OpParIm: A method and tool for optimized parallel protocol implementation

Abstract

We are introducing and discussing a method for the optimized and parallel implementation of protocols as well as a tool OPPARIM to apply the method automatically to the specification of a protocol. We present a study case representing an IP/TCP/FTP protocol stack specified in SDL. We show how OPPARIM generates dependence graphs from the specification and how it manipulates these graphs to allow for an optimised and possibly parallelised implementation. We then present a hardware architecture on which the protocol stack could be implemented and show the effects of our optimizations on the processing time of an incoming packet. Using two processing elements the optimised implementation executes in less than half the time of what we call a “faithful” implementation.