View article

In this paper, we present a proposal for supporting lots of unicast multiplexed sessions (SLUMS). We take the position that TCP provides a good basis for SLUMS. Applications are given the flexibility to open as many TCP connections as they wish. Each connection provides an ordered byte-stream abstraction independent of the others, so by mapping application data units (ADUs) onto the connections appropriately, applications can implement various flavors of application-level framing (ALF). We discuss the performance challenges that arise, and propose solutions drawn both from our previous work and that of others.