Development of Adaptive and Reflective Middleware

Overview

The document is a final technical report on the DARPA Adaptive and Reflective Middleware Systems (ARMS) Program, specifically detailing Phase II of the initiative. Conducted by Telcordia Technologies, the report outlines advancements in adaptive and reflective network Quality of Service (QoS) technologies aimed at enhancing mission-critical applications, particularly in military environments.

In Phase I, the groundwork was laid for an adaptive QoS technology utilizing a Bandwidth Broker. This system provides admission control and enforcement through Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and Class of Service (CoS) functionalities, enabling the network to adapt to varying mission requirements and workloads. The Bandwidth Broker employs discovery algorithms to maintain an updated view of resource availability and uses traffic probes to monitor the needs of high-priority flows.

Phase II builds upon these foundations, focusing on ensuring continued network QoS even in the presence of faults, such as the loss of a data center. Key objectives include improving the timely adaptation to network performance through enhanced monitoring of delay, jitter, and available bandwidth, as well as increasing flexibility in delay guarantees by incorporating deadline support in flow admission decisions.

The report highlights several software deliverables, including a Network Performance Monitor for measuring latency with micro-second accuracy and a Network Fault Monitor designed to detect and restore QoS during network faults. Additionally, a fault-tolerant implementation of the Bandwidth Broker and Flow Provisioner is discussed, utilizing MySQL Cluster technology, which requires further enhancement for hostile military environments.

The document emphasizes that while DiffServ and CoS features are essential, they alone are insufficient for guaranteeing end-to-end network QoS. The traffic presented to the network must align with its capacity to ensure effective performance.

Overall, the report illustrates the collaborative efforts of various program participants to push middleware technologies beyond current commercial capabilities, aiming to create a more adaptive and resilient network infrastructure suitable for dynamic military applications. The findings and methodologies discussed are intended to inform future developments in network QoS assurance and resource management.