH will be “CalcAppPool”.

Details about the CalcApp service can be found in Chapter 8 of «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture»! The CalcApp service provides further options:

• -capcapacity=<calculations_per_second>: Sets the service capacity in calculations per second.
• -capcleanshutdownprobability=<probability>: Sets the probability for sending state cookies to all sessions before shutting down.
• -capcookiemaxcalculations=<calculations>: Sets the cookie interval in calculations.
• -capcookiemaxtime=<seconds>: Sets the cookie interval in seconds.
• -capkeepalivetransmissioninterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive transmission interval in milliseconds.
• -capkeepalivetimeoutinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive timeout in milliseconds.
• -capmaxjobs=<max_jobs>: Sets the an upper limit for the number of simultaneous CalcApp requests.
• -capobject=<name>: Sets the object name for scalar hierarchy.
• -capscalar=<scalar_file>: Sets the name of vector scalar file to write.
• -capvector=<vector_file>: Sets the name of vector output file to write.

Example:

rspserver -calcapp -capcapacity=2000000 -capmaxjobs=8

📚 Pool Users (Clients)

Common Parameters

The pool users provides some common options for all programs:

• -loglevel=0-9: Sets the logging verbosity from 0 (none) to 9 (very verbose).
• -logcolor=on|off: Turns ANSI colorization of the logging output on or off.
• -logfile=<filename>: Writes logging output to a file (default is stdout).
• -poolhandle=<poolhandle>: Sets the PH to a non-default value; otherwise, the default setting will be the service-specific default (see below).
• -cspserver=<address>:<port>: See Component Status Protocol below.
• -cspinterval=<milliseconds>: See Component Status Protocol below.
• -registrar=<address>:<port>: Adds a static PR entry into the Registrar Table. It is possible to add multiple entries.

Terminal Client

The PU for the Echo Service, Discard Service, Daytime Service, or Character Generator Service can be started by:

rspterminal <OPTIONS> ...

Input from standard input is sent to the PE, and the response is printed to standard output.

Example:

rspterminal -poolhandle=MyDaytimePool

Notes:

• The default PH is EchoPool. Use -poolhandle=<poolhandle> to set a different PH, e.g. “DaytimePool”.

• See the manpage of “rspterminal” for further options!

  man rspterminal

Ping Pong Client

The PU for the Ping Pong Service can be started by:

pingpongclient

The Ping Pong PU provides further options:

• -interval=<milliseconds>: Sets the Ping interval in milliseconds.

Example:

pingpongclient -poolhandle=MyPingPongPool -interval=333

Note: See the manpage of “pingpongclient” for further options!

man pingpongclient

Scripting Client

The PU for the Scripting Service can be started by:

scriptingclient

The Scripting PU provides further options:

• -environment=<file_name>: Sets the name of the environment file to upload to the PE. The PE may cache this environment file, allowing to skip a subsequent upload of the same environment file.
• -input=<file_name>: Sets the name of the input file to upload to the PE.
• -output=<file_name>: Sets the name of the output file to write the download from the PE to.
• -quiet: Turns on quiet mode, i.e. only limited information is printed.
• -maxretry=<trials>: Maximum number of retries upon errors on the remote site. The error counter only increments when the remote-side script returns a non-zero error code. When the error limit is reached, the received output file will be downloaded for debugging purposes.
• -retrydelay=<milliseconds>: Sets the retry delay upon failover in milliseconds.
• -runid=<description>: Add the given description to all log lines of the scripting service PU operation. This can be useful when multiple PUs are running simultaneously.
• -transmittimeout=<milliseconds>: Sets the transmission timeout in milliseconds.
• -keepaliveinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive interval in milliseconds.
• -keepalivetimeout=<milliseconds>: Sets the keep-alive timeout in milliseconds.

To demonstrate the usage of scriptingclient, the script [scriptingserviceexample](https://github.com/dreibh/rsplib/blob/master/src/scriptingserviceexample) provides a simple example. It just takes an arbitrary ID number as parameter:

scriptingserviceexample 1234

The Scripting Service is used e.g. by the following open source tools, which provide more detailed examples:

• SimProcTC – A Simulation Processing Tool-Chain for OMNeT++ Simulations: Distributing simulation jobs in a compute pool.
• SCTP and RSerPool – A Practical Exercise: A tutorial to create a simple load distribution setup to run Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray) image computations.

Fractal Generator Client

The PU for the Fractal Generator Service can be started by:

fractalpooluser <OPTIONS> ...

The Fractal Generator PU provides further options:

• -configdir=<directory>: Sets a directory to look for FGP config files. From all FGP files (pattern: *.fgp) in this directory, random files are selected for the calculation of requests. The .fgp files can be created, read and modified by FractGen.
• -threads=<maximum_number_of_threads>: Sets the number of parallel sessions for the calculation of an image.
• -caption=<title>: Sets the window title.

Example (assuming the .fgp input files are installed under /usr/share/fgpconfig):

fractalpooluser \  -configdir=/usr/share/fgpconfig \  -caption="Fractal PU Demo!"

Note: See the manpage of “fractalpooluser” for further options!

man fractalpooluser

Calculation Application Client

The PU for the Calculation Application Service (CalcApp) can be started by:

calcappclient

The CalcApp PU provides further options:

• -jobinterval=<seconds>: Sets the job interval in seconds.
• -jobsize=<calculations>: Sets the job size in calculations.
• -keepalivetransmissioninterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the session keep-alive interval in milliseconds.
• -keepalivetimeoutinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the session keep-alive timeout in milliseconds.
• -object=<name>: Sets the object name for scalar hierarchy.
• -runtime=<seconds>: After the configured number of seconds, the service is shut down. Floating-point values (e.g. 30.125) are possible.
• -scalar=<scalar_file>: Sets the name of vector scalar file to write.
• -vector=<vector_file>: Sets the name of vector output file to write.

Example:

calcappclient -jobinterval=30.125 -jobsize=5000000

Notes:

• Details about the CalcApp service can be found in Chapter 8 of «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture»!

• See the manpage of “calcappclient” for further options!

  man calcappclient

📚 Registrar

Start the registrar with:

rspregistrar <OPTIONS> ...

Basic Parameters

• -loglevel=0-9: Sets the logging verbosity from 0 (none) to 9 (very verbose).
• -logcolor=on|off: Turns ANSI colorization of the logging output on or off.
• -logfile=<filename>: Writes logging output to a file (default is stdout).
• -cspserver=<address>:<port>: See Component Status Protocol below.
• -cspinterval=<milliseconds>: See Component Status Protocol below.

ASAP Parameters

• -asap=auto|<address>:<port>[<,address>]: Sets the ASAP endpoint address(es). Use “auto” to automatically set it (default). Examples:
  • -asap=auto
  • -asap=1.2.3.4:3863
  • -asap=1.2.3.4:3863,[2000::1:2:3],9.8.7.6
• -asapannounce=auto|<address>:<port>: Sets the multicast address and UDP port to send the ASAP Announces to. Use “auto” for default. Examples:
  • -asapannounce=auto
  • -asapannounce=239.0.0.1:3863
• -maxbadpereports=<number_of_reports>: Sets the maximum number of ASAP Endpoint Unreachable reports before removing a PE.
• -endpointkeepalivetransmissioninterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the ASAP Endpoint Keep Alive interval.
• -endpointkeepalivetimeoutinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the ASAP Endpoint Keep Alive timeout.
• -serverannouncecycle=<milliseconds>: Sets the ASAP Announce interval.
• -autoclosetimeout=<seconds>: Sets the SCTP autoclose timeout for idle ASAP associations.
• -minaddressscope=<scope>: Sets the minimum address scope acceptable for registered PEs:
  • loopback: Loopback address (only valid on the same node!)
  • site-local: Site-local addresses (e.g. 192.168.1.1, etc.)
  • global: Global addresses
• -quiet: Do not print startup and shutdown messages.

ENRP Parameters

• -enrp=auto|<address>:<port>[<,address>]: Sets the ENRP endpoint address(es). Use “auto” to automatically set it (default). Examples:
  • -enrp=auto
  • -enrp=1.2.3.4:9901
  • -enrp=1.2.3.4:9901,[2000::1:2:3],9.8.7.6
• -enrpannounce=auto|<address>:<port>: Sets the multicast address and UDP port to send the ENRP Announces to. Use “auto” for default. Examples:
  • -enrpannounce=auto
  • -enrpannounce=239.0.0.1:9901
• -peer=<address>:<port>: Adds a static PR entry into the Peer List. It is possible to add multiple entries.
• -peerheartbeatcycle=<milliseconds>: Sets the ENRP peer heartbeat interval.
• -peermaxtimelastheard=<milliseconds>: Sets the ENRP peer max time last heard.
• -peermaxtimenoresponse=<milliseconds>: Sets the ENRP maximum time without response.
• -takeoverexpiryinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the ENRP takeover timeout.
• -mentorhuntinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the mentor PR hunt interval.

Further Parameters

Note: See the manpage of “rspregistrar” for further options!

man rspregistrar

📚 Component Status Protocol

The Component Status Protocol is a simple UDP-based protocol for RSerPool components to send their status to a central monitoring component. A console-based receiver is ./cspmonitor; it receives the status updates by default on UDP port 2960.

In order to send status information, the registrar as well as all servers and clients described in section B provide two parameters:

• -cspserver=<address>:<port>: Sets the CSP monitor server’s address and port.
• -cspinterval=<milliseconds>: Sets the interval for the CSP status updates in milliseconds.

Note: Both parameters must be provided in order to send status updates!

🖋️ Citing RSPLIB in Publications

RSPLIB and related BibTeX entries can be found in AllReferences.bib!

Dreibholz, Thomas: «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture» (PDF, 9080 KiB, 267 pages, 🇬🇧), University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Economics, Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems, URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:465-20070308-164527-0, March 7, 2007.

😀 The RSerPool Demo Tool

💡 What is the RSerPool Demo Tool?

Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is the new IETF framework for server pool management and session failover handling. In particular, it can be used for realising highly available services and load distribution. RSPLIB is the reference implementation of RSerPool, and RSerPool Demo Tool is a demo tool to showcase RSPLIB based on a Fractal Generator Service example. The demo tool provides an interactive GUI to start, stop, and configure RSPLIB examples, as well as to observe the status of components and their communication associations.

📦 Binary Package Installation

Please use the issue tracker at https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo/issues to report bugs and issues!

Ubuntu Linux

For ready-to-install Ubuntu Linux packages of RSerPool Demo Tool, see Launchpad PPA for Thomas Dreibholz!

sudo apt-add-repository -sy ppa:dreibh/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install rserpooldemo

Fedora Linux

For ready-to-install Fedora Linux packages of RSerPool Demo Tool, see COPR PPA for Thomas Dreibholz!

sudo dnf copr enable -y dreibh/ppa sudo dnf install rserpooldemo

FreeBSD

The RSerPool Demo Tool is still waiting for being added to the FreeBSD ports collection …

💾 Build from Sources

RSerPool Demo Tool is released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL).

Please use the issue tracker at https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo/issues to report bugs and issues!

Development Version

The Git repository of the RSerPool Demo Tool sources can be found at https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo:

git clone https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo cd rserpooldemo sudo ci/get-dependencies --install cmake . make

Note: The script ci/get-dependencies automatically installs the build dependencies under Debian/Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Linux, and FreeBSD. For manual handling of the build dependencies, see the packaging configuration in debian/control (Debian/Ubuntu Linux), rserpooldemo.spec (Fedora Linux), and Makefile FreeBSD.

Contributions:

• Issue tracker: https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo/issues. Please submit bug reports, issues, questions, etc. in the issue tracker!

• Pull Requests for RSerPool Demo Tool: https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo/pulls. Your contributions to RSerPool Demo Tool are always welcome!

• CI build tests of RSerPool Demo Tool: https://github.com/dreibh/rserpooldemo/actions.

• Coverity Scan analysis of RSerPool Demo Tool: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/dreibh-rserpooldemo.

Current Stable Release

The tarball has been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Its authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rserpooldemo-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rserpooldemo-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rserpooldemo-3.2.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file)
• rserpooldemo-3.2.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)

Old Releases

The tarballs have been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Their authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rserpooldemo-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rserpooldemo-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rserpooldemo-3.2.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.2.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.2.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.2.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.2.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.2.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.7.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.7.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.6.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.6.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.5.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.5.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.1.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.1.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.6.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.6.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.5.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.5.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rserpooldemo-3.0.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rserpooldemo-3.0.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)

😀 Running the RSerPool Demo

Go to one of the demo directories, and start rserpooldemo with the corresponding demo configuration file name.

cd <PATH>/local-scenario rserpooldemo -config=local-setup.xml

Alternatively, if properly installed, a double-click on the configuration file automatically starts the demo tool.

🖋️ Citing RSerPool Demo Tool in Publications

RSerPool Demo Tool/RSPLIB and related BibTeX entries can be found in AllReferences.bib!

Dreibholz, Thomas: «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture» (PDF, 9080 KiB, 267 pages, 🇬🇧), University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Economics, Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems, URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:465-20070308-164527-0, March 7, 2007.

😀 The Simulation Model RSPSIM

💡 What is RSPSIM?

Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is the new IETF framework for server pool management and session failover handling. In particular, it can be used for realising highly available services and load distribution. RSPSIM is a simulation model of RSerPool for the OMNeT++ discrete event simulator. It includes:

• The RSerPool model itself, including an application model for the Calculation Application (CalcApp) service.
• SimProcTC-based tool-chain for running large-scale simulations, including support for using a real-world RSerPool setup with RSPLIB to distribute the simulation processing jobs.

Details about RSPSIM and the CalcApp service can be found in «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture»!

Also take at look at Thomas Dreibholz’s Reliable Server Pooling Page for details about the real-world RSerPool implementation RSPLIB.

💾 Build from Sources

RSPSIM is released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL).

Please use the issue tracker at https://github.com/dreibh/rspsim/issues to report bugs and issues!

Development Version

The Git repository of the RSPSIM sources can be found at https://github.com/dreibh/rspsim:

git clone https://github.com/dreibh/rspsim cd rspsim cd toolchain/tools && make && cd .. 

Contributions:

• Issue tracker: https://github.com/dreibh/rspsim/issues. Please submit bug reports, issues, questions, etc. in the issue tracker!

• Pull Requests for RSPSIM: https://github.com/dreibh/rspsim/pulls. Your contributions to RSPSIM are always welcome!

Current Stable Release

The tarball has been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Its authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rspsim-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rspsim-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rspsim-6.3.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file)
• rspsim-6.3.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• Code Contribution (PDF)

Old Releases

The tarballs have been signed with my GnuPG key 21412672­518D8B2D­1862EFEF­5CD5D12A­A0877B49. Their authenticity and integrity can be verified by:

gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 21412672518D8B2D1862EFEF5CD5D12AA0877B49 gpg --verify rspsim-<VERSION>.tar.xz.asc rspsim-<VERSION>.tar.xz 

• rspsim-6.2.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.2.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.1.4.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.1.4.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.1.3.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.1.3.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.1.2.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.1.2.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.1.1.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.1.1.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.1.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.1.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-6.0.0.tar.xz (Tar/XZ file), rspsim-6.0.0.tar.xz.asc (Signature)
• rspsim-5.0.0.tar.gz (Tar/GZip file), rspsim-5.0.0.tar.gz.asc (Signature)

🗃️ First Steps

Directory Structure

• model: The model itself
• toolchain: The SimProcTC files for parametrisation, run distribution and post-processing of results

How to compile and run a simple model test

cd toolchain/tools && make && cd ../.. && \ cd model && \ opp_makemake -I . -f && \ make

Notes:

• Make sure to compile in the OMNeT++ Python environment (see the OMNeT++ Installation Guide), i.e.:

  source <PATH_TO_OMNET++_DIRECTORY>/setenv

  If opp_makemake is not found, this step is likely missing!

• Make sure that everything compiles successfully. Otherwise, the tool-chain will not work properly!

After compilation, you can start the demo simulation by calling:

./model -f test1.ini

Take a look into test1.ini, the parameters should mostly be self-explaining. A detailed introduction to the model can be found in Chapter 6 of «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture»!

How to run a SimProcTC-based example?

See SimProcTC – A Simulation Processing Tool-Chain for OMNeT++ Simulations for the SimProcTC installation details. It particularly needs GNU R, bzip2 including headers, and chrpath. When it is installed, an R shell can be started in the toolchain directory:

cd toolchain R --vanilla

In the R shell, example1.R can be started:

source("example1.R")

This will parametrise the simulation defined in example1.R, perform all runs (on the local machine) and collect the results.

The plot script plot-example1.R plots the results of the example1 run.

source("plot-example1.R")

The resulting PDF file is example1.pdf.

Need more examples? Take a look into the directory example-scripts. Each <simulation>.R file is accompanied by a corresponding plot-<simulation>.R to create the corresponding PDF output. To use one of these scripts, copy it to the toolchain directory itself. They will not work in the example-scripts subdirectory!

To distribute simulation runs in a compute pool, and for more details about SimProcTC, see: SimProcTC – A Simulation Processing Tool-Chain for OMNeT++ Simulations. All examples include the file computation-pool.R, where the pool configuration has to be made!

🖋️ Citing RSPSIM in Publications

RSPSIM and related BibTeX entries can be found in AllReferences.bib!

Dreibholz, Thomas: «Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture» (PDF, 9080 KiB, 267 pages, 🇬🇧), University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Economics, Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems, URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:465-20070308-164527-0, March 7, 2007.

👨‍🏫 Teaching Material

LaTeX source versions of the following teaching material are available on request. Write e-mail to Thomas Dreibholz.

• Thomas Dreibholz
  SCTP and RSerPool – A Practical Exercise
  July 2009
  Student version as PDF file
  Instructor version as PDF file

📺 RSerPool/RSPLIB in the Media

October 27, 2010

Our cooperation project with Hainan University on RSerPool optimizations has been awarded with the "Scientific Research Accomplishments of Institutions of Higher Education of Hainan Province Award". A scan of the award document, including an English translation, can be found here!

November 30, 2009

I have been awarded for my work on RSerPool with the award "Wissenschaftspreis der Sparkasse Essen".

News Articles

• Campus Aktuell 12/09 (as PDF)
• University of Duisburg-Essen Pressemitteilungen

Photos

• Photo 1
• Photo 2

September 26, 2008

RSerPool/RSPLIB presentation to software developers and press in Haikou, Hainan/China.

TV Report

• Report on Hainan-TV (Xvid-encoded video)

News Articles

• Article on Hainan News
• Article on China News

Photos

• Photo 1
• Photo 2
• Photo 3
• Photo 4

📖 Publications

The collected BibTeX references in a single file are available as: BiBTeX file, XML file, ODT file, DOCX file. These lists were generated using BibTeXCov 2.0!

2025

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling for Real-Time Distributed Computing´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-distcomp-38, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes the applicability of the Reliable Server Pooling architecture to manage real-time distributed computing pools and access the resources of such pools.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-distcomp-38.txt

  MD5: beb63ef1fbdf5cb19b3eb03f699dcfa5

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Pulinthanath, Jobin: ``Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling for SCTP-Based Endpoint Mobility´´ (TXT, 17 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-mobility-37, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes a novel mobility concept based on a combination of SCTP with Dynamic Address Reconfiguration extension and Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-mobility-37.txt

  MD5: dd82eef5b846438f980c2077cec33bee

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Zhou, Xing: ``Definition of a Delay Measurement Infrastructure and Delay-Sensitive Least-Used Policy for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 18 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-delay-35, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document contains the definition of a delay measurement infrastructure and a delay-sensitive Least-Used policy for Reliable Server Pooling.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-delay-35.txt

  MD5: 9929a103fa809cfbf3a3a6db88814dbb

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Handle Resolution Option for ASAP´´ (TXT, 13 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-asap-hropt-36, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes the Handle Resolution option for the ASAP protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-asap-hropt-36.txt

  MD5: e277e1868bde45cfd0977fe02d8120d7

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Ideas for a Next Generation of the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (TXT, 16 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-nextgen-ideas-23, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document collects some idea for a next generation of the Reliable Server Pooling framework.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-nextgen-ideas-23.txt

  MD5: 1d19e22e0f08b8e0b40b231c50bf61e4

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Tüxen, Michael: ``Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) Bakeoff Scoring´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-score-36, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This memo describes some of the scoring to be used in the testing of Reliable Server Pooling protocols ASAP and ENRP at upcoming bakeoffs.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-score-36.txt

  MD5: 71d77867d1201e758b5ae9cd83f3505d

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Zhou, Xing: ``Takeover Suggestion Flag for the ENRP Handle Update Message´´ (TXT, 14 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-enrp-takeover-33, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes the Takeover Suggestion Flag for the ENRP_HANDLE_UPDATE message of the ENRP protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-enrp-takeover-33.txt

  MD5: bdcd732cd5b76b8d142a0fc420741f7c

2023

• Mazumdar, Somnath and Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Proactive Resource Orchestration Framework for Cloud/Fog Platform´´ (PDF, 223 KiB, 7 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), pp. 259–265, DOI 10.1109/ISCC58397.2023.10218068, ISBN 979-8-3503-0048-2, Gammarth, Tunis/Tunisia, July 10, 2023, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud, Fog, Resource Allocation, Orchestration, Prediction

  Abstract: Cloud computing makes complex computing an off-premise activity by offering software- and hardware-based services using standard security protocols over the Internet. It has been seen that the cloud is not ideal for latency-sensitive applications. Thanks to the current growth of network communication and infrastructure, fog adds a computing resource delegation layer between the user and the cloud. Fog aims to improve latency-sensitive applications support. Here, we propose one unified, proactive resource orchestration framework from a cloud/fog service provider perspective. The framework consists of a predictor and a resource allocator module. Users subscribe to these resources to execute their applications. The framework does not require application-specific information and is modular, meaning a service provider can customise each module. We have presented the framework prototype by showing each module's simulated performance results using the parameters of our cloud/fog research test bed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/2023-10/ISCC2023.pdf

  MD5: 8791dda646edfc85901dfdfbde43d260

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mazumdar, Somnath: ``Towards a Lightweight Task Scheduling Framework for Cloud and Edge Platform´´ (PDF, 4020 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), in Internet of Things, vol. 21, Elsevier, DOI 10.1016/j.iot.2022.100651, ISSN 2542-6605, April 2023, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud, Edge, Framework, Placement, Task

  Abstract: Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives, but they have limited computational capacity. Thanks to the advancement in the network infrastructure, task offloading from resource-constrained devices to the near edge and the cloud becomes possible and advantageous. Complete task offloading is now possible to almost limitless computing resources of public cloud platforms. Generally, the edge computing resources support latency-sensitive applications with limited computing resources, while the cloud supports latency-tolerant applications. This paper proposes one lightweight task-scheduling framework from cloud service provider perspective, for applications using both cloud and edge platforms. Here, the challenge is using edge and cloud resources efficiently when necessary. Such decisions have to be made quickly, with a small management overhead. Our framework aims at solving two research questions. They are: i) How to distribute tasks to the edge resource pools and multi-clouds? ii) How to manage these resource pools effectively with low overheads? To answer these two questions, we examine the performance of our proposed framework based on Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). We have shown via simulations that RSerPool, with the correct usage and configuration of pool member selection policies, can accomplish the cloud/edge setup resource selection task with a small overhead.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/iot2023.pdf

  MD5: b6aef5ff3b1bbf61cd4c03c8acb60222

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Coene, Lode and Conrad, Phillip T.: ``Reliable Server Pooling Applicability for IP Flow Information Exchange´´ (TXT, 16 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-coene-rserpool-applic-ipfix-20, IETF, Individual Submission, March 25, 2023, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes the applicability of the Reliable Server Pooling architecture to the IP Flow Information Exchange using the Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP) functionality of RSerPool only. Data exchange in IPFIX between the router and the data collector can be provided by a limited retransmission protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-coene-rserpool-applic-ipfix-20.txt

  MD5: 65ad43cb7053bce7af69f746b66a7409

2022

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mazumdar, Somnath: ``Load Distribution for Mobile Edge Computing with Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 3664 KiB, 12 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), pp. 590–601, DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-99619-2_55, ISBN 978-3-030-99619-2, Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, April 15, 2022, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Load Distribution, Cloud Computing, Serverless Computing

  Abstract: The energy-efficient computing model is a popular choice for both, high-performance and throughput-oriented computing ecosystems. Mobile (computing) devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous to our computing domain, but with limited resources (true both for computation as well as for energy). Hence, workload offloading from resource-constrained mobile devices to the edge and maybe later to the cloud become necessary as well as useful. Thanks to the persistent technical breakthroughs in global wireless standards (or in mobile networks), together with the almost limitless amount of resources in public cloud platforms, workload offloading is possible and cheaper. In such scenarios, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) resources could be provisioned in proximity to the users for supporting latency-sensitive applications. Here, two relevant problems could be:
  i) How to distribute workload to the resource pools of MEC as well as public (multi-)clouds?
  ii) How to manage such resource pools effectively?
  To answer these problems in this paper, we examine the performance of our proposed approach using the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework in more detail. We also have outlined the resource pool management policies to effectively use RSerPool for workload offloading from mobile devices into the cloud/MEC ecosystem.
  

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/m2ec2022.pdf

  MD5: 9781c73c07685768b70b5cd7250b8b24

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet – A Linux- and Open-Source-Software-based International Platform for Networking Research´´ (PDF, 7977 KiB, 35 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the Linux Conference Australia (LCA), Virtual, January 15, 2022, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Linux, Open Source

  Abstract: The NorNet testbed is an Internet testbed platform for research on multi-homed systems. The particular property of multi-homed systems is to be connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) simultaneously. Its initial purpose is of course to still provide connectivity in case of ISP/network failures. But does it really work that well, also with current protocols and applications? And redundancy does not come for free. A user connected to multiple ISPs will also receive multiple Internet bills each month. So, is there a possibility to make further use of multi-homing in the usual case where nothing goes wrong? Obviously, there are a lot of interesting research questions, which need to be examined in realistic Internet setups! Therefore, we are building up the NorNet open Internet testbed platform as a Linux- and Open-Source-software-based infrastructure, which currently spreads over multiple sites in different countries.
  NorNet makes extensive use of advanced Linux features like Kernel-based Virtualisation (KVM), Linux Containers (LXC), BTRFS file system features, IP routing rules, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), and many more. The goal of this talk is therefore to present an overview of the testbed, its underlying Linux features, and how they are combined to provide the multi-homing features to the various testbed users. This particularly includes an overview of how to make use of multi-path transport with MPTCP – based on the Linux MPTCP implementation – in multi-homed environments. The idea is to provide guidelines for also utilising multi-homing features in own projects.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/lca2022-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 65d811842205bd1f11a8518d1c3455e4

2021

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mazumdar, Somnath: ``A Demo of Workload Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Using the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 1892 KiB, 3 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), Demo presentation, Edmonton, Alberta/Canada, October 7, 2021, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Demonstration

  Abstract: Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) places cloud resources nearby the user, to provide support for latency-sensitive applications. Offloading workload from resource-constrained mobile devices (such as smartphones) into the cloud ecosystem is becoming increasingly popular. In this demonstration, we show how to deploy a mobile network (with OpenAirInterface and Open Source MANO), as well as to adapt the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework to efficiently manage MEC as well as multi-cloud resources to run an interactive demo application.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/lcn2021-rserpool-web.pdf

  MD5: c9e51673dfbb0847a1e41a8c32d0c272

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mazumdar, Somnath: ``Reliable Server Pooling Based Workload Offloading with Mobile Edge Computing: A Proof-of-Concept´´ (PDF, 1113 KiB, 12 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Recent Advances for Multi-Clouds and Mobile Edge Computing (M2EC) in conjunction with the 35th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), vol. 3, pp. 582–593, DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-75078-7_58, ISBN 978-3-030-75078-7, Toronto, Ontario/Canada, May 14, 2021, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), Multi-Cloud Computing, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Evolved Packet Core (EPC), 5G

  Abstract: In recent times, mobile broadband devices have become almost ubiquitous. However, battery-powered devices (such as smartphones), have limitations on energy consumption, computation power and storage space. Cloud computing and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) can provide low-latency compute and storage services at the vicinity of the user, MEC in particular due to the upcoming 5G networks. However, the complexity lies in how to simply and efficiently realise MEC services, with the auxiliary public (multi-)cloud resources?
  In this paper, we propose a proof-of-concept for using Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) as a light-weight layer of managing resource pools and handling application sessions with these pools. Our approach is simple, efficient, has low overhead and is available as open source. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by measuring in a test setup, with a 4G testbed connected to MEC and public multi-cloud resources.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/m2ec2021-web.pdf

  MD5: a75fca110072cf3941409864791e0986

2019

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Tüxen, Michael; Shore, Melinda and Zong, Ning: ``The Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) for Virtual Network Function Resource Pooling (VNFPOOL)´´ (TXT, 35 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-vnfpool-rserpool-applic-09, IETF, Individual Submission, September 11, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This draft describes the application of Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) for Virtual Network Function Resource Pooling (VNFPOOL).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-vnfpool-rserpool-applic-09.txt

  MD5: 0bb6e37a9e2bdfc8ef26944f8871b28b

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``MELODIC at Hainan University: Combining NorNet Core with MELODIC´´ (PDF, 7379 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 18, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud Computing, MELODIC, Multi-Homing, NorNet Core, NorNet Testbed, OpenStack

  Abstract: This talk gives a short overview over the possibilities of testing applications in the NorNet infrastructure. Furthermore, it presents a short overview of the ongoing work on integrating NorNet Core with the MELODIC multi-cloud infrastructure, including the NorNet Core setup at Hainan University and the Haikou College of Economics.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/china2019-melodic-nornetcore.pdf

  MD5: 0daa0309becaa93ba0df66787bdac2fe

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``MELODIC at Hainan University: An Introduction to the MELODIC Project´´ (PDF, 8108 KiB, 28 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 17, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud Computing, MELODIC, OpenStack, Big Data, Applications

  Abstract: In former times, it was necessary to operate and maintain powerful personal computers to run applications. Nowadays, many "normal" users just use laptops, tablet PCs or smartphones. Their applications are powered by cloud systems in the background, which are operated in data centres at remote locations and being connected over the Internet. This presentation first introduces the basics of cloud computing: virtualisation, virtual machines, containers, and software as a service.
  A challenge of using cloud computing is to deploy services to cloud providers, in order to operate them in a cost-efficient way while providing the best application experience to the users. The vision of the Multi-Cloud Execution-Ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing (MELODIC) project is to enable federated cloud computing for data-intensive applications. Furthermore, it provides the user with an easy-to-use, unified cloud environment, which hides the complexity of a multi-cloud. The second part of this presentation therefore provides an overview of the basic ideas and application use cases of MELODIC.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/china2019-melodic-introduction.pdf

  MD5: 931f7970895caa43236b89ddb370ddac

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at Hainan University: Getting Started with NorNet Core´´ (PDF, 7286 KiB, 29 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 16, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/china2019-nornet-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: bfb88231c7e5c29d0343d3fed3f9a2bf

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at Hainan University: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research´´ (PDF, 17975 KiB, 44 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 15, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops – i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing – frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet.
  This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/china2019-multipath-presentation.pdf

  MD5: e772349a001d337ecb15b28e34cefc86

• Barik, Runa; Welzl, Michael; Fairhurst, Gorry; Dreibholz, Thomas; Elmokashfi, Ahmed Mustafa and Gjessing, Stein: ``Native SCTP, DCCP, UDP-Lite and Home Gateway NATs´´ (PDF, 80 KiB, 11 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 104th IETF Meeting, Praha/Czech Republic, March 28, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/104/slides/slides-104-maprg-native-sctp-dccp-udp-lite-and-home-gateway-nats-runa-barik-01.pdf

  MD5: 83992b2612501e88a1cb746e116b0e49

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at the University of Sydney: From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements for Multi-Path Transport Research´´ (PDF, 17078 KiB, 43 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, January 10, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops – i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing – frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet.
  This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at the University of Sydney.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/sydney2019-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 8e5c35e9b396565a42c5cb24d208bd1f

2017

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Big Data Applications on Multi-Clouds: An Introduction to the MELODIC Project´´ (PDF, 11377 KiB, 28 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 29, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud Computing, MELODIC, OpenStack, Big Data, Applications

  Abstract: In former times, it was necessary to operate and maintain powerful personal computers to run applications. Nowadays, many "normal" users just use laptops, tablet PCs or smartphones. Their applications are powered by cloud systems in the background, which are operated in data centres at remote locations and being connected over the Internet. This presentation first introduces the basics of cloud computing: virtualisation, virtual machines, containers, and software as a service.
  A challenge of using cloud computing is to deploy services to cloud providers, in order to operate them in a cost-efficient way while providing the best application experience to the users. The vision of the Multi-Cloud Execution-Ware for Large-scale Optimised Data-Intensive Computing (MELODIC) project is to enable federated cloud computing for data-intensive applications. Furthermore, it provides the user with an easy-to-use, unified cloud environment, which hides the complexity of a multi-cloud. The second part of this presentation therefore provides an overview of the basic ideas and application use cases of MELODIC.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-melodic-introduction.pdf

  MD5: 78406b60a0eb59d72adf177f427ed542

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Combining NorNet Core with MELODIC´´ (PDF, 10777 KiB, 15 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 29, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud Computing, MELODIC, Multi-Homing, NorNet Core, NorNet Testbed, OpenStack

  Abstract: This talk gives a short overview over the possibilities of testing applications in the NorNet infrastructure. Furthermore, it presents a short overview of the ongoing work on integrating NorNet Core with the MELODIC multi-cloud infrastructure, including the NorNet Core setup at Hainan University and the Haikou College of Economics.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-melodic-nornetcore.pdf

  MD5: 9ade823e423387685270004ad3561220

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NEAT Tutorial at Hainan University: Getting Started with NEAT´´ (PDF, 3199 KiB, 20 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 18, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NEAT, NEAT Sockets API, Client, Server, Programming, Examples, NorNet Core

  Abstract: The goal of NEAT (A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet) is to allow network "services" offered to applications – such as reliability, low-delay communication or security – to be dynamically tailored based on application demands, current network conditions, hardware capabilities or local policies, and also to support the integration of new network functionality in an evolutionary fashion, without applications having to be rewritten.
  This talk gives a practical introduction to NEAT from a developer's perspective: after an introduction to NEAT, the APIs and in particular the NEAT Sockets API are explained. This is followed by pseudo-code examples and finally running-code examples. These running-code examples particularly also show how to use NEAT in NorNet Core

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-neat-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: 3a3d41b926ad3b6e7cad46b6f4372f7e

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet Core Beginner Tutorial at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 4987 KiB, 30 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 15, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-nornet-tutorial_0.pdf

  MD5: dd54c96d743be34c823d3d26f2268a0d

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Introduction to Multi-Path Transport at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 14797 KiB, 44 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 14, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops – i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing – frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet.
  This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-multipath-presentation_0.pdf

  MD5: ece75d74aefc18d93d4ae7728ffadf5b

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Testing Applications with the NorNet Infrastructure´´ (PDF, 11995 KiB, 15 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the MELODIC Plenary Meeting, Warszawa, Masovia/Poland, September 21, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Cloud Computing, MELODIC, Multi-Homing, NorNet Core, NorNet Testbed, OpenStack

  Abstract: This talk gives a short overview over the possibilities of testing applications in the NorNet infrastructure. Furthermore, it presents a short overview of the ongoing work on integrating NorNet Core with the MELODIC multi-cloud infrastructure.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/melodic-warsaw2017.pdf

  MD5: d7f500252a941682c5de800875a9e1c3

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Multi-Path Transport at Hainan University – From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements in the NorNet Testbed´´ (PDF, 14797 KiB, 44 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 18, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops – i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing – frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet.
  This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-multipath-presentation.pdf

  MD5: ece75d74aefc18d93d4ae7728ffadf5b

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The Basics of Using the NorNet Core Testbed at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 4987 KiB, 30 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 18, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-nornet-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: dd54c96d743be34c823d3d26f2268a0d

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``A Practical Introduction to NEAT at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 866 KiB, 19 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, April 17, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NEAT, NEAT Sockets API, Client, Server, Programming, Examples, NorNet Core

  Abstract: The goal of NEAT (A New, Evolutive API and Transport-Layer Architecture for the Internet) is to allow network "services" offered to applications – such as reliability, low-delay communication or security – to be dynamically tailored based on application demands, current network conditions, hardware capabilities or local policies, and also to support the integration of new network functionality in an evolutionary fashion, without applications having to be rewritten.
  This talk gives a practical introduction to NEAT from a developer's perspective: after an introduction to NEAT, the APIs and in particular the NEAT Sockets API are explained. This is followed by pseudo-code examples and finally running-code examples. These running-code examples particularly also show how to use NEAT in NorNet Core

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2017-neat-introduction.pdf

  MD5: 0da3ed198c7c49822d6626281f3dd270

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at the the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha´´ (PDF, 5244 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Instituto de Investigación Informática de Albacete, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha/Spain, February 16, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for staff members and students at the Instituto de Investigación Informática de Albacete of the the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/uclm2017-nornet-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: fc137937a18e3b14ff370926de13c094

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Multi-Path Transport – From Simulations to Real-World Internet Measurements´´ (PDF, 14631 KiB, 36 pages, 🇬🇧), Keynote Talk at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Instituto de Investigación Informática de Albacete, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha/Spain, February 16, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Multi-Path Transport, Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (CMT-SCTP), Simulations, Lab Measurements, Internet Measurements, NorNet Testbed, NorNet Core

  Abstract: A large fraction of the communication in the Internet is handled by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Since the first deployments of this protocol more than 30 years ago, the spectrum of applications as well as the structure of the network have developed at a fast pace. For example, today's network devices, like smartphones and laptops – i.e. particularly many devices in the area of mobile computing – frequently have an interesting property: the existence of multiple IP addresses (IPv4 and/or IPv6). The addresses may even change due to mobility. This property, denoted as multi-homing, can be utilised for multi-path transport, i.e. the simultaneous usage of multiple paths in the network to improve performance. Multi-path transport is a hot topic in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is the standardisation organisation for the Internet.
  This talk provides an overview of the work in the areas of multi-homing and multi-path transport, with focus on the area of the protocols TCP and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) with their experimental extensions Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) and Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP). It particularly shows the sequence of research and selected results, beginning from a simple simulation model, via lab setups and small Internet scenarios, up to the large-scale, international testbed project NorNet. NorNet, and particularly its landline network part NorNet Core, is furthermore described in some detail. Based on NorNet, it is finally possible to validate simulation results in real-world, multi-homed networks, in order to provide valuable input to the ongoing IETF standardisation processes of MPTCP and CMT-SCTP.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/uclm2017-multipath-presentation_1.pdf

  MD5: 9bf3211e05f81f9e2950c956ca8aff18

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Multi-Path Transport with OMNeT++ and the INET Framework´´ (PDF, 4367 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Instituto de Investigación Informática de Albacete, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha/Spain, February 16, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Multi-Path Transport, OMNeT++, INET Framework, Stream Control Transmission Protocol, SCTP, Concurrent Multipath Transfer, CMT, CMT-SCTP, NetPerfMeter, SimProcTC

  Abstract: In order to evaluate the performance of multi-path transport protocols, a straightforward initial step is to perform simulations. OMNeT++, together with the INET Framework, provide a powerful Open Source platform for running network simulations. This talk provides an overview of simulating multi-path transport with OMNeT++ and the INET Framework. Particular focus is on the Concurrent Multipath Transfer extension for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). Furthermore, useful additions like the NetPerfMeter application model, the extended network auto-configurator as well as the Simulation Processing Tool-Chain (SimProcTC) are explained.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/uclm2017-inet-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 3f419d15dbbf273d69067d6ab0b0aa07

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at the University of Sydney´´ (PDF, 4829 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at University of Sydney, School of Information Technologies, Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, January 24, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for Ph.D. students at the School of Information Technologies of the University of Sydney – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/sydney-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: d3154a5ac9aa2ec045c406d15ee51da7

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at the University of Sydney – An Introduction to the NorNet Core Testbed´´ (PDF, 11848 KiB, 25 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at University of Sydney, School of Information Technologies, Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, January 24, 2017, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints (e.g. cloud servers, smartphones, etc.) to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, the endpoints remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems (e.g. malfunction of hardware or break of cables). Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilising multiple paths simultaneously. Multi-path transport can e.g. be realised by Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), two protocols that are currently under standardisation in the IETF.
  The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the NorNet project of the Simula Research Laboratory is building up an open platform for such experiments: the NorNet testbed. It provides programmable nodes with multiple ISP connections – wired as well as wireless – that are distributed all over Norway as well as some international locations. This talk will give an overview over NorNet's wired network part NorNet Core. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet Core testbed can be utilised for research at the University of Sydney.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/sydney2017-presentation.pdf

  MD5: e5f885e46a6b34b6fdcaf44fc77adde1

2016

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet – Building an Inter-Continental Internet Testbed based on Open Source Software´´ (PDF, 9587 KiB, 36 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the LinuxCon Europe, Berlin/Germany, October 5, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet Testbed, Multi-Path Transport, Resilience, Virtualisation, Linux, Open Source

  Abstract: NorNet is an open, international Internet testbed platform for research on multi-homed systems. Multi-homed systems have the property of being connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) simultaneously, in order to still provide connectivity in case of ISP/network failures. Basis of NorNet is Linux, together with other Open Source software. At the moment, the testbed infrastructure spreads over 21 sites on 4 continents.
  NorNet makes extensive use of advanced Linux features like virtualisation, file system features, routing rules, SCTP, MPTCP, and more. The global distribution creates further challenges. Goal of this talk is therefore to provide an overview of the problems that occurred when building the testbed, as well as solutions and lessons learned from solving these challenges. The idea is to present guidelines for utilising the advanced Linux features in own projects.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/linuxcon2016-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 835722bb90f2cf4e0aab67be150396b5

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet – The Internet Testbed for Multi-Homed Systems´´ (PDF, 11198 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the Multi-Service Networks Conference (MSN, Coseners), Abingdon, Oxfordshire/United Kingdom, July 8, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Overview

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints (e.g. cloud servers, smartphones, etc.) to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, the endpoints remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems (e.g. malfunction of hardware or break of cables). Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilising multiple paths simultaneously. Multi-path transport can e.g. be realised by Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), two protocols that are currently under standardisation in the IETF.
  The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the NorNet project of the Simula Research Laboratory is building up an open platform for such experiments: the NorNet testbed. It provides programmable nodes with multiple ISP connections – wired as well as wireless – that are distributed all over Norway as well as some international locations. This talk will give an overview over NorNet.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/msn2016-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 693855de478247f1b9ac6be6e93c2af5

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 7304 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, May 29, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2016-hainanuniversity-tutorial_0.pdf

  MD5: 65d8e35c633a55315b7f72a764d7d970

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at Hainan University – An Introduction to the NorNet Testbed´´ (PDF, 13840 KiB, 34 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, May 29, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints (e.g. cloud servers, smartphones, etc.) to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, the endpoints remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems (e.g. malfunction of hardware or break of cables). Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilising multiple paths simultaneously. Multi-path transport can e.g. be realised by Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), two protocols that are currently under standardisation in the IETF.
  The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the NorNet project of the Simula Research Laboratory is building up an open platform for such experiments: the NorNet testbed. It provides programmable nodes with multiple ISP connections – wired as well as wireless – that are distributed all over Norway as well as some international locations. This talk will give an overview over NorNet. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at Hainan University.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/haikou2016-hainanuniversity-presentation_1.pdf

  MD5: 158d559194bda92bc05c1a7a1603880d

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at HAW Hamburg´´ (PDF, 4134 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (HAW Hamburg), Hamburg/Germany, March 22, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented at the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (HAW Hamburg) – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/hawhamburg2016-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: 46cc11c5168a96e4b30c0737c82158f1

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at HAW Hamburg – An Introduction to the NorNet Testbed´´ (PDF, 13981 KiB, 38 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (HAW Hamburg), Hamburg/Germany, March 22, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints (e.g. cloud servers, smartphones, etc.) to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, the endpoints remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems (e.g. malfunction of hardware or break of cables). Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilising multiple paths simultaneously. Multi-path transport can e.g. be realised by Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), two protocols that are currently under standardisation in the IETF.
  The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the NorNet project of the Simula Research Laboratory is building up an open platform for such experiments: the NorNet testbed. It provides programmable nodes with multiple ISP connections – wired as well as wireless – that are distributed all over Norway as well as some international locations. This talk will give an overview over NorNet. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg (HAW Hamburg)

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/hawhamburg2016-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 49c17f620cbfe46758e8f02f4e553081

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at NICTA´´ (PDF, 4140 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA), Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, January 22, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented at National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/nicta2016-tutorial.pdf

  MD5: a4017ee0d66b87416e5c0c8921d94957

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``NorNet at NICTA – An Introduction to the NorNet Testbed´´ (PDF, 13403 KiB, 38 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA), Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, January 22, 2016, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints (e.g. cloud servers, smartphones, etc.) to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, the endpoints remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems (e.g. malfunction of hardware or break of cables). Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilising multiple paths simultaneously. Multi-path transport can e.g. be realised by Concurrent Multi-Path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP), two protocols that are currently under standardisation in the IETF.
  The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the NorNet project of the Simula Research Laboratory is building up an open platform for such experiments: the NorNet testbed. It provides programmable nodes with multiple ISP connections – wired as well as wireless – that are distributed all over Norway as well as some international locations. This talk will give an overview over NorNet. Particularly, it will also show how the NorNet testbed can be utilised for research at National Information Communications Technology Australia (NICTA)

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/nicta2016-presentation.pdf

  MD5: 553d4072d3381f6d460a73f25ddfb77f

2015

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The NorNet Core Testbed: A Status Update for the NNUW-3´´ (PDF, 12120 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 3rd International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-3), Fornebu, Akershus/Norway, August 28, 2015, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Status

  Abstract: This talk provides an update on the NorNet Core testbed development and research for the 3rd NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-3) in August 2015.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/nnuw3-dreibholz.pdf

  MD5: 6137dcfde02ba8d35ed6db1d17cf4b17

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Bjørgeengen, Jarle and Werme, Jonas: ``Monitoring and Maintaining the Infrastructure of the NorNet Testbed for Multi-Homed Systems´´ (PDF, 538 KiB, 6 pages, 🇬🇧), in 5th International Workshop on Protocols and Applications with Multi-Homing Support (PAMS), pp. 611–616, DOI 10.1109/WAINA.2015.76, ISBN 978-1-4799-1775-4, Gwangju/South Korea, March 25, 2015, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, Internet Testbed, Monitoring, Multi-Homing, Path Characteristics, Resilience

  Abstract: NorNet Core is the world's first, open, large-scale Internet testbed for multi-homed systems and applications. Particularly, it is currently used for research on topics like multi-path transport and resilience.
  Researchers can run experiments on distributed, programmable nodes that are distributed over various locations and providing access to multiple different Internet service providers (ISP) with different access technologies.
  Clearly, a key feature of this testbed is to work in the real-world Internet. That is, it is especially desired to expose experiments to real Internet behaviour like background traffic. However, for the researcher, it is necessary to actually know how paths – being used for an experiment – actually behave: Are the paths actually working? How are the round-trip times among sites over different ISPs, etc.. How did the behaviour change over time?
  To provide such information to the researchers, we have designed and developed a maintenance and monitoring infrastructure for the NorNet Core testbed. In this paper, we will first introduce this infrastructure. Furthermore, we will demonstrate its usefulness with some useful, real-world examples. Our infrastructure has now become part of the testbed, and it is therefore available for all users of NorNet Core as well.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/files/pams2015-nornet-monitoring-web.pdf

  MD5: de8568f766023dba008bb7201f92b6a3

2014

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed at Hainan University´´ (PDF, 2148 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), Tutorial at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, October 27, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial – presented for students at the College of Information Science and Technology (CIST) at Hainan University – provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20230521130309/https://www.simula.no/file/simulasimula3078pdf/download

  MD5: d884e2a243b307e85ce712583812d798

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Experiment Tutorial for the NorNet Core Testbed´´ (PDF, 6033 KiB, 26 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-2), Fornebu, Akershus/Norway, August 29, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Tutorial

  Abstract: This tutorial provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2938.pdf

  MD5: 9711b4f32dd9a2c4946aa4aeceeac31c

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The NorNet Core Testbed – Introduction and Status in August 2014´´ (PDF, 14850 KiB, 32 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-2), Fornebu, Akershus/Norway, August 28, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Introduction

  Abstract: This talk provides an introduction to the NorNet Core testbed as well as a status overview on the development and deployment in August 2014.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2936.pdf

  MD5: e2f018deb04a839bf93f842bb729d012

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The NorNet Testbed for Multi-Homed Systems – Introduction and Status´´ (PDF, 8480 KiB, 30 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Princeton University, Department of Computer Science, Princeton, New Jersey/U.S.A., May 8, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, NorNet Edge, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Introduction, Status

  Abstract: Multi-homing denotes the simultaneous connection of endpoints to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). That is, such endpoints should remain reachable even when some of the ISPs have problems. Besides the redundancy aspect, multi-homing can also make load sharing by multi-path transport possible, i.e. increasing the application throughput by utilizing multiple paths simultaneously. The growing need for and deployment of multi-homed applications makes large-scale testing and evaluation in realistic Internet setups necessary. For instance, different paths can have very different characteristics with regard to bandwidth, packet loss rate, congestion, delay and jitter. Therefore, the Simula Research Laboratory is building up the NorNet testbed, which is an open platform for such experiments. NorNet consists of two parts, the wireless part NorNet Edge as well as the wired part NorNet Core, providing researchers the possibility to use programmable, multi-homed nodes at different locations in Norway as well as at some international sites. This talk gives an overview over the NorNet testbed, with a special focus on the usage of the PlanetLab/Linux Containers-based software that is used to run NorNet Core.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2730.pdf

  MD5: b60311d5e6fb7858da54836e82aa3a67

• Gran, Ernst Gunnar; Dreibholz, Thomas and Kvalbein, Amund: ``NorNet Core – A Multi-Homed Research Testbed´´ (PDF, 1458 KiB, 13 pages, 🇬🇧), in Computer Networks, Special Issue on Future Internet Testbeds, vol. 61, pp. 75–87, DOI 10.1016/j.bjp.2013.12.035, ISSN 1389-1286, March 14, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Routing, Transport, Applications

  Abstract: Over the last decade, the Internet has grown at a tremendous speed in both size and complexity. Nowadays, a large number of important services – for instance e-commerce, healthcare and many others – depend on the availability of the underlying network. Clearly, service interruptions due to network problems may have a severe impact. On the long way towards the Future Internet, the complexity will grow even further. Therefore, new ideas and concepts must be evaluated thoroughly, and particularly in realistic, real-world Internet scenarios, before they can be deployed for production networks. For this purpose, various testbeds – for instance PlanetLab, GpENI or G-Lab – have been established and are intensively used for research. However, all of these testbeds lack the support for so-called multi-homing.
  Multi-homing denotes the connection of a site to multiple Internet service providers, in order to achieve redundancy. Clearly, with the need for network availability, there is a steadily growing demand for multi-homing. The idea of the NorNet Core project is to establish a Future Internet research testbed with multi-homed sites, in order to allow researchers to perform experiments with multi-homed systems. Particular use cases for this testbed include realistic experiments in the areas of multi-path routing, load balancing, multi-path transport protocols, overlay networks and network resilience. In this paper, we introduce the NorNet Core testbed as well as its architecture.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2236.pdf

  MD5: 2a2237f3e955ca8fb1b768b8a30ba7fe

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``On the Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling for Virtualised Network Function Resource Pooling´´ (PDF, 2476 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 89th IETF Meeting, London/United Kingdom, March 4, 2014, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2584.pdf

  MD5: b4cdac71c0a7fd2bf7888649956eeeae

2013

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The NorNet Core Testbed – An Experiment Tutorial´´ (PDF, 4454 KiB, 25 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 1st International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-1), Fornebu, Akershus/Norway, September 19, 2013, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This tutorial provides an introduction on how to get access to the NorNet Core testbed as well as how to run experiments in the testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2130.pdf

  MD5: f67a3e0e340f676c96c4486cf5308000

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``The NorNet Core Testbed – Introduction and Status´´ (PDF, 8399 KiB, 29 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 1st International NorNet Users Workshop (NNUW-1), Fornebu, Akershus/Norway, September 18, 2013, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, NorNet Core, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Multi-Path Transport, Introduction

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/Simula.simula.2124.pdf

  MD5: 5c700705b018d485706b49a66b9d1a0c

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Gran, Ernst Gunnar: ``Design and Implementation of the NorNet Core Research Testbed for Multi-Homed Systems´´ (PDF, 20082 KiB, 7 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 3nd International Workshop on Protocols and Applications with Multi-Homing Support (PAMS), pp. 1094–1100, DOI 10.1109/WAINA.2013.71, ISBN 978-0-7695-4952-1, Barcelona, Catalonia/Spain, March 27, 2013, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: NorNet, Testbed, Multi-Homing, Design, Implementation

  Abstract: The Internet has made it possible to communicate and to use services over large geographical distances. While it has originally been built for less critical services like e-mail and file transfer, it is nowadays also increasingly often used for availability-critical services like e.g. e-commerce or healthcare. Clearly, the reachability of such services must be ensured by so-called multi-homing of endpoints. That is, endpoints are simultaneously connected to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide redundancy. If one ISP has problems, it is intended that the connection to another one still works. However, such assumptions have never been verified in real, large-scale setups.
  The intention of the NorNet project is to build up a realistic Internet testbed for multi-homing. In this paper, we describe the design of NorNet with focus on the implementation of its fixed-line part: NorNet Core. This paper is intended to give researchers an overview of its mode of operation, its capabilities as well as its interesting feature realisations. The knowledge about these items is very useful to plan own experiments in the NorNet testbed.

  URL: https://web-backend.simula.no/sites/default/files/publications/threfereedinproceedingsreference.2012-12-20.7643198512.pdf

  MD5: 6560234f120c9c1e0166928b1c13e400

2012

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Evaluation and Optimisation of Multi-Path Transport using the Stream Control Transmission Protocol´´ (PDF, 36779 KiB, 264 pages, 🇬🇧), Habilitation Treatise, University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Economics, Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems, URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:464-20120315-103208-1, March 13, 2012, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Multi-Path Transport, Dissimilar Paths, Fairness, Evaluation, Optimisation

  Abstract: The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) as defined in RFC 4960 is an advanced Transport Layer protocol that provides support for multi-homing. That is, SCTP endpoints may simultaneously use multiple Network Layer addresses, which allows to connect the endpoints to multiple networks for redundancy purposes. However, for the transfer of user data, only one of the possible paths is currently used at a time. All other paths remain as backup and are only used for retransmissions.
  Clearly, the existence of multiple paths has led to the idea of applying load sharing among the paths. An extension to SCTP – denoted as Concurrent Multipath Transfer (CMT) – realises this load sharing functionality. While this approach works well for similar paths, i.e. paths having similar characteristics regarding bandwidths, bit error rates and delays, the use of dissimilar paths does not work that neatly.
  In this thesis, the issues of dissimilar paths for CMT-based load sharing will be demonstrated first. The reasons for these issues will be identified and solutions proposed. These solutions will be evaluated in simulations, as well as partially also in a real-world Internet testbed setup, in order to show their effectiveness. In particular, it will be shown that a combination of multiple mechanisms is necessary to make CMT work as expected under a wide range of network and system parameters.
  Furthermore, the fairness of CMT-based transport – in concurrency to classic non-CMT flows – will be analysed. The usage of plain CMT leads to an overly aggressive bandwidth occupation on so-called shared bottlenecks. As a countermeasure, the idea of Resource Pooling will be utilised. For this purpose, two new and one adapted congestion control approach – all based on the Resource Pooling principle – will be introduced and examined in similar as well as dissimilar path setups, in order to show how to fairly deploy CMT transport in the Internet.
  The results of this work have also been contributed to the ongoing IETF standardisation process of SCTP and its extensions.

  URL: https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00029737/Dre2012_final.pdf

  MD5: add34f0b780cb35b7ee1f963ea85e59c

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Becke, Martin; Adhari, Hakim and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``RspSim – A Simulation Model of the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 226 KiB, 2 pages, 🇬🇧), OMNeT++ Code Contribution, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Experimental Mathematics, February 6, 2012, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling, Simulation, Evaluation, Model, Cloud Computing

  Abstract: This code contribution paper provides an overview of the RSPSIM model, which is a simulation model for the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework. RSerPool denotes an IETF standard for the management of server pools and sessions with these pools. Such mechanisms are also crucial in the context of cloud computing research.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/RspSim2012.pdf

  MD5: d515de6b0f138484c8e7709af8293735

2011

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Server-Redundanz und Lastverteilung einfach in eigene Anwendungen integrieren – mit Reliable Server Pooling und RSPLIB´´ (PDF, 1309 KiB, 23 pages, 🇩🇪), in Proceedings of the LinuxTag, Berlin/Germany, May 12, 2011, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Hochverfügbarkeit, Redundanz, Überblick, Implementierung, RSPLIB

  Abstract: RSPLIB ist die Open-Source-Implementierung von Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), dem noch sehr neuen IETF-Standard für Server-Redundanz und Sitzungsverwaltung. Dieser Artikel soll insbesondere zeigen, wie RSerPool mit RSPLIB in eigenen Anwendungen für Hochverfügbarkeit und Lastverteilung eingesetzt werden kann. Im Rahmen des Vortrags soll zudem eine Beispielanwendung in der Praxis demonstriert werden.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/LinuxTag2011.pdf

  MD5: 7a76c18c786514b2dea9ca272ecc7bbc

2010

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Zhou, Xing; Becke, Martin; Pulinthanath, Jobin; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Du, Wencai: ``On the Security of Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 540 KiB, 27 pages, 🇬🇧), in International Journal on Intelligent Information and Database Systems (IJIIDS), vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 552–578, DOI 10.1504/IJIIDS.2010.036894, ISSN 1751-5858, December 2010, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Security, Attacks, Robustness, Performance Analysis, PlanetLab

  Abstract: In order to cope with the requirements of availability-critical Internet services, Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) has been developed as the new IETF standard for a lightweight server redundancy and session failover framework. While the service and pool management performance of RSerPool had already been the topic of various research papers, its security has not yet been widely examined. But security for availability-critical systems is crucial, since service outages – regardless of whether being caused by system failures or intentional Denial of Service (DoS) attacks – are not acceptable for the users of such systems.
  In this article, we first introduce RSerPool as well as the underlying SCTP protocol. In an analysis of the attack threats, we will show the possibilities of an attacker to degrade the service provided by an RSerPool system. We will furthermore introduce possible countermeasures, in order to prevent attacks and improve the robustness of the systems. We will finally show the effectiveness of our proposed countermeasures using simulations. In order to validate our simulation results, we furthermore compare them to measurements from a real-world Internet setup using the PlanetLab.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IJIIDS2010.pdf

  MD5: 53f11ab53ddfed318568f99ab08ba5aa

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Becke, Martin: ``The RSPLIB Project – From Research to Application´´ (PDF, 2105 KiB, 3 pages, 🇬🇧), Demo Presentation at the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Miami, Florida/U.S.A., December 8, 2010, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), RSPLIB, Service Availability, Session Failover, Load Distribution, Demonstration

  Abstract: The goal of the RSPLIB project has been to design and develop an Open Source implementation of Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), the new IETF framework for server pool and session management. While its original intention had been the research on RSerPool optimizations and protocol improvements, it has meanwhile become a production-ready platform which is already used by a couple of applications. In our proposed demo for the IEEE GLOBECOM 2010, we would like to introduce RSerPool and show how applications can benefit from using the features provided by RSPLIB.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Globecom2010-Demo.pdf

  MD5: 826a0e3f90f875bbae375509b6672d25

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas; Becke, Martin; Pulinthanath, Jobin; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Du, Wencai: ``The Software Modeling and Implementation of Reliable Server Pooling and RSPLIB´´ (PDF, 2764 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 8th ACIS Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA), pp. 129–136, DOI 10.1109/SERA.2010.26, ISBN 978-0-7695-4075-7, Montréal, Québec/Canada, May 24, 2010, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), RSPLIB, Service Availability, Software Modeling, Implementation

  Abstract: With the growing complexity of software applications, there is an increasing demand for solutions to distribute workload into server pools. Grid Computing provides powerful – but also highly complex – mechanisms to realize such tasks. Also, there is a steadily growing number of downtime-critical applications, requiring redundant servers to ensure service availability in case of component failures.
  To cope with the demand for server redundancy and service availability, the IETF has recently standardized the lightweight Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework, which is a common architecture for server pool and session management. In this paper, we first introduce the concept of RSerPool and then present the modeling thoughts of RSPLIB and the underlying general groupware design. Based on RSPLIB, we will illustratively show how to easily develop applications on top of RSerPool. We will also offer an application evaluation example for a proof-of-concept setup to distribute ray-tracing computation workload into a compute pool.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/SERA2010.pdf

  MD5: 889ce62f9c2de4ebe431b604d07a3f30

2009

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Zhou, Xing; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Du, Wencai: ``A PlanetLab-Based Performance Analysis of RSerPool Security Mechanisms´´ (PDF, 721 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL), pp. 213–220, ISBN 978-953-184-131-3, Zagreb, Središnja Hrvatska/Croatia, June 8, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Security, Attacks, Denial of Service, Robustness, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) denotes the new IETF standard for a lightweight server redundancy and session failover framework for availability-critical applications. A number of research papers have already addressed the service and pool management performance of RSerPool in general. However, the important topic of security, including the system robustness against intentional attacks, has not yet been intensively addressed. In particular, none of the proposed Denial of Service (DoS) attack countermeasure mechanisms has been evaluated in a real-world Internet setup.
  For that reason, this paper provides an analysis of the robustness of RSerPool systems against DoS attacks. We will outline the DoS attack bandwidth which is necessary for a significant service degradation. Furthermore, we will present simple but effective DoS attack countermeasure mechanisms to significantly reduce the impact of attacks. Our analysis is based on a real-world Internet setup using the
  PlanetLab. We will furthermore compare the performance measurements against simulation results.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ConTEL2009.pdf

  MD5: 490dda7191b7b3dae11d61785131040d

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Overview and Evaluation of the Server Redundancy and Session Failover Mechanisms in the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 1157 KiB, 14 pages, 🇬🇧), in International Journal on Advances in Internet Technology (IJAIT), vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–14, ISSN 1942-2652, June 8, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Service Availability, Redundancy, Session Failover, Server Selection

  Abstract: The number of availability-critical Internet applications is steadily increasing. To support the development and operation of such applications, the IETF has recently defined a new standard for a common server redundancy and session failover framework: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). The basic ideas of the RSerPool framework are not entirely new, but their combination into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture is. Service availability achieved by the redundancy of servers directly leads to the issues of load distribution and load balancing, which are both important for the performance of RSerPool systems. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the performance of such systems with respect to the load balancing strategy required by the service application.
  In this article – which is an extended version of our paper [1] – we first present an overview of the RSerPool architecture with a focus on the component failure detection and handling mechanisms. We will also shortly introduce the underlying SCTP protocol and its link redundancy features. After that, we will present a quantitative, application-independent performance analysis of the failure detection and session failover mechanisms provided by RSerPool, with respect to important adaptive and non-adaptive load balancing strategies.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IJAIT2009.pdf

  MD5: d3f66675bd31433a0b788a0cbac7121c

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Du, Wencai: ``Takeover Suggestion – A Registrar Redundancy Handling Optimization for Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 543 KiB, 6 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 10th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD), pp. 168–173, DOI 10.1109/SNPD.2009.17, ISBN 978-3-642-01202-0, Daegu/South Korea, May 27, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Redundancy, Handlespace Management, Takeover, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is the IETF's new standard for a common server redundancy and session failover framework to support availability-critical applications. Server pools are maintained by redundant management components denoted as registrars. These registrars monitor the availability of servers in the pool and remove them in case of failure. Furthermore, they synchronize their view of the pool with other registrars to provide information redundancy.
  In this paper, we first illustrate the implications of registrar redundancy on the performance of RSerPool systems. After that, we present an optimization approach for the server pool management, which improves the management performance in case of registrar problems like hardware failures or Denial of Service attacks. The performance of our approach is evaluated in real life using PlanetLab measurements.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/SNPD2009.pdf

  MD5: a9bb30606285c619fb63bfacbd78939a

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas; Fu, Fa; Du, Wencai and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Evaluation and Optimization of the Registrar Redundancy Handling in Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 484 KiB, 7 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the IEEE 23rd International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), pp. 256–262, DOI 10.1109/AINA.2009.25, ISBN 978-0-7695-3638-5, Bradford, West Yorkshire/United Kingdom, May 26, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Redundancy, Takeover, Handlespace Management, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture is the IETF's new standard for a lightweight server redundancy and session failover framework to support availability-critical applications. RSerPool combines the ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. Server pools are maintained by redundant management components, which are called registrars. Registrars monitor the availability of servers in the pool and remove them in case of failure. Furthermore, they synchronize their view of the pool with other registrars to provide information redundancy.
  In this paper, we first analyse the implications of registrar redundancy on the server pool performance. Furthermore, we present an optimization approach for the server pool management, which improves the system performance in case of registrar problems by hardware failures or Denial of Service attacks.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/AINA2009.pdf

  MD5: 85883bf586a6c76481c7a3adbd0f20d6

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mulik, Jaiwant: ``Reliable Server Pooling MIB Module Definition´´ (TXT, 84 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5525, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5525, ISSN 2070-1721, April 22, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a framework to provide reliable server pooling. The RSerPool framework consists of two protocols: ASAP (Aggregate Server Access Protocol) and ENRP (Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol). This document defines an SMIv2-compliant (Structure of Management Information Version 2) Management Information Base (MIB) module providing access to managed objects in an RSerPool implementation. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5525.txt

  MD5: 0a97f3889ba2b726d4e738e9c4c77ee6

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Zhou, Xing and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``SimProcTC – The Design and Realization of a Powerful Tool-Chain for OMNeT++ Simulations´´ (PDF, 552 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd ACM/ICST International Workshop on OMNeT++, pp. 1–8, DOI 10.4108/ICST.SIMUTOOLS2009.5517, ISBN 978-963-9799-45-5, Rome/Italy, March 6, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: SimProcTC, Simulation, Parametrization, Run Distribution, Results Visualization

  Abstract: In this paper, we introduce our Open Source simulation tool-chain for OMNeT++ simulations: SimProcTC. This model-independent tool-chain has been designed to perform the common and frequently recurring tasks of simulation work – which are the parametrization of runs, the distributed run processing and the results visualization – in an efficient and easy to use manner. It is already successfully deployed for several OMNeT++-based research projects.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/OMNeT__Workshop2009.pdf

  MD5: 1ec4aec2824e6f4d11f1e1af9a8d3991

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas; Du, Wencai and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Evaluation of Attack Countermeasures to Improve the DoS Robustness of RSerPool Systems by Simulations and Measurements´´ (PDF, 471 KiB, 12 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 16. ITG/GI Fachtagung Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen (KiVS), Informatik aktuell, pp. 217–228, Springer, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-92666-5_18, ISBN 978-3-540-92665-8, Kassel, Hessen/Germany, March 5, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Security, Attacks, Denial of Service, Robustness, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture is the IETF's new standard for a lightweight server redundancy and session failover framework to support availability-critical applications. RSerPool combines the ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. While there have already been a number of research papers on its performance in general, the robustness against intentional attacks has not been intensively addressed yet. In particular, there have not been any analyses for real setups.
  Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a robustness analysis in order to outline the attack bandwidth which is necessary for a significant impact on RSerPool-based services. This analysis is based on lab measurements – using a real RSerPool system setup – as well as on measurements for comparison and validation. Furthermore, we present and evaluate countermeasure approaches to significantly reduce the impact of attacks.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/KiVS2009.pdf

  MD5: 75e82d6388aaef304f99eba50e33f69f

2008

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Towards the Future Internet – An Overview of Challenges and Solutions in Research and Standardization´´ (PDF, 1643 KiB, 3 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd GI/ITG KuVS Workshop on the Future Internet, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg/Germany, November 11, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), IPv6, Future Internet

  Abstract: The basic intention for the development of the Internet has been the simple and inexpensive interconnection of nodes to provide services like file download or e-mail. However, due to its huge growth and popularity, the classical protocols – which still constitute the basis of today's Internet – have reached their limits of scalability and functionality. Lots of research has been performed in order to overcome these restrictions. In our presentation, we would like to give a survey of the challenges on Network, Transport, Session and Application Layer, as well as an outline of solutions which will constitute – from the current perspective in 2008 and with regard to the standardization progress of the IETF – the basis of the Internet in the year 2020.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/FutureInternet2008.pdf

  MD5: 087b79294d286a6ad2ac31b62a86f8a9

• Schöttle, Pascal; Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``On the Application of Anomaly Detection in Reliable Server Pooling Systems for Improved Robustness against Denial of Service Attacks´´ (PDF, 563 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), pp. 207–214, DOI 10.1109/LCN.2008.4664171, ISBN 978-1-4244-2413-9, Montréal, Québec/Canada, October 16, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Anomaly Detection, Attacks, Robustness, Denial of Service

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture is the IETF's upcoming standard of a light-weight server redundancy and session failover framework for availability-critical applications. RSerPool combines the ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. Although there have already been a number of research papers on the pool management, load distribution and failover handling performance of RSerPool, the robustness against intentional attacks has not been intensively addressed yet.
  Therefore, the first goal of this paper is to provide a robustness analysis in order to outline the attack bandwidth necessary for a significant impact on RSerPool-based services. After that, we present our anomaly detection approach that has been designed to protect RSerPool systems against attacks. We also show the effectiveness of this approach by simulations.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/LCN2008.pdf

  MD5: 8a883302aadb660fba4af49c65573c12

• Lei, Peter; Ong, Lyndon; Tüxen, Michael and Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Overview of Reliable Server Pooling Protocols´´ (TXT, 33 KiB, 🇬🇧), Informational RFC 5351, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5351, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling effort (abbreviated "RSerPool") provides an application-independent set of services and protocols for building fault-tolerant and highly available client/server applications. This document provides an overview of the protocols and mechanisms in the Reliable Server Pooling suite. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5351.txt

  MD5: ef2740924a7fd7e776672161b88ab7fa

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Tüxen, Michael: ``Reliable Server Pooling Policies´´ (TXT, 33 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5356, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5356, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes server pool policies for Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) including considerations for implementing them at Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) servers and pool users. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5356.txt

  MD5: b3865e8c10685a43bd16cc90ecf4df29

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Zhou, Xing: ``SCTP and RSerPool: Architectures and Protocols for the Future Internet´´ (PDF, 2256 KiB, 22 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, September 26, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Haikou2008-English.pdf

  MD5: ff7675477fc736d4f43908249ea7861b

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Zhou, Xing: ``On Robustness and Countermeasures of Reliable Server Pooling Systems against Denial of Service Attacks´´ (PDF, 479 KiB, 13 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 7th International IFIP Networking Conference, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4982, pp. 586–598, Springer, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-79549-0_51, ISBN 978-3-540-79548-3, Singapore, May 7, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling, Attacks, Denial of Service, Robustness, Countermeasures

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture is the IETF's novel approach to standardize a light-weight protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover. It combines ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. While there have already been a number of contributions on the performance of RSerPool for its main tasks – pool management, load distribution and failover handling – the robustness of the protocol framework has not yet been evaluated against intentional attacks.
  The first goal of this paper is to provide a robustness analysis. In particular, we would like to outline the attack bandwidth necessary for a significant impact on the service. Furthermore, we present and evaluate our countermeasure approach to significantly reduce the impact of attacks.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Networking2008.pdf

  MD5: 185b4404904fcb988d4c237634f2c1aa

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``An Evaluation of the Pool Maintenance Overhead in Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 3289 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), in SERSC International Journal on Hybrid Information Technology (IJHIT), vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 17–32, ISSN 1738-9968, April 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pools, Handlespace Management, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Performance, Measurements

  Abstract: Currently, the IETF RSerPool WG is standardizing a generic protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). An important property of RSerPool is its lightweight architecture: server pool and session management can be realized with small CPU power and memory requirements. That is, RSerPool-based services can also be managed and provided by embedded systems. Up to now, there has already been some research on the performance of the data structures managing server pools. But a generic, application-independent performance analysis – in particular also including measurements in real system setups – is still missing.
  The aim of this article is therefore – after giving an outline of the RSerPool framework, an introduction to the pool management procedures and a description of our pool management approach – to first provide a detailed performance evaluation of the pool management structures themselves. Afterwards, the performance of a prototype implementation is analysed in order to evaluate its applicability in a real network setup.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IJHIT2008.pdf

  MD5: 175a230c33b66aa474020607da51b8c4

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``A Powerful Tool-Chain for Setup, Distributed Processing, Analysis and Debugging of OMNeT++ Simulations´´ (PDF, 558 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 1st ACM/ICST International Workshop on OMNeT++, DOI 10.4108/ICST.SIMUTOOLS2008.2990, ISBN 978-963-9799-20-2, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône/France, March 7, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: SimProcTC, Simulation Model, Parametrization, Simulation Run Distribution, Plotting, Analysis

  Abstract: In this paper, we introduce our Open Source tool-chain providing the parametrization, distributed execution, results post-processing and debugging for
  OMNeT++-based simulations. While the initial motivation of these tools has been the support of our simulation model of the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework, it has been particularly designed with model-independence in mind. That is, it can be easily adapted to other simulation models and therefore may be useful for other users of
  OMNeT++-based simulation models as well.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/OMNeTWorkshop2008.pdf

  MD5: 23f563d708ab1eb3f55d6dd21ef4eee4

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``A New Server Selection Strategy for Reliable Server Pooling in Widely Distributed Environments´´ (PDF, 444 KiB, 7 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Society (ICDS), pp. 171–177, DOI 10.1109/ICDS.2008.12, ISBN 978-0-7695-3087-1, Sainte Luce/Martinique, February 14, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Load Balancing, Least-Used Selection, Latency

  Abstract: In order to provide a generic, application-independent and resource-efficient framework for server redundancy and session failover, the IETF RSerPool WG is currently standardizing the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) framework. Server redundancy has to take load distribution and load balancing into consideration since these issues are crucial for the system performance.
  There has already been some research on the server selection strategies of RSerPool for different application scenarios. In particular, it has been shown that the adaptive Least Used selection usually provides the best performance. This strategy requires up-to-date load information of the services, which has to be propagated among distributed pool management components. But network delay (which is realistic for systems being widely distributed to achieve availability in case of regional servers failures) as well as caching of information may both lead to obsolete load information. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the performance of a new server selection rule to cope with update latencies. Especially, we will also analyse the impact of different workload parameters on the performance of the new server selection strategy.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ICDS2008-LUD.pdf

  MD5: 8e1fe5960264a82415c27b389278d35c

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Reliable Server Pooling – A Novel IETF Architecture for Availability-Sensitive Services´´ (PDF, 504 KiB, 7 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Society (ICDS), pp. 150–156, DOI 10.1109/ICDS.2008.11, ISBN 978-0-7695-3087-1, Sainte Luce/Martinique, February 14, 2008, [BibTeX, XML]. Awarded with the Best Paper Award.

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Availability, Redundancy, Failover, Server Selection

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a light-weight protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently still under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. While the basic ideas of RSerPool are not new, their combination into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture is. Server redundancy directly leads to the issues of load distribution and load balancing, which are both important for the performance of RSerPool systems. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the performance of such systems with respect to the load balancing strategy required by the application.
  The goal of our paper is – after presenting a short overview of the RSerPool architecture and its application cases – to provide a quantitative, application-independent performance analysis of RSerPool's server failure handling capabilities with respect to important adaptive and non-adaptive load balancing strategies. We will also analyse the impact of RSerPool protocol parameters on the performance of the server failure handling functionalities and the network overhead.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ICDS2008-Failover.pdf

  MD5: 2b0abbad0f9f40af03022525c2a8c184

2007

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``A New Approach of Performance Improvement for Server Selection in Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 10141 KiB, 5 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication (ADCOM), pp. 117–121, DOI 10.1109/ADCOM.2007.19, ISBN 0-7695-3059-1, Guwahati/India, December 19, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Redundancy, Load Balancing, Performance Evaluation

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a light-weight protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently still under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. While the basic ideas of RSerPool are not completely new, their combination into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture is. Server redundancy directly leads to the issues of load distribution and load balancing, which are both important for the performance of RSerPool systems.
  While there has already been some research on the server selection policies of RSerPool, an interesting question still remains open: Is it possible to further improve the load balancing performance of certain policies by simply letting servers reject inappropriately scheduled requests? In this case, the failover handling mechanisms of RSerPool could choose a possibly better server instead.
  The purpose of this paper is, after presenting an outline of the RSerPool framework, to analyse and evaluate the performance of our new approach. In particular, we will also analyse the impact of RSerPool protocol parameters on the performance of the server selection functionalities as well as on the overhead.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ADCOM2007.pdf

  MD5: 8e50985edbad8e96e04a1066c7ccd780

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Evaluation of a Simple Load Balancing Improvement for Reliable Server Pooling with Heterogeneous Server Pools´´ (PDF, 456 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Future Generation Communication and Networking (FGCN), vol. 1, pp. 173–180, DOI 10.1109/FGCN.2007.119, ISBN 0-7695-3048-6, Jeju Island/South Korea, December 8, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Redundancy, Load Balancing, Heterogeneous Pools, Performance Evaluation

  Abstract: The IETF is currently standardizing a light-weight protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). It is the novel combination of ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. Server redundancy directly leads to the issues of load distribution and load balancing. Both are important and have to be considered for the performance of RSerPool systems. While there has already been some research on the server selection policies of RSerPool, an interesting question is still open: Is it possible to further improve the load balancing performance of the standard policies without modifying the policies – which are well-known and widely supported – themselves? Our approach places its focus on the session layer rather than the policies and simply lets servers reject inappropriately scheduled requests. Applying failover handling mechanisms of RSerPool, in this case, could choose a more appropriate server instead. In [26], we have already shown that our approach is useful for homogeneous server pools. But is it also useful for heterogeneous pools?
  In this paper, we first present a short outline of the RSerPool framework. Afterwards, we analyse and evaluate the performance of our new approach for different server capacity distributions. Especially, we are also going to analyse the impact of RSerPool protocol and system parameters on the performance of the server selection functionalities as well as on the overhead.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/FGCN2007-LoadBalancing.pdf

  MD5: 6967acc9a600841ae38313c55605d36c

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``An Evaluation of the Pool Maintenance Overhead in Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 482 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Future Generation Communication and Networking (FGCN), vol. 1, pp. 136–143, DOI 10.1109/FGCN.2007.62, ISBN 0-7695-3048-6, Jeju Island/South Korea, December 6, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pools, Handlespace Management, SCTP, Performance

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently still under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. An important property of RSerPool is its lightweight architecture: server pool and session management can be realized with small CPU power and memory requirements. That is, RSerPool-based services can also be managed and provided by embedded systems. Currently, there has already been some research on the performance of the data structures managing server pools. But a generic, application-independent performance analysis – in particular also including measurements in real system setups – is still missing.
  Therefore, the aim of this paper is – after an outline of the RSerPool framework, an introduction to the pool management procedures and a description of our pool management approach – to first provide a detailed performance evaluation of the pool management structures themselves. Afterwards, the performance of a prototype implementation is analysed in order to evaluate its applicability under real network conditions.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/FGCN2007-HsMgt.pdf

  MD5: 3f06ad92c93f4dcde961912cfe251b11

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Introduction to Reliable Server Pooling and the RSPLIB Implementation´´ (PDF, 7736 KiB, 23 pages, 🇬🇧), Invited Talk at Hainan University, College of Information Science and Technology (CIST), Haikou, Hainan/People's Republic of China, December 2, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/HaikouTalk2007.pdf

  MD5: bc192125b5728d9da4b0996a75d19f5e

• Zhou, Xing; Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Improving the Load Balancing Performance of Reliable Server Pooling in Heterogeneous Capacity Environments´´ (PDF, 408 KiB, 16 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 3rd Asian Internet Engineering Conference (AINTEC), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4866, pp. 125–140, Springer, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-76809-8_12, ISBN 978-3-540-76808-1, November 28, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Redundancy, Load Balancing, Heterogeneous Pools, Performance Evaluation

  Abstract: The IETF is currently standardizing a light-weight protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). It is the novel combination of ideas from different research areas into a single, resource-efficient and unified architecture. Server redundancy directly leads to the issues of load distribution and load balancing. Both are important and have to be considered for the performance of RSerPool systems. While there has already been some research on the server selection policies of RSerPool, an interesting question is still open: Is it possible to further improve the load balancing performance of the standard policies without modifying the policies – which are well-known and widely supported – themselves? Our approach places its focus on the session layer rather than the policies and simply lets servers reject inappropriately scheduled requests. But is this approach useful – in particular if the server capacities increase in terms of a heterogeneous capacity distribution? Applying failover handling mechanisms of RSerPool, in this case, could choose a more appropriate server instead.
  In this paper, we first present a short outline of the RSerPool framework. Afterwards, we analyse and evaluate the performance of our new approach for different server capacity distributions. Especially, we are also going to analyse the impact of RSerPool protocol and system parameters on the performance of the server selection functionalities as well as on the overhead.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/AINTEC2007.pdf

  MD5: a3252db5751ad15acf01794460125589

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Hochverfügbarkeit mit Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 7740 KiB, 23 pages, 🇩🇪), in Proceedings of the Linuxtage in Essen, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen/Germany, November 10, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Hochverfügbarkeit, Redundanz, Überblick, Implementierung, RSPLIB

  Abstract: Mit der ständig wachsenden Verbreitung von Internetzugängen nimmt auch die Anzahl an verfügbarkeits-kritischen Diensten im Netz zu. Ausfälle von z.B. VoIP-Vermittlungsanlagen zur Weiterleitung von Notrufen oder e-Commerce-Anwendungen sind nicht akzeptabel. Zur Sicherstellung der Verfügbarkeit von Diensten bei Geräte- und Netzwerkausfällen müssen diese Komponenten redundant ausgelegt sein. Spezialisierte Redundanzlösungen – insbesondere z.B. für Web-Server – gibt es zwar viele, eine einheitliche, für viele Dienste nutzbare Lösung fehlte jedoch noch. Reliable Server Pooling, abgekürzt RSerPool, ist ein Rahmenwerk zur Bereitstellung hochverfügbarer Anwendungen durch redundante Server, es befindet sich zur Zeit in der Standardisierung durch die IETF RSerPool-Arbeitsgruppe. Im RSerPool-Konzept werden Server, welche den gleichen Dienst anbieten, zu einem Pool zusammengefaßt. Neben der Hauptaufgabe – der Verfügbarkeit von Diensten – ist insbesondere auch die Lastverteilung ein wichtiges Anwendungsgebiet von RSerPool.
  Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes haben wir – die Arbeitsgruppe Technik der Rechnernetze am Institut für Experimentelle Mathematik der Universität Duisburg-Essen – im Jahre 2002 damit begonnen, einen plattformunabhängigen RSerPool-Prototypen als Open Source unter GPL-Lizenz zu entwickeln. Mittlerweile wird unser Projekt durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) gefördert. Unser System läuft zur Zeit unter Linux, FreeBSD, Darwin (MacOS X) und Solaris, wobei die Unterstützung für weitere Plattformen – insbesondere auch für Embedded-Systeme – geplant ist. Als einzige vollständige Implementierung des zukünftigen RSerPool-Standards sind wir Referenzimplementierung der IETF RSerPool-Arbeitsgruppe und wirken mit Tests und Forschungsarbeiten aktiv in der Standardisierung mit.
  In unserem Vortrag geben wir zunächst eine kurze Einführung zu RSerPool. Dabei wollen wir insbesondere auch die Merkmale verdeutlichen, die RSerPool von existierenden Lösungen – wie Linux Virtual Server (LVS) oder dem kommerziellen Cisco Distributed Director – unterscheiden. Außerdem wollen wir zeigen, welche speziellen Funktionalitäten RSerPool bietet um den Nutzen eines Serverpools sowohl für dessen Betreiber als auch für den Anwender zu optimieren: die Möglichkeit zur vollautomatischen Konfiguration von Komponenten und die Festlegung pool-spezifischer Serverauswahlregeln. Diese Funktionalitäten werden wir am Beispiel einer Anwendung von RSerPool für Real-Time Distributed Computing verdeutlichen.
  Im zweiten Teil unseres Vortrags werden wir auf unsere Open Source Implementierung rsplib eingehen. Neben dem Aufbau der einzelnen Komponenten werden wir insbesondere auch interessante Details der Implementierung vorstellen und beschreiben, wie wir auftretende Probleme erfolgreich lösen konnten. Insbesondere wollen wir dabei auch unsere gesammelten Erfahrungen beim Erstellen von auf unterschiedlichen Betriebssystemen (Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS X, Solaris) und Hardware (x86, x64, PPC) lauffähiger Software vorstellen. Im Anschluß daran zeigen wir, wie das RSerPool-API dazu genutzt werden kann, eigene Anwendungen hochverfügbar zu machen und die Möglichkeiten zur Lastverteilung im Pool verwendet werden können. Ein Schwerpunkt dieser Einführung wird dabei insbesondere die einfache und effiziente Realisierung des Failover-Mechanisms sein, d.h. des Verfahrens zur Wiederherstellung eines Sitzungszustandes auf einem neuen Server nach Ausfall des alten. Im Besonderen werden wir dabei zeigen, welche Fähigkeiten RSerPool und sein API mitbringen um dieses – teilweise recht komplexe Thema – in vielen Fällen übersichtlich und mit wenigen Zeilen Programmcode zu lösen: Hochverfügbarkeit für eigene Anwendungen muß nicht kompliziert sein!
  Zum Abschluß stellen wir noch unsere Beispielanwendung vor, ein System zum verteilten Berechnen von Fraktalgrafiken. Mit diesem System lassen sich die grundlegenden Eigenschaften von RSerPool – welche im Vortrag vorgestellt wurden – sehr anschaulich demonstrieren: die Verwaltung dynamischer Pools, Lastverteilung und Failover bei Serverausfall. Selbstverständlich werden wir unser Beispielsystem beim Vortrag auch in der Praxis demonstrieren, bei Vorhandensein eines Internetzugangs sogar mit einem Szenario aus weltweit verteilten Ressourcen.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Linuxtage2007.pdf

  MD5: 7882ef3b335f592778b19b6d3f3c0796

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Zhou, Xing and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``A Performance Evaluation of RSerPool Server Selection Policies in Varying Heterogeneous Capacity Scenarios´´ (PDF, 383 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE EuroMirco Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, pp. 157–164, DOI 10.1109/EUROMICRO.2007.9, ISBN 0-7695-2977-1, Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein/Germany, August 29, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: RSerPool, Redundancy, Server Selection, Heterogeneous Pools, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently still under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. Server redundancy influences load distribution and load balancing, which both are important for the performance of RSerPool systems. Especially, a good load balancing strategy is crucial if the servers of a pool are heterogeneous. Some research on this subject has already been performed, but a detailed analysis on the question of how to make best use of additional capacity in dynamic pools is still open.
  Therefore, the aim of this paper is, after an outline of the RSerPool framework, to simulatively examine the performance of RSerPool server selection strategies in scenarios of pools with varying server heterogeneity. In particular, this paper examines and evaluates a simple but very effective new policy, achieving a significant performance improvement in such situations.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/EuroMicro2007.pdf

  MD5: b95e9d21968c88bc50bd4d79ea7aac98

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Towards the Future Internet – A Survey of Challenges and Solutions in Research and Standardization´´ (PDF, 1669 KiB, 2 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 7th Joint EuroFGI and ITG Workshop on Visions of Future Network Generations (EuroView), Würzburg, Bayern/Germany, Poster Presentation, July 23, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling, SCTP, IPv6, Future Internet

  Abstract: The basic intention for the development of the Internet has been the simple and inexpensive interconnection of nodes to provide services like file download or e-mail. However, due to its huge growth and popularity, the classical protocols – which still constitute the basis of today's Internet – have reached their limits of scalability and functionality. Lots of research has been performed in order to overcome these restrictions. On our poster, we would like to give a survey of the challenges on Network, Transport, Session and Application Layer, as well as an outline of solutions which will constitute – from the current perspective in 2007 and with regard to the standardization progress of the IETF – the basis of the Internet in 2022.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/EuroView2007.pdf

  MD5: b8be1e85ccd586b858f2b5098a599968

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Reliable Server Pooling – Evaluation, Optimization and Extension of a Novel IETF Architecture´´ (PDF, 9080 KiB, 267 pages, 🇬🇧), University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Economics, Institute for Computer Science and Business Information Systems, URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:465-20070308-164527-0, March 7, 2007, [BibTeX, XML]. Awarded with the Science Award of the Sparkasse Essen.

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Evaluation, Optimization, Extension

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture currently under standardization by the IETF RSerPool Working Group is an overlay network framework to provide server replication and session failover capabilities to applications using it. These functionalities as such are not new, but their combination into one generic, application-independent framework is.
  Initial goal of this thesis is to gain insight into the complex RSerPool mechanisms by performing experimental and simulative proof-of-concept tests. The further goals are to systematically validate the RSerPool architecture and its protocols, provide improvements and optimizations where necessary and propose extensions if useful. Based on these evaluations, recommendations to implementers and users of RSerPool should be provided, giving guidelines for the tuning of system parameters and the appropriate configuration of application scenarios. In particular, it is also a goal to transfer insights, optimizations and extensions of the RSerPool protocols from simulation to reality and also to bring the achievements from research into application by supporting and contributing relevant results to the IETF's ongoing RSerPool standardization process.
  To achieve the described goals, a prototype implementation as well as a simulation model are designed and realized at first. Using a generic application model and appropriate performance metrics, the performance of RSerPool systems in failure-free and server failure scenarios is systematically evaluated in order to identify critical parameter ranges and problematic protocol behaviour. Improvements developed as result of these performance analyses are evaluated and finally contributed into the standardization process of RSerPool.

  URL: https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00016326/Dre2006_final.pdf

  MD5: acdd102ebd0775ca5de523ec5710d800

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``On Improving the Performance of Reliable Server Pooling Systems for Distance-Sensitive Distributed Applications´´ (PDF, 393 KiB, 12 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 15. ITG/GI Fachtagung Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen (KiVS), Informatik aktuell, pp. 39–50, Springer, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-69962-0_4, ISBN 978-3-540-69962-0, Bern/Switzerland, February 28, 2007, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Selection, Load Distribution

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. While the basic ideas of RSerPool are not new, their combination into a single, unified architecture is. Server pooling becomes increasingly important, because there is a growing amount of availability-critical applications. For a service to survive localized disasters, it is useful to place the servers of a pool at different locations. However, the current version of RSerPool does not incorporate the aspect of component distances in its server selection decisions.
  In our paper, we present an approach to add distance-awareness to the RSerPool architecture, based on features of the SCTP transport protocol. This approach is examined and evaluated by simulations. But to also show its usefulness in real life, we furthermore validate our proposed extension by measurements in a PlanetLab-based Internet scenario.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/KiVS2007.pdf

  MD5: 724469ef1a2389ca1d3b3c4e96de5c89

2006

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``RSPLIB – Eine Open Source Implementation von Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 7868 KiB, 28 pages, 🇩🇪), in Proceedings of the Linuxtage in Essen, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen/Germany, September 9, 2006, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Hochverfügbarkeit, Redundanz, Überblick, Implementierung, RSPLIB

  Abstract: In unserem Vortrag geben wir zunächst eine kurze Einführung zu RSerPool. Dabei wollen wir insbesondere auch die Merkmale verdeutlichen, die RSerPool von existierenden Lösungen – wie Linux Virtual Server (LVS) oder dem kommerziellen Cisco Distributed Director – unterscheiden. Außerdem wollen wir vorstellen, welche speziellen Funktionalitäten RSerPool bietet um den Nutzen eines Serverpools sowohl für dessen Betreiber als auch für den Anwender zu optimieren: die Möglichkeit zur vollautomatischen Konfiguration von Komponenten und die Festlegung pool-spezifischer Serverauswahlregeln. Diese Funktionalitäten werden wir am Beispiel der Anwendung von RSerPool für Real-Time Distributed Computing verdeutlichen.
  Im zweiten Teil unseres Vortrages werden wir auf unsere Open Source Implementation rsplib eingehen. Neben dem Aufbau der einzelnen Komponenten werden wir insbesondere auch interessante Details der Implementation vorstellen und beschreiben, wie wir auftretende Probleme erfolgreich lösen konnten. Insbesondere wollen wir dabei auch unsere gesammelten Erfahrungen beim Erstellen von auf unterschiedlichen Betriebssystemen und Hardware lauffähiger Software vorstellen. Im Anschluß daran wenden wir uns kurz dem API der rsplib zu und zeigen, wie eigene Programme mit dessen Hilfe hochverfügbar gemacht werden können. Neben neuer, direkt auf RSerPool basierender Software, berücksichtigen wir dabei insbesondere auch die Anpassung bestehender Applikationen und stellen Möglichkeiten zur Migration vor. Zum besseren Verständnis werden sämtliche Beschreibungen von Code-Beispielen begleitet.
  Zum Abschluß stellen wir noch unsere Beispielanwendung vor, ein System zum verteilten Berechnen von Fraktalgrafiken. Mit diesem System lassen sich die grundlegenden Eigenschaften von RSerPool – welche im ersten Teil des Vortrages vorgestellt wurden – sehr anschaulich demonstrieren: die Verwaltung dynamischer Pools, Lastverteilung und Failover bei PE-Ausfall. Selbstverständlich werden wir unser Beispielsystem beim Vortrag auch praktisch demonstrieren.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Linuxtage2006.pdf

  MD5: c46a9dddc3e7d30f4ab0a8f5372d405b

2005

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``The Performance of Reliable Server Pooling Systems in Different Server Capacity Scenarios´´ (PDF, 679 KiB, 6 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the IEEE TENCON, DOI 10.1109/TENCON.2005.300939, ISBN 0-7803-9312-0, Melbourne, Victoria/Australia, November 22, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pooling, Load Distribution, Performance Analysis, Parameter Sensitivity

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a protocol framework for server pool management and session failover, currently under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. While the basic ideas of RSerPool are not new, their combination into one architecture is. Some research into the performance of RSerPool for certain specific applications has been made, but a detailed, application-independent sensitivity analysis of the system parameters is still missing.
  The goal of this paper is to systematically investigate RSerPool's load distribution behaviour on changes of workload and system parameters, to determine basic guidelines on designing efficient RSerPool systems. In this paper, we focus particularly on scenarios of server pools consisting of servers with unequal capacities.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Tencon2005.pdf

  MD5: ca8319c2b0fa4a6edd7e8bbedd1c4e3e

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``On the Performance of Reliable Server Pooling Systems´´ (PDF, 673 KiB, 9 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) 30th Anniversary, pp. 200–208, DOI 10.1109/LCN.2005.98, ISBN 0-7695-2421-4, Sydney, New South Wales/Australia, November 16, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pooling, Load Distribution, Performance Analysis, Parameter Sensitivity

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a protocol framework for server redundancy and session failover, currently under standardization by the IETF RSerPool WG. While the basic ideas of RSerPool are not new, their combination into one architecture is. Some research into the performance of RSerPool for certain specific applications has been made, but a detailed, application-independent sensitivity analysis of the system parameters is still missing.
  The goal of this paper, after an application-independent, generic quantification of RSerPool systems and definition of performance metrics for both service provider and user, is to systematically investigate RSerPool's behavior on changes of workload and system parameters to give basic guidelines on designing efficient RSerPool systems.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/LCN2005.pdf

  MD5: a3b7091b716b5770343ca3e9bf205597

• Silverton, Aron J.; Xie, Qiaobing; Tüxen, Michael and Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Reliable Server Pooling Sockets API Extensions´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-api-00, IETF, October 17, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Abstract: This document describes a sockets-like API for the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite. This API provides applications within an RSerPool enabled system with a reliable communications layer via a highly-available socket interface (rsp_socket).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-api-00.txt

  MD5: d9fb76046a89ae415ba233da5a220903

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``RSerPool – Providing Highly Available Services using Unreliable Servers´´ (PDF, 429 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE EuroMirco Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, pp. 396–403, DOI 10.1109/EUROMICRO.2005.50, ISBN 0-7695-2431-1, Porto/Portugal, September 2, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pooling, Load Distribution, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite currently under standardization by the IETF is designed to build systems providing highly available services by mechanisms and protocols for establishing, configuring, accessing and monitoring pools of server resources. Using RSerPool, critical infrastructure services like SS7 telecommunication systems, e-commerce transaction processing or distributed computing can be provided highly available using pools of unreliable servers.
  In this paper, we first give an overview of the RSerPool framework. In the following, we quantitatively show performance impacts of varying RSerPool parameters to failover handling, server selection efficiency and overhead traffic under server failure conditions.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/EuroMicro2005.pdf

  MD5: 79a941c68a985c70e1ff7ea52ab4d344

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``draft-ietf-rserpool-mib-01.txt – Management Information Base Definition for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 2249 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 63rd IETF Meeting, Paris/France, August 1, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IETF63.pdf

  MD5: d258fb6d483b6d6b69ed97578a489b59

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Das rsplib–Projekt – Hochverfügbarkeit mit Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 1154 KiB, 19 pages, 🇩🇪), in Proceedings of the LinuxTag, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg/Germany, June 24, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)

  Abstract: In unserem Paper geben wir zunächst eine Einführung zu Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), danach stellen wir unsere Implementation vor – das rsplib-Projekt. Im Anschluß daran zeigen wir, wie basierend auf unserer Implementation eigene, hochverfügbare Anwendungen mit RSerPool entwickelt werden können – begleitet durch Code-Beispiele. Zum Abschluß stellen wir noch eine unserer Beispielanwendungen vor.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/LinuxTag2005.pdf

  MD5: 7e2afb7bb1cc82c458c4ac8217d3f8d0

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``Implementing the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 467 KiB, 8 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications (ConTEL), vol. 1, pp. 21–28, ISBN 953-184-081-4, Zagreb, Središnja Hrvatska/Croatia, June 15, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Internet Applications, IPv6 Deployment and Applications, SS7, Server Pools

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite currently under standardization by the IETF is designed to build systems providing highly available services by mechanisms and protocols for establishing, configuring, accessing and monitoring pools of server resources. But RSerPool is not only able to manage pools of redundant servers and facilitate service failover between servers: it also includes sophisticated mechanisms for server selections within the pools. These mechanisms make RSerPool useful for the application in load balancing and distributed computing scenarios.
  As part of our RSerPool research and to verify results of our simulation model in real-life scenarios, we have created a complete implementation prototype of the RSerPool framework. In this paper, we will give a detailed description of the concepts, ideas and realizations of our prototype. Furthermore, we will show performance issues raised by the management of large servers pools, as it is necessary for load balancing or distributed computing scenarios. We will explain the algorithms and data structures we designed to solve these challenges and finally present a rough performance evaluation that verifies our concept.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Contel2005.pdf

  MD5: 31d96cdd656dec8bf3febad099c5cc70

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Rathgeb, Erwin Paul and Tüxen, Michael: ``Load Distribution Performance of the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 219 KiB, 11 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Networking (ICN), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3421, pp. 564–574, Springer, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-31957-3_65, ISBN 3-540-25338-6, Saint Gilles Les Bains/Reunion Island, April 21, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: RSerPool, Server Pooling, Load Distribution, Performance Analysis

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite currently under standardization by the IETF is designed to build systems providing highly available services by providing mechanisms and protocols for establishing, configuring, accessing and monitoring pools of server resources.
  While availability is one main aspect of RSerPool, load distribution is another. Since most of the time a server pool system runs without component failures, optimal performance is an extremely important issue for the productivity and cost-efficiency of the system. In this paper, we therefore focus especially on the load distribution performance of RSerPool in scenarios without failures, presenting a quantitative performance comparison of the different load distribution strategies (called pool policies) defined in the RSerPool specifications. Based on the results, we propose some new pool policies providing significant performance enhancements compared to those currently defined in the standards documents.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ICN2005.pdf

  MD5: 8b341ae8ee042fbdd1f44392f1672b4e

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Rathgeb, Erwin Paul: ``An Application Demonstration of the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (PDF, 330 KiB, 3 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 24th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), Miami, Florida/U.S.A., Demonstration and Poster Presentation, March 16, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/Infocom2005.pdf

  MD5: c9f22eb5c5bb8490a769e5b0d5af6766

2004

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``draft-ietf-rserpool-policies-00.txt – Definition of Member Selection Policies´´ (PDF, 2729 KiB, 10 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 61st IETF Meeting, Washington, DC/U.S.A., November 8, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IETF61.pdf

  MD5: ef7ef8851a803cd89032050749078808

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Overview of the Reliable Server Pooling Architecture´´ (PDF, 66 KiB, 2 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), Berlin/Germany, Poster Presentation, October 7, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Overview, Implementation, RSPLIB

  Abstract: The convergence of classical PSTN and IP networks requires the transport of SS7 signalling over IP. Since SS7 has very strict availability requirements to the signalling components, redundancy is mandatory. The goal of the IETF RSerPool working group is to define a lightweight, flexible and realtime redundancy concept to fulfil the availability requirements of SS7: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool). RSerPool is currently under standardization, its functionality and improvement are subject of our research.
  Our poster presents our RSerPool proof-of-concept implementation and a research oriented, discrete event based simulation model. We provide some simulation results showing problems of the server selection procedures defined in the standards and how we solved them. These improvements are now going into standardization by the IETF. Furthermore, we present some of our important results on efficient algorithms and data structures for pool management. The poster concludes with an outlook on our currently progressing examinations of service reliablity in failure scenarios.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/ICNP2004.pdf

  MD5: fa721e916781e49ca93719c3c7314dfe

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Member Selection Policies for the Reliable Server Pooling Protocol Suite´´ (PDF, 3299 KiB, 11 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 60th IETF Meeting, San Diego, California/U.S.A., August 5, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/IETF60.pdf

  MD5: df00a537e3bf39fca4e5e7ba2ba2e0b4

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Policy Management in the Reliable Server Pooling Architecture´´ (PDF, 4930 KiB, 17 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the Multi-Service Networks Conference (MSN, Coseners), Abingdon, Oxfordshire/United Kingdom, July 8, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/MSN2004-Final-with-Examples.pdf

  MD5: 0bfcc62620e0a0abd20ad6d18e2c4ce1

2003

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Jungmaier, Andreas and Tüxen, Michael: ``A New Scheme for IP-based Internet Mobility´´ (PDF, 210 KiB, 10 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Local Computer Networks Conference (LCN), pp. 99–108, DOI 10.1109/LCN.2003.1243117, ISBN 0-7695-2037-5, Königswinter, Nordrhein-Westfalen/Germany, October 22, 2003, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Internet, Cellular Radio, Transport Protocols, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool)

  Abstract: In this contribution we present a new type of mobility management for IP-based networks that, contrary to conventional approaches, does not focus on the network layer, but on the transport and session layers.
  At the heart of this new mobility concept is the reliable transport protocol SCTP, with an enhancement for dynamic address reconfiguration. This is described in this paper. A session layer based on the reliable server pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite provides for sessionmonitoring and control. The suggested solution is transparent for applications,requires no changes in the network infrastructure, and is evaluated with a real-world implementation.
  Finally, we present first results from the application of this mobility concept to different mobility scenarios. These were obtained from working SCTP and RSerPool implementations that have been developed within our group.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/LCN2003.pdf

  MD5: 7b3fdad55551f9a7c57d8f92340ab14a

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Tüxen, Michael: ``High Availability using Reliable Server Pooling´´ (PDF, 79 KiB, 11 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the Linux Conference Australia (LCA), Perth, Western Australia/Australia, January 24, 2003, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pooling, RSPLIB

  Abstract: Providing fault tolerancy is crucial for a growing number of IP-based applications. There exist a lot of proprietary solutions for this problem, but free alternatives are rare.
  Currently, the IETF RSerPool working group is standardizing a protocol suite for Reliable Server Pooling, which copes with the challenge of providing high availability by using redundant servers. Servers for the same service are grouped into a server pool. A server in a pool is called pool element (PE), a user of a pool is called pool user (PU). When a PE fails, its PUs simply select another one from the pool and initiates an application-specific failover procedure. This fail-over is supported by the RSerPool protocol suite. Each PE registers at a name server and is then continously supervised by that specific name server. All name servers of an operational scope provide a redundant system for name resolution from pool handles to transport addresses of pool elements to pool users. RSerPool uses SCTP to provide network fault tolerance and address scoping functionality.
  The RSPLIB is a prototype implementation of the RSerPool protocol suite, developed under the GNU Public License in cooperation between Siemens and the Computer Networking Technology Group of the University of Essen. It currently runs under Linux, FreeBSD and Darwin.
  Our paper covers aspects of designing and implementing highly available applications using RSerPool with our RSPLIB implementation. First, we will give an introduction to the RSerPool protocol suite and an overview of the RSPLIB components. Then, we describe the RSPLIB API, especially focussing on the implementation of pool element and pool user programs to provide high reliability. Furthermore, we show our current implementation status and future plans. This will be followed by a short look on the problems that can arise when the RSerPool architecture is used. Finally, we give an example how RSerPool can be used to realize highly available services. And last but not least, we show how distributed computing architectures can make use of the RSerPool architecture.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/RSerPool-Paper.pdf

  MD5: eac12b5e0912b99b881727f2fc096970

2002

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Efficient Approach for State Sharing in Server Pools´´ (PDF, 111 KiB, 2 pages, 🇬🇧), in Proceedings of the 27th IEEE Local Computer Networks Conference (LCN), pp. 348–349, DOI 10.1109/LCN.2002.1181806, ISBN 0-7695-1591-6, Tampa, Florida/U.S.A., November 8, 2002, [BibTeX, XML].

  Keywords: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool), Server Pooling, State Sharing, Client-Based State Sharing, State Cookies

  Abstract: Many Internet services require high availability. Server pooling provides a high availability solution using redundant servers. If one server fails, the service is continued by another one. A challenge for server pooling is efficient state sharing: The new server requires the old one's state to continue service. This paper proposes a simple, efficient and scalable solution, usable for a large subset of applications.

  URL: https://www.wiwi.uni-due.de/fileadmin/fileupload/I-TDR/ReliableServer/Publications/StateSharing-Paper-ShortVersion.pdf

  MD5: f1f40c62426deb84eb7dbe5a0d1d75c9

📖 Standardisation

The collected BibTeX references in a single file are available as: BiBTeX file, XML file, ODT file, DOCX file. These lists were generated using BibTeXCov 2.0!

2025

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling for Real-Time Distributed Computing´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-distcomp-38, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-distcomp-37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes the applicability of the Reliable Server Pooling architecture to manage real-time distributed computing pools and access the resources of such pools.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-distcomp-38.txt

  MD5: beb63ef1fbdf5cb19b3eb03f699dcfa5

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Pulinthanath, Jobin: ``Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling for SCTP-Based Endpoint Mobility´´ (TXT, 17 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-mobility-37, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-mobility-36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes a novel mobility concept based on a combination of SCTP with Dynamic Address Reconfiguration extension and Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-applic-mobility-37.txt

  MD5: dd82eef5b846438f980c2077cec33bee

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Zhou, Xing: ``Definition of a Delay Measurement Infrastructure and Delay-Sensitive Least-Used Policy for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 18 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-delay-35, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-delay-34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document contains the definition of a delay measurement infrastructure and a delay-sensitive Least-Used policy for Reliable Server Pooling.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-delay-35.txt

  MD5: 9929a103fa809cfbf3a3a6db88814dbb

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Handle Resolution Option for ASAP´´ (TXT, 13 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-asap-hropt-36, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-asap-hropt-35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes the Handle Resolution option for the ASAP protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-asap-hropt-36.txt

  MD5: e277e1868bde45cfd0977fe02d8120d7

• Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Ideas for a Next Generation of the Reliable Server Pooling Framework´´ (TXT, 16 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-nextgen-ideas-23, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-nextgen-ideas-22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document collects some idea for a next generation of the Reliable Server Pooling framework.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-nextgen-ideas-23.txt

  MD5: 1d19e22e0f08b8e0b40b231c50bf61e4

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Tüxen, Michael: ``Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) Bakeoff Scoring´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-score-36, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-score-35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This memo describes some of the scoring to be used in the testing of Reliable Server Pooling protocols ASAP and ENRP at upcoming bakeoffs.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-score-36.txt

  MD5: 71d77867d1201e758b5ae9cd83f3505d

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Zhou, Xing: ``Takeover Suggestion Flag for the ENRP Handle Update Message´´ (TXT, 14 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-rserpool-enrp-takeover-33, IETF, Individual Submission, March 30, 2025, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-rserpool-enrp-takeover-32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes the Takeover Suggestion Flag for the ENRP_HANDLE_UPDATE message of the ENRP protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-rserpool-enrp-takeover-33.txt

  MD5: bdcd732cd5b76b8d142a0fc420741f7c

2023

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Coene, Lode and Conrad, Phillip T.: ``Reliable Server Pooling Applicability for IP Flow Information Exchange´´ (TXT, 16 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-coene-rserpool-applic-ipfix-20, IETF, Individual Submission, March 25, 2023, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-coene-rserpool-applic-ipfix-19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes the applicability of the Reliable Server Pooling architecture to the IP Flow Information Exchange using the Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP) functionality of RSerPool only. Data exchange in IPFIX between the router and the data collector can be provided by a limited retransmission protocol.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-coene-rserpool-applic-ipfix-20.txt

  MD5: 65ad43cb7053bce7af69f746b66a7409

2019

• Dreibholz, Thomas; Tüxen, Michael; Shore, Melinda and Zong, Ning: ``The Applicability of Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) for Virtual Network Function Resource Pooling (VNFPOOL)´´ (TXT, 35 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-dreibholz-vnfpool-rserpool-applic-09, IETF, Individual Submission, September 11, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-dreibholz-vnfpool-rserpool-applic-08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This draft describes the application of Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) for Virtual Network Function Resource Pooling (VNFPOOL).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-dreibholz-vnfpool-rserpool-applic-09.txt

  MD5: 0bb6e37a9e2bdfc8ef26944f8871b28b

2009

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Mulik, Jaiwant: ``Reliable Server Pooling MIB Module Definition´´ (TXT, 84 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5525, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5525, ISSN 2070-1721, April 22, 2009, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-mib-12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-mulik-rserpool-mib-00.

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is a framework to provide reliable server pooling. The RSerPool framework consists of two protocols: ASAP (Aggregate Server Access Protocol) and ENRP (Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol). This document defines an SMIv2-compliant (Structure of Management Information Version 2) Management Information Base (MIB) module providing access to managed objects in an RSerPool implementation. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5525.txt

  MD5: 0a97f3889ba2b726d4e738e9c4c77ee6

2008

• Stewart, Randall R.; Xie, Qiaobing; Stillman, Maureen and Tüxen, Michael: ``Aggregate Server Access Protcol (ASAP)´´ (TXT, 116 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5352, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5352, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-asap-21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-xie-rserpool-asap-01, 00.

  Abstract: Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP, RFC 5352), in conjunction with the Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP, RFC 5353), provides a high-availability data transfer mechanism over IP networks. ASAP uses a handle-based addressing model that isolates a logical communication endpoint from its IP address(es), thus effectively eliminating the binding between the communication endpoint and its physical IP address(es), which normally constitutes a single point of failure.
  In addition, ASAP defines each logical communication destination as a pool, providing full transparent support for server pooling and load sharing. It also allows dynamic system scalability – members of a server pool can be added or removed at any time without interrupting the service.
  ASAP is designed to take full advantage of the network level redundancy provided by the Stream Transmission Control Protocol (SCTP, RFC 4960). Each transport protocol, other than SCTP, MUST have an accompanying transport mapping document. It should be noted that ASAP messages passed between Pool Elements (PEs) and ENRP servers MUST use the SCTP transport protocol.
  The high-availability server pooling is gained by combining two protocols, namely ASAP and ENRP, in which ASAP provides the user interface for Pool Handle to address translation, load sharing management, and fault management, while ENRP defines the high- availability Pool Handle translation service. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5352.txt

  MD5: 0e0bdb9ae5d2dda80f4d26a647a711ad

• Stewart, Randall R.; Xie, Qiaobing; Stillman, Maureen and Tüxen, Michael: ``Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP) and Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) Parameters´´ (TXT, 50 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5354, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5354, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-common-param-18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document details the parameters of the Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP) and Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) defined within the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) architecture. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5354.txt

  MD5: eba7648c6885600e5396de7a50da6e82

• Lei, Peter; Ong, Lyndon; Tüxen, Michael and Dreibholz, Thomas: ``An Overview of Reliable Server Pooling Protocols´´ (TXT, 33 KiB, 🇬🇧), Informational RFC 5351, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5351, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-overview-06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling effort (abbreviated "RSerPool") provides an application-independent set of services and protocols for building fault-tolerant and highly available client/server applications. This document provides an overview of the protocols and mechanisms in the Reliable Server Pooling suite. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5351.txt

  MD5: ef2740924a7fd7e776672161b88ab7fa

• Xie, Qiaobing; Stewart, Randall R.; Stillman, Maureen; Tüxen, Michael and Silverton, Aron J.: ``Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP)´´ (TXT, 82 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5353, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5353, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-enrp-21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-xie-rserpool-enrp-01, 00.

  Abstract: The Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) is designed to work in conjunction with the Aggregate Server Access Protocol (ASAP) to accomplish the functionality of the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) requirements and architecture. Within the operational scope of RSerPool, ENRP defines the procedures and message formats of a distributed, fault-tolerant registry service for storing, bookkeeping, retrieving, and distributing pool operation and membership information. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5353.txt

  MD5: 72c92bd4050e9e26fa97abeeebafd3e4

• Dreibholz, Thomas and Tüxen, Michael: ``Reliable Server Pooling Policies´´ (TXT, 33 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5356, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5356, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-policies-10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-tuexen-rserpool-policies-00.

  Abstract: This document describes server pool policies for Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) including considerations for implementing them at Endpoint Handlespace Redundancy Protocol (ENRP) servers and pool users. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5356.txt

  MD5: b3865e8c10685a43bd16cc90ecf4df29

• Stillman, Maureen; Gopal, Ram; Guttman, Erik; Holdrege, Matt and Sengodan, Senthil: ``Threats Introduced by RSerPool and Requirements for Security´´ (TXT, 38 KiB, 🇬🇧), RFC 5355, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC5355, ISSN 2070-1721, September 30, 2008, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-threats-13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-stillman-rserpool-threats-02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) is an architecture and set of protocols for the management and access to server pools supporting highly reliable applications and for client access mechanisms to a server pool. This document describes security threats to the RSerPool architecture and presents requirements for security to thwart these threats. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5355.txt

  MD5: e7a6fa1d9b8690b3113eab649ed4eaed

2006

• Loughney, John; Silverton, Aron J.; Stillman, Maureen; Xie, Qiaobing and Stewart, Randall R.: ``Comparison of Protocols for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 55 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-comp-11, IETF, November 16, 2006, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-comp-10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document compares protocols that may be applicable for the Reliable Server Pooling problem space. This document discusses the usage and applicability of these protocols for the Reliable Server Pooling architecture.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-comp-11.txt

  MD5: d77b871d9a10e1bd3efbdf29f848e3b4

• Tüxen, Michael; Xie, Qiaobing; Stewart, Randall R.; Shore, Melinda; Loughney, John and Silverton, Aron J.: ``Architecture for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 58 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-arch-12, IETF, November 14, 2006, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-arch-11, 10, 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes an architecture and protocols for the management and operation of server pools supporting highly reliable applications, and for client access mechanisms to a server pool.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-arch-12.txt

  MD5: e6aed2ee44f62d9751245c0318854a77

2005

• Silverton, Aron J.; Xie, Qiaobing; Tüxen, Michael and Dreibholz, Thomas: ``Reliable Server Pooling Sockets API Extensions´´ (TXT, 19 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-api-00, IETF, October 17, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-silverton-rserpool-api-01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes a sockets-like API for the Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) protocol suite. This API provides applications within an RSerPool enabled system with a reliable communications layer via a highly-available socket interface (rsp_socket).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-api-00.txt

  MD5: d9fb76046a89ae415ba233da5a220903

• Conrad, Phillip T. and Lei, Peter: ``Services Provided By Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 39 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-service-02, IETF, October 6, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-conrad-rserpool-service-03, 02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: The Reliable Server Pooling architecture (abbreviated "RSerPool", and defined in [3]), provides a set of services and protocols for building fault tolerant and highly available client/server applications. This memo describes the semantics of the services that RSerPool provides to upper layer protocols.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-service-02.txt

  MD5: da1a37baab6a3034e503d2751a39ac15

• Lei, Peter and Conrad, Phillip T.: ``TCP Mapping for Reliable Server Pooling Enhanced Mode´´ (TXT, 39 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-tcpmapping-03, IETF, October 6, 2005, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-conrad-rserpool-tcpmapping-01, 00.

  Abstract: This memo defines the shim protocol that maps the requirements of the ASAP protocol [5] to the capabilities of the TCP protocol [3]. In particular, this shim protocol adds the following capabilties that are required by ASAP, but not provided by TCP: (1) message orientation, (2) heartbeat messages, (3) multiple streams, and (4) undelivered message retrieval (if provided).

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-tcpmapping-03.txt

  MD5: d7e567330f6944b87e22100373481995

2004

• Xie, Qiaobing: ``RSerPool Redundancy-model Policy´´ (TXT, 18 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-xie-rserpool-redundancy-model-03, IETF, Individual Submission, November 8, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-xie-rserpool-redundancy-model-02, 01, 00.

  Abstract: This document defines RSERPOOL Redundancy-model Member Selection Policy parameter and the related procedures. This policy is designed to be flexible and capable of supporting a wide range of advanced redundancy models found in some high availability systems. The design uses the extensibility in RSERPOOL pool load sharing policy.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-xie-rserpool-redundancy-model-03.txt

  MD5: a4d778450a680c54e3a77024f102bb71

• Coene, Lode; Conrad, Phillip T. and Lei, Peter: ``Reliable Server Pool Applicability Statement´´ (TXT, 28 KiB, 🇬🇧), Internet Draft draft-ietf-rserpool-applic-02, IETF, July 18, 2004, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-coene-rserpool-applic-01, 00.

  Abstract: This document describes the applicability of the reliable server pool architecture and protocols to applications which want to have High avialebility services. This is accomplished by using redundant servers and failover between servers of the same pool in case of server failure. Processing load in a pool may de distributed/shared between the members of the pool according to a certain policy. Also some guidance is given on the choice of underlying transport protocol (and corresponding transport protocol mapping) for transporting application data and Rserpool specific control data.

  URL: https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-rserpool-applic-02.txt

  MD5: f88b529df260abab9f63364880c44e94

2002

• Tüxen, Michael; Xie, Qiaobing; Stewart, Randall R.; Shore, Melinda; Ong, Lyndon; Loughney, John A. and Stillman, Maureen: ``Requirements for Reliable Server Pooling´´ (TXT, 17 KiB, 🇬🇧), Informational RFC 3237, IETF, DOI 10.17487/RFC3237, ISSN 2070-1721, January 2002, [BibTeX, XML].
  Previous versions: draft-ietf-rserpool-reqts-02, 01, 00.
  Historic versions: draft-tuexen-rserpool-reqts-01, 00.

  Abstract: This document defines a basic set of requirements for reliable server pooling. This memo provides information for the Internet community.

  URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3237.txt

  MD5: f95d2fdfe28590dbf1b5967747b7d7ca

If something is missing, see the Internet Draft archive at Watersprings.org. Please also contact me in case of missing or dead links.

🔗 Useful Links

RSerPool Introductions on Wikipedia in Different Languages

• 🇧🇦 Bosnian (thanks to Nihad Cosić)
• 🇨🇳 Chinese (thanks to Xing Zhou)
• 🇭🇷 Croatian (thanks to Nihad Cosić)
• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇫🇷 French
• 🇩🇪 German (thanks to Jobin Pulinthanath)
• 🇮🇹 Italian
• 🇳🇴 Norwegian (bokmål)

What about helping Wikipedia by adding an article in your language?

Networking and System Management Software

• Thomas Dreibholz’s Reliable Server Pooling (RSerPool) Page
• NetPerfMeter – A TCP/MPTCP/UDP/SCTP/DCCP Network Performance Meter Tool
• HiPerConTracer – High-Performance Connectivity Tracer
• TSCTP – An SCTP test tool
• sctplib and socketapi – The User-Space SCTP Library (sctplib) and Socket API Library (socketapi)
• SubNetCalc – An IPv4/IPv6 Subnet Calculator
• System-Tools – Tools for Basic System Management
• Wireshark

Simulation and Data Processing Software

• OMNeT++ Discrete Event Simulator
• The R Project for Statistical Computing

Other Resources

• Thomas Dreibholz’s SCTP Page
• Thomas Dreibholz’s Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) Page
• Michael Tüxen’s SCTP page
• Michael Tüxen’s RSerPool page
• NorNet – A Real-World, Large-Scale Multi-Homing Testbed
• GAIA – Cyber Sovereignty