The Fast Local Internet Protocol (FLIP) is a
communication protocol
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchroniza ...
for
LAN
Lan or LAN may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics
* Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...
and
WAN, conceived for
distributed applications. FLIP was designed at the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...
to support
remote procedure call (RPC) in the
Amoeba
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudo ...
distributed operating system
A distributed operating system is system software over a collection of independent software, networked, communicating, and physically separate computational nodes. They handle jobs which are serviced by multiple CPUs. Each individual node holds a ...
.
[ M. Frans Kaashoek, Robbert van Renesse, Hans van Staveren, and Andrew S. Tanenbaum. 1993. FLIP: an internetwork protocol for supporting distributed systems. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 11, 1 (Feb. 1993), 73–106. https://doi.org/10.1145/151250.151253]
Comparison to TCP/IP
In the
OSI model
The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that 'provides a common basis for the coordination of SOstandards development for the purpose of systems interconnection'. In the OSI reference model, the communications ...
, FLIP occupies the
network layer (3), thus replacing
IP, but it also obviates the need for a
transport layer (4) protocol like
TCP.
Properties
FLIP is a
connectionless
Connectionless communication, often referred to as CL-mode communication,Information Processing Systems - Open Systems Interconnection, "Transport Service Definition - Addendum 1: Connectionless-mode Transmission", International Organization for ...
protocol designed to support transparency (with respect to the underlying network layers of the OSI model: 2. data link and 1. physical), efficient RPC, group communication, secure communication and easy network management. The following FLIP properties helps to achieve the requirements of distributed computing:
# FLIP identifies entities with a location-independent 64-bit identifier called ''Network Service Access Points'' (NSAPs). An entity can, for example, be a
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
; contrary to the IP protocol where an
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
identify a
host
A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it.
Host may also refer to:
Places
*Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County
People
* Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman
* Michel Host ...
.
# FLIP uses a one way mapping between the “private” address, used to register an endpoint of a network connection, and the “public” address used to advertise the endpoint.
# FLIP routes messages based on NSAP (transparency).
# FLIP discovers routes on demand.
# FLIP uses a bit in the message header to request transmission of sensitive messages across trusted networks.
See also
*
IL (network protocol)
References
Internet protocols
{{Compu-network-stub
ja:Amoeba#Fast Local Internet Protocol