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  1. .HTML "The Organization of Networks in Plan 9
  2. .TL
  3. The Organization of Networks in Plan 9
  4. .AU
  5. Dave Presotto
  6. Phil Winterbottom
  7. .sp
  8. presotto,philw@plan9.bell-labs.com
  9. .AB
  10. .FS
  11. Originally appeared in
  12. .I
  13. Proc. of the Winter 1993 USENIX Conf.,
  14. .R
  15. pp. 271-280,
  16. San Diego, CA
  17. .FE
  18. In a distributed system networks are of paramount importance. This
  19. paper describes the implementation, design philosophy, and organization
  20. of network support in Plan 9. Topics include network requirements
  21. for distributed systems, our kernel implementation, network naming, user interfaces,
  22. and performance. We also observe that much of this organization is relevant to
  23. current systems.
  24. .AE
  25. .NH
  26. Introduction
  27. .PP
  28. Plan 9 [Pike90] is a general-purpose, multi-user, portable distributed system
  29. implemented on a variety of computers and networks.
  30. What distinguishes Plan 9 is its organization.
  31. The goals of this organization were to
  32. reduce administration
  33. and to promote resource sharing. One of the keys to its success as a distributed
  34. system is the organization and management of its networks.
  35. .PP
  36. A Plan 9 system comprises file servers, CPU servers and terminals.
  37. The file servers and CPU servers are typically centrally
  38. located multiprocessor machines with large memories and
  39. high speed interconnects.
  40. A variety of workstation-class machines
  41. serve as terminals
  42. connected to the central servers using several networks and protocols.
  43. The architecture of the system demands a hierarchy of network
  44. speeds matching the needs of the components.
  45. Connections between file servers and CPU servers are high-bandwidth point-to-point
  46. fiber links.
  47. Connections from the servers fan out to local terminals
  48. using medium speed networks
  49. such as Ethernet [Met80] and Datakit [Fra80].
  50. Low speed connections via the Internet and
  51. the AT&T backbone serve users in Oregon and Illinois.
  52. Basic Rate ISDN data service and 9600 baud serial lines provide slow
  53. links to users at home.
  54. .PP
  55. Since CPU servers and terminals use the same kernel,
  56. users may choose to run programs locally on
  57. their terminals or remotely on CPU servers.
  58. The organization of Plan 9 hides the details of system connectivity
  59. allowing both users and administrators to configure their environment
  60. to be as distributed or centralized as they wish.
  61. Simple commands support the
  62. construction of a locally represented name space
  63. spanning many machines and networks.
  64. At work, users tend to use their terminals like workstations,
  65. running interactive programs locally and
  66. reserving the CPU servers for data or compute intensive jobs
  67. such as compiling and computing chess endgames.
  68. At home or when connected over
  69. a slow network, users tend to do most work on the CPU server to minimize
  70. traffic on the slow links.
  71. The goal of the network organization is to provide the same
  72. environment to the user wherever resources are used.
  73. .NH
  74. Kernel Network Support
  75. .PP
  76. Networks play a central role in any distributed system. This is particularly
  77. true in Plan 9 where most resources are provided by servers external to the kernel.
  78. The importance of the networking code within the kernel
  79. is reflected by its size;
  80. of 25,000 lines of kernel code, 12,500 are network and protocol related.
  81. Networks are continually being added and the fraction of code
  82. devoted to communications
  83. is growing.
  84. Moreover, the network code is complex.
  85. Protocol implementations consist almost entirely of
  86. synchronization and dynamic memory management, areas demanding
  87. subtle error recovery
  88. strategies.
  89. The kernel currently supports Datakit, point-to-point fiber links,
  90. an Internet (IP) protocol suite and ISDN data service.
  91. The variety of networks and machines
  92. has raised issues not addressed by other systems running on commercial
  93. hardware supporting only Ethernet or FDDI.
  94. .NH 2
  95. The File System protocol
  96. .PP
  97. A central idea in Plan 9 is the representation of a resource as a hierarchical
  98. file system.
  99. Each process assembles a view of the system by building a
  100. .I "name space
  101. [Needham] connecting its resources.
  102. File systems need not represent disc files; in fact, most Plan 9 file systems have no
  103. permanent storage.
  104. A typical file system dynamically represents
  105. some resource like a set of network connections or the process table.
  106. Communication between the kernel, device drivers, and local or remote file servers uses a
  107. protocol called 9P. The protocol consists of 17 messages
  108. describing operations on files and directories.
  109. Kernel resident device and protocol drivers use a procedural version
  110. of the protocol while external file servers use an RPC form.
  111. Nearly all traffic between Plan 9 systems consists
  112. of 9P messages.
  113. 9P relies on several properties of the underlying transport protocol.
  114. It assumes messages arrive reliably and in sequence and
  115. that delimiters between messages
  116. are preserved.
  117. When a protocol does not meet these
  118. requirements (for example, TCP does not preserve delimiters)
  119. we provide mechanisms to marshal messages before handing them
  120. to the system.
  121. .PP
  122. A kernel data structure, the
  123. .I channel ,
  124. is a handle to a file server.
  125. Operations on a channel generate the following 9P messages.
  126. The
  127. .CW session
  128. and
  129. .CW attach
  130. messages authenticate a connection, established by means external to 9P,
  131. and validate its user.
  132. The result is an authenticated
  133. channel
  134. referencing the root of the
  135. server.
  136. The
  137. .CW clone
  138. message makes a new channel identical to an existing channel, much like
  139. the
  140. .CW dup
  141. system call.
  142. A
  143. channel
  144. may be moved to a file on the server using a
  145. .CW walk
  146. message to descend each level in the hierarchy.
  147. The
  148. .CW stat
  149. and
  150. .CW wstat
  151. messages read and write the attributes of the file referenced by a channel.
  152. The
  153. .CW open
  154. message prepares a channel for subsequent
  155. .CW read
  156. and
  157. .CW write
  158. messages to access the contents of the file.
  159. .CW Create
  160. and
  161. .CW remove
  162. perform the actions implied by their names on the file
  163. referenced by the channel.
  164. The
  165. .CW clunk
  166. message discards a channel without affecting the file.
  167. .PP
  168. A kernel resident file server called the
  169. .I "mount driver"
  170. converts the procedural version of 9P into RPCs.
  171. The
  172. .I mount
  173. system call provides a file descriptor, which can be
  174. a pipe to a user process or a network connection to a remote machine, to
  175. be associated with the mount point.
  176. After a mount, operations
  177. on the file tree below the mount point are sent as messages to the file server.
  178. The
  179. mount
  180. driver manages buffers, packs and unpacks parameters from
  181. messages, and demultiplexes among processes using the file server.
  182. .NH 2
  183. Kernel Organization
  184. .PP
  185. The network code in the kernel is divided into three layers: hardware interface,
  186. protocol processing, and program interface.
  187. A device driver typically uses streams to connect the two interface layers.
  188. Additional stream modules may be pushed on
  189. a device to process protocols.
  190. Each device driver is a kernel-resident file system.
  191. Simple device drivers serve a single level
  192. directory containing just a few files;
  193. for example, we represent each UART
  194. by a data and a control file.
  195. .P1
  196. cpu% cd /dev
  197. cpu% ls -l eia*
  198. --rw-rw-rw- t 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 16 17:28 eia1
  199. --rw-rw-rw- t 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 16 17:28 eia1ctl
  200. --rw-rw-rw- t 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 16 17:28 eia2
  201. --rw-rw-rw- t 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 16 17:28 eia2ctl
  202. cpu%
  203. .P2
  204. The control file is used to control the device;
  205. writing the string
  206. .CW b1200
  207. to
  208. .CW /dev/eia1ctl
  209. sets the line to 1200 baud.
  210. .PP
  211. Multiplexed devices present
  212. a more complex interface structure.
  213. For example, the LANCE Ethernet driver
  214. serves a two level file tree (Figure 1)
  215. providing
  216. .IP \(bu
  217. device control and configuration
  218. .IP \(bu
  219. user-level protocols like ARP
  220. .IP \(bu
  221. diagnostic interfaces for snooping software.
  222. .LP
  223. The top directory contains a
  224. .CW clone
  225. file and a directory for each connection, numbered
  226. .CW 1
  227. to
  228. .CW n .
  229. Each connection directory corresponds to an Ethernet packet type.
  230. Opening the
  231. .CW clone
  232. file finds an unused connection directory
  233. and opens its
  234. .CW ctl
  235. file.
  236. Reading the control file returns the ASCII connection number; the user
  237. process can use this value to construct the name of the proper
  238. connection directory.
  239. In each connection directory files named
  240. .CW ctl ,
  241. .CW data ,
  242. .CW stats ,
  243. and
  244. .CW type
  245. provide access to the connection.
  246. Writing the string
  247. .CW "connect 2048"
  248. to the
  249. .CW ctl
  250. file sets the packet type to 2048
  251. and
  252. configures the connection to receive
  253. all IP packets sent to the machine.
  254. Subsequent reads of the file
  255. .CW type
  256. yield the string
  257. .CW 2048 .
  258. The
  259. .CW data
  260. file accesses the media;
  261. reading it
  262. returns the
  263. next packet of the selected type.
  264. Writing the file
  265. queues a packet for transmission after
  266. appending a packet header containing the source address and packet type.
  267. The
  268. .CW stats
  269. file returns ASCII text containing the interface address,
  270. packet input/output counts, error statistics, and general information
  271. about the state of the interface.
  272. .so tree.pout
  273. .PP
  274. If several connections on an interface
  275. are configured for a particular packet type, each receives a
  276. copy of the incoming packets.
  277. The special packet type
  278. .CW -1
  279. selects all packets.
  280. Writing the strings
  281. .CW promiscuous
  282. and
  283. .CW connect
  284. .CW -1
  285. to the
  286. .CW ctl
  287. file
  288. configures a conversation to receive all packets on the Ethernet.
  289. .PP
  290. Although the driver interface may seem elaborate,
  291. the representation of a device as a set of files using ASCII strings for
  292. communication has several advantages.
  293. Any mechanism supporting remote access to files immediately
  294. allows a remote machine to use our interfaces as gateways.
  295. Using ASCII strings to control the interface avoids byte order problems and
  296. ensures a uniform representation for
  297. devices on the same machine and even allows devices to be accessed remotely.
  298. Representing dissimilar devices by the same set of files allows common tools
  299. to serve
  300. several networks or interfaces.
  301. Programs like
  302. .CW stty
  303. are replaced by
  304. .CW echo
  305. and shell redirection.
  306. .NH 2
  307. Protocol devices
  308. .PP
  309. Network connections are represented as pseudo-devices called protocol devices.
  310. Protocol device drivers exist for the Datakit URP protocol and for each of the
  311. Internet IP protocols TCP, UDP, and IL.
  312. IL, described below, is a new communication protocol used by Plan 9 for
  313. transmitting file system RPC's.
  314. All protocol devices look identical so user programs contain no
  315. network-specific code.
  316. .PP
  317. Each protocol device driver serves a directory structure
  318. similar to that of the Ethernet driver.
  319. The top directory contains a
  320. .CW clone
  321. file and a directory for each connection numbered
  322. .CW 0
  323. to
  324. .CW n .
  325. Each connection directory contains files to control one
  326. connection and to send and receive information.
  327. A TCP connection directory looks like this:
  328. .P1
  329. cpu% cd /net/tcp/2
  330. cpu% ls -l
  331. --rw-rw---- I 0 ehg bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 ctl
  332. --rw-rw---- I 0 ehg bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 data
  333. --rw-rw---- I 0 ehg bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 listen
  334. --r--r--r-- I 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 local
  335. --r--r--r-- I 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 remote
  336. --r--r--r-- I 0 bootes bootes 0 Jul 13 21:14 status
  337. cpu% cat local remote status
  338. 135.104.9.31 5012
  339. 135.104.53.11 564
  340. tcp/2 1 Established connect
  341. cpu%
  342. .P2
  343. The files
  344. .CW local ,
  345. .CW remote ,
  346. and
  347. .CW status
  348. supply information about the state of the connection.
  349. The
  350. .CW data
  351. and
  352. .CW ctl
  353. files
  354. provide access to the process end of the stream implementing the protocol.
  355. The
  356. .CW listen
  357. file is used to accept incoming calls from the network.
  358. .PP
  359. The following steps establish a connection.
  360. .IP 1)
  361. The clone device of the
  362. appropriate protocol directory is opened to reserve an unused connection.
  363. .IP 2)
  364. The file descriptor returned by the open points to the
  365. .CW ctl
  366. file of the new connection.
  367. Reading that file descriptor returns an ASCII string containing
  368. the connection number.
  369. .IP 3)
  370. A protocol/network specific ASCII address string is written to the
  371. .CW ctl
  372. file.
  373. .IP 4)
  374. The path of the
  375. .CW data
  376. file is constructed using the connection number.
  377. When the
  378. .CW data
  379. file is opened the connection is established.
  380. .LP
  381. A process can read and write this file descriptor
  382. to send and receive messages from the network.
  383. If the process opens the
  384. .CW listen
  385. file it blocks until an incoming call is received.
  386. An address string written to the
  387. .CW ctl
  388. file before the listen selects the
  389. ports or services the process is prepared to accept.
  390. When an incoming call is received, the open completes
  391. and returns a file descriptor
  392. pointing to the
  393. .CW ctl
  394. file of the new connection.
  395. Reading the
  396. .CW ctl
  397. file yields a connection number used to construct the path of the
  398. .CW data
  399. file.
  400. A connection remains established while any of the files in the connection directory
  401. are referenced or until a close is received from the network.
  402. .NH 2
  403. Streams
  404. .PP
  405. A
  406. .I stream
  407. [Rit84a][Presotto] is a bidirectional channel connecting a
  408. physical or pseudo-device to user processes.
  409. The user processes insert and remove data at one end of the stream.
  410. Kernel processes acting on behalf of a device insert data at
  411. the other end.
  412. Asynchronous communications channels such as pipes,
  413. TCP conversations, Datakit conversations, and RS232 lines are implemented using
  414. streams.
  415. .PP
  416. A stream comprises a linear list of
  417. .I "processing modules" .
  418. Each module has both an upstream (toward the process) and
  419. downstream (toward the device)
  420. .I "put routine" .
  421. Calling the put routine of the module on either end of the stream
  422. inserts data into the stream.
  423. Each module calls the succeeding one to send data up or down the stream.
  424. .PP
  425. An instance of a processing module is represented by a pair of
  426. .I queues ,
  427. one for each direction.
  428. The queues point to the put procedures and can be used
  429. to queue information traveling along the stream.
  430. Some put routines queue data locally and send it along the stream at some
  431. later time, either due to a subsequent call or an asynchronous
  432. event such as a retransmission timer or a device interrupt.
  433. Processing modules create helper kernel processes to
  434. provide a context for handling asynchronous events.
  435. For example, a helper kernel process awakens periodically
  436. to perform any necessary TCP retransmissions.
  437. The use of kernel processes instead of serialized run-to-completion service routines
  438. differs from the implementation of Unix streams.
  439. Unix service routines cannot
  440. use any blocking kernel resource and they lack a local long-lived state.
  441. Helper kernel processes solve these problems and simplify the stream code.
  442. .PP
  443. There is no implicit synchronization in our streams.
  444. Each processing module must ensure that concurrent processes using the stream
  445. are synchronized.
  446. This maximizes concurrency but introduces the
  447. possibility of deadlock.
  448. However, deadlocks are easily avoided by careful programming; to
  449. date they have not caused us problems.
  450. .PP
  451. Information is represented by linked lists of kernel structures called
  452. .I blocks .
  453. Each block contains a type, some state flags, and pointers to
  454. an optional buffer.
  455. Block buffers can hold either data or control information, i.e., directives
  456. to the processing modules.
  457. Blocks and block buffers are dynamically allocated from kernel memory.
  458. .NH 3
  459. User Interface
  460. .PP
  461. A stream is represented at user level as two files,
  462. .CW ctl
  463. and
  464. .CW data .
  465. The actual names can be changed by the device driver using the stream,
  466. as we saw earlier in the example of the UART driver.
  467. The first process to open either file creates the stream automatically.
  468. The last close destroys it.
  469. Writing to the
  470. .CW data
  471. file copies the data into kernel blocks
  472. and passes them to the downstream put routine of the first processing module.
  473. A write of less than 32K is guaranteed to be contained by a single block.
  474. Concurrent writes to the same stream are not synchronized, although the
  475. 32K block size assures atomic writes for most protocols.
  476. The last block written is flagged with a delimiter
  477. to alert downstream modules that care about write boundaries.
  478. In most cases the first put routine calls the second, the second
  479. calls the third, and so on until the data is output.
  480. As a consequence, most data is output without context switching.
  481. .PP
  482. Reading from the
  483. .CW data
  484. file returns data queued at the top of the stream.
  485. The read terminates when the read count is reached
  486. or when the end of a delimited block is encountered.
  487. A per stream read lock ensures only one process
  488. can read from a stream at a time and guarantees
  489. that the bytes read were contiguous bytes from the
  490. stream.
  491. .PP
  492. Like UNIX streams [Rit84a],
  493. Plan 9 streams can be dynamically configured.
  494. The stream system intercepts and interprets
  495. the following control blocks:
  496. .IP "\f(CWpush\fP \fIname\fR" 15
  497. adds an instance of the processing module
  498. .I name
  499. to the top of the stream.
  500. .IP \f(CWpop\fP 15
  501. removes the top module of the stream.
  502. .IP \f(CWhangup\fP 15
  503. sends a hangup message
  504. up the stream from the device end.
  505. .LP
  506. Other control blocks are module-specific and are interpreted by each
  507. processing module
  508. as they pass.
  509. .PP
  510. The convoluted syntax and semantics of the UNIX
  511. .CW ioctl
  512. system call convinced us to leave it out of Plan 9.
  513. Instead,
  514. .CW ioctl
  515. is replaced by the
  516. .CW ctl
  517. file.
  518. Writing to the
  519. .CW ctl
  520. file
  521. is identical to writing to a
  522. .CW data
  523. file except the blocks are of type
  524. .I control .
  525. A processing module parses each control block it sees.
  526. Commands in control blocks are ASCII strings, so
  527. byte ordering is not an issue when one system
  528. controls streams in a name space implemented on another processor.
  529. The time to parse control blocks is not important, since control
  530. operations are rare.
  531. .NH 3
  532. Device Interface
  533. .PP
  534. The module at the downstream end of the stream is part of a device interface.
  535. The particulars of the interface vary with the device.
  536. Most device interfaces consist of an interrupt routine, an output
  537. put routine, and a kernel process.
  538. The output put routine stages data for the
  539. device and starts the device if it is stopped.
  540. The interrupt routine wakes up the kernel process whenever
  541. the device has input to be processed or needs more output staged.
  542. The kernel process puts information up the stream or stages more data for output.
  543. The division of labor among the different pieces varies depending on
  544. how much must be done at interrupt level.
  545. However, the interrupt routine may not allocate blocks or call
  546. a put routine since both actions require a process context.
  547. .NH 3
  548. Multiplexing
  549. .PP
  550. The conversations using a protocol device must be
  551. multiplexed onto a single physical wire.
  552. We push a multiplexer processing module
  553. onto the physical device stream to group the conversations.
  554. The device end modules on the conversations add the necessary header
  555. onto downstream messages and then put them to the module downstream
  556. of the multiplexer.
  557. The multiplexing module looks at each message moving up its stream and
  558. puts it to the correct conversation stream after stripping
  559. the header controlling the demultiplexing.
  560. .PP
  561. This is similar to the Unix implementation of multiplexer streams.
  562. The major difference is that we have no general structure that
  563. corresponds to a multiplexer.
  564. Each attempt to produce a generalized multiplexer created a more complicated
  565. structure and underlined the basic difficulty of generalizing this mechanism.
  566. We now code each multiplexer from scratch and favor simplicity over
  567. generality.
  568. .NH 3
  569. Reflections
  570. .PP
  571. Despite five year's experience and the efforts of many programmers,
  572. we remain dissatisfied with the stream mechanism.
  573. Performance is not an issue;
  574. the time to process protocols and drive
  575. device interfaces continues to dwarf the
  576. time spent allocating, freeing, and moving blocks
  577. of data.
  578. However the mechanism remains inordinately
  579. complex.
  580. Much of the complexity results from our efforts
  581. to make streams dynamically configurable, to
  582. reuse processing modules on different devices
  583. and to provide kernel synchronization
  584. to ensure data structures
  585. don't disappear under foot.
  586. This is particularly irritating since we seldom use these properties.
  587. .PP
  588. Streams remain in our kernel because we are unable to
  589. devise a better alternative.
  590. Larry Peterson's X-kernel [Pet89a]
  591. is the closest contender but
  592. doesn't offer enough advantage to switch.
  593. If we were to rewrite the streams code, we would probably statically
  594. allocate resources for a large fixed number of conversations and burn
  595. memory in favor of less complexity.
  596. .NH
  597. The IL Protocol
  598. .PP
  599. None of the standard IP protocols is suitable for transmission of
  600. 9P messages over an Ethernet or the Internet.
  601. TCP has a high overhead and does not preserve delimiters.
  602. UDP, while cheap, does not provide reliable sequenced delivery.
  603. Early versions of the system used a custom protocol that was
  604. efficient but unsatisfactory for internetwork transmission.
  605. When we implemented IP, TCP, and UDP we looked around for a suitable
  606. replacement with the following properties:
  607. .IP \(bu
  608. Reliable datagram service with sequenced delivery
  609. .IP \(bu
  610. Runs over IP
  611. .IP \(bu
  612. Low complexity, high performance
  613. .IP \(bu
  614. Adaptive timeouts
  615. .LP
  616. None met our needs so a new protocol was designed.
  617. IL is a lightweight protocol designed to be encapsulated by IP.
  618. It is a connection-based protocol
  619. providing reliable transmission of sequenced messages between machines.
  620. No provision is made for flow control since the protocol is designed to transport RPC
  621. messages between client and server.
  622. A small outstanding message window prevents too
  623. many incoming messages from being buffered;
  624. messages outside the window are discarded
  625. and must be retransmitted.
  626. Connection setup uses a two way handshake to generate
  627. initial sequence numbers at each end of the connection;
  628. subsequent data messages increment the
  629. sequence numbers allowing
  630. the receiver to resequence out of order messages.
  631. In contrast to other protocols, IL does not do blind retransmission.
  632. If a message is lost and a timeout occurs, a query message is sent.
  633. The query message is a small control message containing the current
  634. sequence numbers as seen by the sender.
  635. The receiver responds to a query by retransmitting missing messages.
  636. This allows the protocol to behave well in congested networks,
  637. where blind retransmission would cause further
  638. congestion.
  639. Like TCP, IL has adaptive timeouts.
  640. A round-trip timer is used
  641. to calculate acknowledge and retransmission times in terms of the network speed.
  642. This allows the protocol to perform well on both the Internet and on local Ethernets.
  643. .PP
  644. In keeping with the minimalist design of the rest of the kernel, IL is small.
  645. The entire protocol is 847 lines of code, compared to 2200 lines for TCP.
  646. IL is our protocol of choice.
  647. .NH
  648. Network Addressing
  649. .PP
  650. A uniform interface to protocols and devices is not sufficient to
  651. support the transparency we require.
  652. Since each network uses a different
  653. addressing scheme,
  654. the ASCII strings written to a control file have no common format.
  655. As a result, every tool must know the specifics of the networks it
  656. is capable of addressing.
  657. Moreover, since each machine supplies a subset
  658. of the available networks, each user must be aware of the networks supported
  659. by every terminal and server machine.
  660. This is obviously unacceptable.
  661. .PP
  662. Several possible solutions were considered and rejected; one deserves
  663. more discussion.
  664. We could have used a user-level file server
  665. to represent the network name space as a Plan 9 file tree.
  666. This global naming scheme has been implemented in other distributed systems.
  667. The file hierarchy provides paths to
  668. directories representing network domains.
  669. Each directory contains
  670. files representing the names of the machines in that domain;
  671. an example might be the path
  672. .CW /net/name/usa/edu/mit/ai .
  673. Each machine file contains information like the IP address of the machine.
  674. We rejected this representation for several reasons.
  675. First, it is hard to devise a hierarchy encompassing all representations
  676. of the various network addressing schemes in a uniform manner.
  677. Datakit and Ethernet address strings have nothing in common.
  678. Second, the address of a machine is
  679. often only a small part of the information required to connect to a service on
  680. the machine.
  681. For example, the IP protocols require symbolic service names to be mapped into
  682. numeric port numbers, some of which are privileged and hence special.
  683. Information of this sort is hard to represent in terms of file operations.
  684. Finally, the size and number of the networks being represented burdens users with
  685. an unacceptably large amount of information about the organization of the network
  686. and its connectivity.
  687. In this case the Plan 9 representation of a
  688. resource as a file is not appropriate.
  689. .PP
  690. If tools are to be network independent, a third-party server must resolve
  691. network names.
  692. A server on each machine, with local knowledge, can select the best network
  693. for any particular destination machine or service.
  694. Since the network devices present a common interface,
  695. the only operation which differs between networks is name resolution.
  696. A symbolic name must be translated to
  697. the path of the clone file of a protocol
  698. device and an ASCII address string to write to the
  699. .CW ctl
  700. file.
  701. A connection server (CS) provides this service.
  702. .NH 2
  703. Network Database
  704. .PP
  705. On most systems several
  706. files such as
  707. .CW /etc/hosts ,
  708. .CW /etc/networks ,
  709. .CW /etc/services ,
  710. .CW /etc/hosts.equiv ,
  711. .CW /etc/bootptab ,
  712. and
  713. .CW /etc/named.d
  714. hold network information.
  715. Much time and effort is spent
  716. administering these files and keeping
  717. them mutually consistent.
  718. Tools attempt to
  719. automatically derive one or more of the files from
  720. information in other files but maintenance continues to be
  721. difficult and error prone.
  722. .PP
  723. Since we were writing an entirely new system, we were free to
  724. try a simpler approach.
  725. One database on a shared server contains all the information
  726. needed for network administration.
  727. Two ASCII files comprise the main database:
  728. .CW /lib/ndb/local
  729. contains locally administered information and
  730. .CW /lib/ndb/global
  731. contains information imported from elsewhere.
  732. The files contain sets of attribute/value pairs of the form
  733. .I attr\f(CW=\fPvalue ,
  734. where
  735. .I attr
  736. and
  737. .I value
  738. are alphanumeric strings.
  739. Systems are described by multi-line entries;
  740. a header line at the left margin begins each entry followed by zero or more
  741. indented attribute/value pairs specifying
  742. names, addresses, properties, etc.
  743. For example, the entry for our CPU server
  744. specifies a domain name, an IP address, an Ethernet address,
  745. a Datakit address, a boot file, and supported protocols.
  746. .P1
  747. sys=helix
  748. dom=helix.research.bell-labs.com
  749. bootf=/mips/9power
  750. ip=135.104.9.31 ether=0800690222f0
  751. dk=nj/astro/helix
  752. proto=il flavor=9cpu
  753. .P2
  754. If several systems share entries such as
  755. network mask and gateway, we specify that information
  756. with the network or subnetwork instead of the system.
  757. The following entries define a Class B IP network and
  758. a few subnets derived from it.
  759. The entry for the network specifies the IP mask,
  760. file system, and authentication server for all systems
  761. on the network.
  762. Each subnetwork specifies its default IP gateway.
  763. .P1
  764. ipnet=mh-astro-net ip=135.104.0.0 ipmask=255.255.255.0
  765. fs=bootes.research.bell-labs.com
  766. auth=1127auth
  767. ipnet=unix-room ip=135.104.117.0
  768. ipgw=135.104.117.1
  769. ipnet=third-floor ip=135.104.51.0
  770. ipgw=135.104.51.1
  771. ipnet=fourth-floor ip=135.104.52.0
  772. ipgw=135.104.52.1
  773. .P2
  774. Database entries also define the mapping of service names
  775. to port numbers for TCP, UDP, and IL.
  776. .P1
  777. tcp=echo port=7
  778. tcp=discard port=9
  779. tcp=systat port=11
  780. tcp=daytime port=13
  781. .P2
  782. .PP
  783. All programs read the database directly so
  784. consistency problems are rare.
  785. However the database files can become large.
  786. Our global file, containing all information about
  787. both Datakit and Internet systems in AT&T, has 43,000
  788. lines.
  789. To speed searches, we build hash table files for each
  790. attribute we expect to search often.
  791. The hash file entries point to entries
  792. in the master files.
  793. Every hash file contains the modification time of its master
  794. file so we can avoid using an out-of-date hash table.
  795. Searches for attributes that aren't hashed or whose hash table
  796. is out-of-date still work, they just take longer.
  797. .NH 2
  798. Connection Server
  799. .PP
  800. On each system a user level connection server process, CS, translates
  801. symbolic names to addresses.
  802. CS uses information about available networks, the network database, and
  803. other servers (such as DNS) to translate names.
  804. CS is a file server serving a single file,
  805. .CW /net/cs .
  806. A client writes a symbolic name to
  807. .CW /net/cs
  808. then reads one line for each matching destination reachable
  809. from this system.
  810. The lines are of the form
  811. .I "filename message",
  812. where
  813. .I filename
  814. is the path of the clone file to open for a new connection and
  815. .I message
  816. is the string to write to it to make the connection.
  817. The following example illustrates this.
  818. .CW Ndb/csquery
  819. is a program that prompts for strings to write to
  820. .CW /net/cs
  821. and prints the replies.
  822. .P1
  823. % ndb/csquery
  824. > net!helix!9fs
  825. /net/il/clone 135.104.9.31!17008
  826. /net/dk/clone nj/astro/helix!9fs
  827. .P2
  828. .PP
  829. CS provides meta-name translation to perform complicated
  830. searches.
  831. The special network name
  832. .CW net
  833. selects any network in common between source and
  834. destination supporting the specified service.
  835. A host name of the form \f(CW$\fIattr\f1
  836. is the name of an attribute in the network database.
  837. The database search returns the value
  838. of the matching attribute/value pair
  839. most closely associated with the source host.
  840. Most closely associated is defined on a per network basis.
  841. For example, the symbolic name
  842. .CW tcp!$auth!rexauth
  843. causes CS to search for the
  844. .CW auth
  845. attribute in the database entry for the source system, then its
  846. subnetwork (if there is one) and then its network.
  847. .P1
  848. % ndb/csquery
  849. > net!$auth!rexauth
  850. /net/il/clone 135.104.9.34!17021
  851. /net/dk/clone nj/astro/p9auth!rexauth
  852. /net/il/clone 135.104.9.6!17021
  853. /net/dk/clone nj/astro/musca!rexauth
  854. .P2
  855. .PP
  856. Normally CS derives naming information from its database files.
  857. For domain names however, CS first consults another user level
  858. process, the domain name server (DNS).
  859. If no DNS is reachable, CS relies on its own tables.
  860. .PP
  861. Like CS, the domain name server is a user level process providing
  862. one file,
  863. .CW /net/dns .
  864. A client writes a request of the form
  865. .I "domain-name type" ,
  866. where
  867. .I type
  868. is a domain name service resource record type.
  869. DNS performs a recursive query through the
  870. Internet domain name system producing one line
  871. per resource record found. The client reads
  872. .CW /net/dns
  873. to retrieve the records.
  874. Like other domain name servers, DNS caches information
  875. learned from the network.
  876. DNS is implemented as a multi-process shared memory application
  877. with separate processes listening for network and local requests.
  878. .NH
  879. Library routines
  880. .PP
  881. The section on protocol devices described the details
  882. of making and receiving connections across a network.
  883. The dance is straightforward but tedious.
  884. Library routines are provided to relieve
  885. the programmer of the details.
  886. .NH 2
  887. Connecting
  888. .PP
  889. The
  890. .CW dial
  891. library call establishes a connection to a remote destination.
  892. It
  893. returns an open file descriptor for the
  894. .CW data
  895. file in the connection directory.
  896. .P1
  897. int dial(char *dest, char *local, char *dir, int *cfdp)
  898. .P2
  899. .IP \f(CWdest\fP 10
  900. is the symbolic name/address of the destination.
  901. .IP \f(CWlocal\fP 10
  902. is the local address.
  903. Since most networks do not support this, it is
  904. usually zero.
  905. .IP \f(CWdir\fP 10
  906. is a pointer to a buffer to hold the path name of the protocol directory
  907. representing this connection.
  908. .CW Dial
  909. fills this buffer if the pointer is non-zero.
  910. .IP \f(CWcfdp\fP 10
  911. is a pointer to a file descriptor for the
  912. .CW ctl
  913. file of the connection.
  914. If the pointer is non-zero,
  915. .CW dial
  916. opens the control file and tucks the file descriptor here.
  917. .LP
  918. Most programs call
  919. .CW dial
  920. with a destination name and all other arguments zero.
  921. .CW Dial
  922. uses CS to
  923. translate the symbolic name to all possible destination addresses
  924. and attempts to connect to each in turn until one works.
  925. Specifying the special name
  926. .CW net
  927. in the network portion of the destination
  928. allows CS to pick a network/protocol in common
  929. with the destination for which the requested service is valid.
  930. For example, assume the system
  931. .CW research.bell-labs.com
  932. has the Datakit address
  933. .CW nj/astro/research
  934. and IP addresses
  935. .CW 135.104.117.5
  936. and
  937. .CW 129.11.4.1 .
  938. The call
  939. .P1
  940. fd = dial("net!research.bell-labs.com!login", 0, 0, 0, 0);
  941. .P2
  942. tries in succession to connect to
  943. .CW nj/astro/research!login
  944. on the Datakit and both
  945. .CW 135.104.117.5!513
  946. and
  947. .CW 129.11.4.1!513
  948. across the Internet.
  949. .PP
  950. .CW Dial
  951. accepts addresses instead of symbolic names.
  952. For example, the destinations
  953. .CW tcp!135.104.117.5!513
  954. and
  955. .CW tcp!research.bell-labs.com!login
  956. are equivalent
  957. references to the same machine.
  958. .NH 2
  959. Listening
  960. .PP
  961. A program uses
  962. four routines to listen for incoming connections.
  963. It first
  964. .CW announce() s
  965. its intention to receive connections,
  966. then
  967. .CW listen() s
  968. for calls and finally
  969. .CW accept() s
  970. or
  971. .CW reject() s
  972. them.
  973. .CW Announce
  974. returns an open file descriptor for the
  975. .CW ctl
  976. file of a connection and fills
  977. .CW dir
  978. with the
  979. path of the protocol directory
  980. for the announcement.
  981. .P1
  982. int announce(char *addr, char *dir)
  983. .P2
  984. .CW Addr
  985. is the symbolic name/address announced;
  986. if it does not contain a service, the announcement is for
  987. all services not explicitly announced.
  988. Thus, one can easily write the equivalent of the
  989. .CW inetd
  990. program without
  991. having to announce each separate service.
  992. An announcement remains in force until the control file is
  993. closed.
  994. .LP
  995. .CW Listen
  996. returns an open file descriptor for the
  997. .CW ctl
  998. file and fills
  999. .CW ldir
  1000. with the path
  1001. of the protocol directory
  1002. for the received connection.
  1003. It is passed
  1004. .CW dir
  1005. from the announcement.
  1006. .P1
  1007. int listen(char *dir, char *ldir)
  1008. .P2
  1009. .LP
  1010. .CW Accept
  1011. and
  1012. .CW reject
  1013. are called with the control file descriptor and
  1014. .CW ldir
  1015. returned by
  1016. .CW listen.
  1017. Some networks such as Datakit accept a reason for a rejection;
  1018. networks such as IP ignore the third argument.
  1019. .P1
  1020. int accept(int ctl, char *ldir)
  1021. int reject(int ctl, char *ldir, char *reason)
  1022. .P2
  1023. .PP
  1024. The following code implements a typical TCP listener.
  1025. It announces itself, listens for connections, and forks a new
  1026. process for each.
  1027. The new process echoes data on the connection until the
  1028. remote end closes it.
  1029. The "*" in the symbolic name means the announcement is valid for
  1030. any addresses bound to the machine the program is run on.
  1031. .P1
  1032. .ta 8n 16n 24n 32n 40n 48n 56n 64n
  1033. int
  1034. echo_server(void)
  1035. {
  1036. int dfd, lcfd;
  1037. char adir[40], ldir[40];
  1038. int n;
  1039. char buf[256];
  1040. afd = announce("tcp!*!echo", adir);
  1041. if(afd < 0)
  1042. return -1;
  1043. for(;;){
  1044. /* listen for a call */
  1045. lcfd = listen(adir, ldir);
  1046. if(lcfd < 0)
  1047. return -1;
  1048. /* fork a process to echo */
  1049. switch(fork()){
  1050. case 0:
  1051. /* accept the call and open the data file */
  1052. dfd = accept(lcfd, ldir);
  1053. if(dfd < 0)
  1054. return -1;
  1055. /* echo until EOF */
  1056. while((n = read(dfd, buf, sizeof(buf))) > 0)
  1057. write(dfd, buf, n);
  1058. exits(0);
  1059. case -1:
  1060. perror("forking");
  1061. default:
  1062. close(lcfd);
  1063. break;
  1064. }
  1065. }
  1066. }
  1067. .P2
  1068. .NH
  1069. User Level
  1070. .PP
  1071. Communication between Plan 9 machines is done almost exclusively in
  1072. terms of 9P messages. Only the two services
  1073. .CW cpu
  1074. and
  1075. .CW exportfs
  1076. are used.
  1077. The
  1078. .CW cpu
  1079. service is analogous to
  1080. .CW rlogin .
  1081. However, rather than emulating a terminal session
  1082. across the network,
  1083. .CW cpu
  1084. creates a process on the remote machine whose name space is an analogue of the window
  1085. in which it was invoked.
  1086. .CW Exportfs
  1087. is a user level file server which allows a piece of name space to be
  1088. exported from machine to machine across a network. It is used by the
  1089. .CW cpu
  1090. command to serve the files in the terminal's name space when they are
  1091. accessed from the
  1092. cpu server.
  1093. .PP
  1094. By convention, the protocol and device driver file systems are mounted in a
  1095. directory called
  1096. .CW /net .
  1097. Although the per-process name space allows users to configure an
  1098. arbitrary view of the system, in practice their profiles build
  1099. a conventional name space.
  1100. .NH 2
  1101. Exportfs
  1102. .PP
  1103. .CW Exportfs
  1104. is invoked by an incoming network call.
  1105. The
  1106. .I listener
  1107. (the Plan 9 equivalent of
  1108. .CW inetd )
  1109. runs the profile of the user
  1110. requesting the service to construct a name space before starting
  1111. .CW exportfs .
  1112. After an initial protocol
  1113. establishes the root of the file tree being
  1114. exported,
  1115. the remote process mounts the connection,
  1116. allowing
  1117. .CW exportfs
  1118. to act as a relay file server. Operations in the imported file tree
  1119. are executed on the remote server and the results returned.
  1120. As a result
  1121. the name space of the remote machine appears to be exported into a
  1122. local file tree.
  1123. .PP
  1124. The
  1125. .CW import
  1126. command calls
  1127. .CW exportfs
  1128. on a remote machine, mounts the result in the local name space,
  1129. and
  1130. exits.
  1131. No local process is required to serve mounts;
  1132. 9P messages are generated by the kernel's mount driver and sent
  1133. directly over the network.
  1134. .PP
  1135. .CW Exportfs
  1136. must be multithreaded since the system calls
  1137. .CW open,
  1138. .CW read
  1139. and
  1140. .CW write
  1141. may block.
  1142. Plan 9 does not implement the
  1143. .CW select
  1144. system call but does allow processes to share file descriptors,
  1145. memory and other resources.
  1146. .CW Exportfs
  1147. and the configurable name space
  1148. provide a means of sharing resources between machines.
  1149. It is a building block for constructing complex name spaces
  1150. served from many machines.
  1151. .PP
  1152. The simplicity of the interfaces encourages naive users to exploit the potential
  1153. of a richly connected environment.
  1154. Using these tools it is easy to gateway between networks.
  1155. For example a terminal with only a Datakit connection can import from the server
  1156. .CW helix :
  1157. .P1
  1158. import -a helix /net
  1159. telnet ai.mit.edu
  1160. .P2
  1161. The
  1162. .CW import
  1163. command makes a Datakit connection to the machine
  1164. .CW helix
  1165. where
  1166. it starts an instance
  1167. .CW exportfs
  1168. to serve
  1169. .CW /net .
  1170. The
  1171. .CW import
  1172. command mounts the remote
  1173. .CW /net
  1174. directory after (the
  1175. .CW -a
  1176. option to
  1177. .CW import )
  1178. the existing contents
  1179. of the local
  1180. .CW /net
  1181. directory.
  1182. The directory contains the union of the local and remote contents of
  1183. .CW /net .
  1184. Local entries supersede remote ones of the same name so
  1185. networks on the local machine are chosen in preference
  1186. to those supplied remotely.
  1187. However, unique entries in the remote directory are now visible in the local
  1188. .CW /net
  1189. directory.
  1190. All the networks connected to
  1191. .CW helix ,
  1192. not just Datakit,
  1193. are now available in the terminal. The effect on the name space is shown by the following
  1194. example:
  1195. .P1
  1196. philw-gnot% ls /net
  1197. /net/cs
  1198. /net/dk
  1199. philw-gnot% import -a musca /net
  1200. philw-gnot% ls /net
  1201. /net/cs
  1202. /net/cs
  1203. /net/dk
  1204. /net/dk
  1205. /net/dns
  1206. /net/ether
  1207. /net/il
  1208. /net/tcp
  1209. /net/udp
  1210. .P2
  1211. .NH 2
  1212. Ftpfs
  1213. .PP
  1214. We decided to make our interface to FTP
  1215. a file system rather than the traditional command.
  1216. Our command,
  1217. .I ftpfs,
  1218. dials the FTP port of a remote system, prompts for login and password, sets image mode,
  1219. and mounts the remote file system onto
  1220. .CW /n/ftp .
  1221. Files and directories are cached to reduce traffic.
  1222. The cache is updated whenever a file is created.
  1223. Ftpfs works with TOPS-20, VMS, and various Unix flavors
  1224. as the remote system.
  1225. .NH
  1226. Cyclone Fiber Links
  1227. .PP
  1228. The file servers and CPU servers are connected by
  1229. high-bandwidth
  1230. point-to-point links.
  1231. A link consists of two VME cards connected by a pair of optical
  1232. fibers.
  1233. The VME cards use 33MHz Intel 960 processors and AMD's TAXI
  1234. fiber transmitter/receivers to drive the lines at 125 Mbit/sec.
  1235. Software in the VME card reduces latency by copying messages from system memory
  1236. to fiber without intermediate buffering.
  1237. .NH
  1238. Performance
  1239. .PP
  1240. We measured both latency and throughput
  1241. of reading and writing bytes between two processes
  1242. for a number of different paths.
  1243. Measurements were made on two- and four-CPU SGI Power Series processors.
  1244. The CPUs are 25 MHz MIPS 3000s.
  1245. The latency is measured as the round trip time
  1246. for a byte sent from one process to another and
  1247. back again.
  1248. Throughput is measured using 16k writes from
  1249. one process to another.
  1250. .DS C
  1251. .TS
  1252. box, tab(:);
  1253. c s s
  1254. c | c | c
  1255. l | n | n.
  1256. Table 1 - Performance
  1257. _
  1258. test:throughput:latency
  1259. :MBytes/sec:millisec
  1260. _
  1261. pipes:8.15:.255
  1262. _
  1263. IL/ether:1.02:1.42
  1264. _
  1265. URP/Datakit:0.22:1.75
  1266. _
  1267. Cyclone:3.2:0.375
  1268. .TE
  1269. .DE
  1270. .NH
  1271. Conclusion
  1272. .PP
  1273. The representation of all resources as file systems
  1274. coupled with an ASCII interface has proved more powerful
  1275. than we had originally imagined.
  1276. Resources can be used by any computer in our networks
  1277. independent of byte ordering or CPU type.
  1278. The connection server provides an elegant means
  1279. of decoupling tools from the networks they use.
  1280. Users successfully use Plan 9 without knowing the
  1281. topology of the system or the networks they use.
  1282. More information about 9P can be found in the Section 5 of the Plan 9 Programmer's
  1283. Manual, Volume I.
  1284. .NH
  1285. References
  1286. .LP
  1287. [Pike90] R. Pike, D. Presotto, K. Thompson, H. Trickey,
  1288. ``Plan 9 from Bell Labs'',
  1289. .I
  1290. UKUUG Proc. of the Summer 1990 Conf. ,
  1291. London, England,
  1292. 1990.
  1293. .LP
  1294. [Needham] R. Needham, ``Names'', in
  1295. .I
  1296. Distributed systems,
  1297. .R
  1298. S. Mullender, ed.,
  1299. Addison Wesley, 1989.
  1300. .LP
  1301. [Presotto] D. Presotto, ``Multiprocessor Streams for Plan 9'',
  1302. .I
  1303. UKUUG Proc. of the Summer 1990 Conf. ,
  1304. .R
  1305. London, England, 1990.
  1306. .LP
  1307. [Met80] R. Metcalfe, D. Boggs, C. Crane, E. Taf and J. Hupp, ``The
  1308. Ethernet Local Network: Three reports'',
  1309. .I
  1310. CSL-80-2,
  1311. .R
  1312. XEROX Palo Alto Research Center, February 1980.
  1313. .LP
  1314. [Fra80] A. G. Fraser, ``Datakit - A Modular Network for Synchronous
  1315. and Asynchronous Traffic'',
  1316. .I
  1317. Proc. Int'l Conf. on Communication,
  1318. .R
  1319. Boston, June 1980.
  1320. .LP
  1321. [Pet89a] L. Peterson, ``RPC in the X-Kernel: Evaluating new Design Techniques'',
  1322. .I
  1323. Proc. Twelfth Symp. on Op. Sys. Princ.,
  1324. .R
  1325. Litchfield Park, AZ, December 1990.
  1326. .LP
  1327. [Rit84a] D. M. Ritchie, ``A Stream Input-Output System'',
  1328. .I
  1329. AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, 68(8),
  1330. .R
  1331. October 1984.