A New Protocol Architecture for Information Retrieval on Gigabit Networks

Emerging high-speed networking technologies have the potential to dramtically increase access to information in many fields such as education, defense, government information dissemination and health care. However, there are several technical issues that need to be addressed to harness this potential of high-speed networking technology. One ofthese is the development of a new generation of communication protocol architectures to meet the new requirements of gagbit/second wide area networks. Architecture Technology Corporation proposes the design of a new protocol architecture for high-speed netowrks that would enable efficient and easy access to digital libraries of electronic information that would be part of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Our approach applies two innovative techniques to the deisgn of information retrieval protocols: 1) application-level data segmentation; and 2) application specific protocol configuration. The proposed Phase I effort seeks to establish the feasibility of the two proposed techniques for designing information retrieval protocols by developing a detailed design of the new protocol architecture and analytically evaluating the performance gains offered by the new architecture. Anticipated Benefits: The results of the proposed research can be applied to develop a commercial software product that would allow end-users to easily access information on the National Information Ifrastructure.