Subject: WG Review: Remote Direct Data Placement (rddp)

From: Steve Coya <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 09:35:57 -0400

A new IETF working group has been proposed in the Transport Area.
The IESG has not made any determination as yet. 

The following Description was submitted, and is provided for
informational purposes only:

Remote Direct Data Placement (rddp)
-----------------------------------

 Current Status: Proposed Working Group

Description of Working Group:

The purpose of this WG is to enable RDMA Remote Direct Memory Access
capabilities with IP transport protocols, in particular with
SCTP. RDMA capabilities refer to the ability to place data directly
from the NIC into application buffers, without intensive CPU
usage. This strategy avoids the costs of data copying and enables
using IP as a method for high speed buffer to buffer transfer,
allowing IP to replace special purpose networks currently in use.

Conceptually, RDMA functionality can be viewed as consisting of two
layers. First the direct data placement capability, which is
accomplished through a tag and a lookup table on the NIC. Above this
core functionality, an RDMA control protocol is needed to specify how

the direct data placement can be used, for example READ and WRITE
commands.

The work of the WG is to accomplish three items:

1) A (transport independent) protocol core to support direct data
   placement from the NIC into specified memory, usually application    
   buffers.

2) A (transport independent) protocol core layered on top of the direct
   data placement protocol that specifies control of RDMA.

3) A mapping of the direct data placement protocol and the RDMA control
   protocol to SCTP.