IEN 52                                                          D. Cohen
Notebook Section 2.3.3.18                                        USC-ISI
                                                          11 August 1978



         Some Thoughts About the Multiplexing Issue in Networks
         ------------------------------------------------------




For several years we have enjoyed the beauty and the  structure  offered
by  the  modular  approach  to  protocols.   This  approach leads to the
separation of communication layers (headers,  etc)  according  to  their
originating and receiving agencies (processes, protocols etc).

It is very unfortunate that an undesired by-product of this approach  is
the  failure  to merge communication units (messages) which have a great
deal of common communication attributes, even when they have some  small
differences.

A case in point is the inability to introduce  multiplexing  arbitrarily
into the protocol-tree stucture.

It is intuitive that it is very desirable to be  able  to  merge  TELNET
messages between the same source/destination hosts pair, especially when
a small number of characters are communicated in each message.

Similarly, NCP  and  TCP  messages  which  are  addressed  to  the  same
destination host, could be merged even though they are between different
protocols.

The same approach applies on ALL levels.

It is important to be able to use this kind of multiplexing in order  to
share (and therefore save) headers, or parts of headers, and in order to
save switching time.

Consider a simple example, voice communication, using  NVP  through  TCP
(just  for the example), and internetting through the SATNet.  The voice
data rate is R, and a message is sent every T time.

The amount of voice data in each message is RxT, added to  that  is  the
NVP  header  of length Lv, the TCP header of length Lt, the IN header of
length Li, and the HOST/SIMP header of length Ls.

Hence, the communication efficiency is:

                  R x T
   eff = ---------------------------
          R x T + Lv + Lt + Li + Ls




Cohen                                                           [Page 1]


IEN 52                                                    11 August 1978
Multiplexing



Assume the following numbers:

   R  = 2,400 bps
   T  =   200 milliseconds, for interactive communication
   RxT = 480 bits, for a packet of voice data
   Lv  =  48 bits, including local-extension, time-stamp, parcels count
   and silence indication.
   Lt  = 160 bits, including the PORT.
   Li  = 160 bits, (without the optional OPTIONS field)
   Ls  =  96 bits, according to PSPWN-100

For these numbers the efficiency is:

                     480                480
   eff = --------------------------- = ----- = 50.8%
          480 + 48 + 160 + 160 + 96     944

If N voice communications between different  "extensions"  in  the  same
hosts   pair  are  multiplexed,  then  the  efficiency  (again,  at  the
interface, not in the communication media) is:

                   R x T
   eff = ---------------------------------
          R x T + Lv + (Lt + Li + Ls) / N

Which for N=2 is 65.2% and for N=3 is 72.0%.  It  is  obvious  that  the
efficiency increases with N, and that in this case its limit is 90.9%.

This is, obviously, the efficiency over the  HOST/SIMP  interface.   The
more  important is the efficiency over the communication media, which is
lower than that, due to the SIMP-to-SIMP communication overhead.

Another, more familiar, example is sending a single character  over  the
ARPANET.   In this case the payload is 8 bits, which are preceeded by 40
bit NCP header  and  the  96  bit  HOST/IMP  header.   This  results  in
eff=8/(8+40+96)=5.5%  over the interface, and even lower over the 50kbps
lines.

Just think what is the efficiency of sending a single character, or even
a few, over the SATNet...  The numbers cannot be very encouraging...

Next Subject: Multi-address
---------------------------

For certain applications there is  a  case  for  multi-address,  namely,
asking  the  communication  system  to  deliver the same message-body to
several addresses.  Mailing-lists and conferences are just two examples.




Cohen                                                           [Page 2]


IEN 52                                                    11 August 1978
Multiplexing



The multi-address issue is  the  dual  of  the  multiplexing  which  was
discussed  earlier.   Multi-address  is  one  message-body  with several
message-headers, whereas the previous muliplexing is one  message-header
with several message-bodies.

   Multi-address is:

      <Adr1,Adr2 ; Data1>  = <Adr1 ; Data1> + <Adr2 ; Data1>

   Multiplexing is:

      <Adr1 ; Data1,Data2> = <Adr1 ; Data1> + <Adr1 ; Data2>

Let's be (sort of) formal
-------------------------

   (1) Protocol nesting is:

      <msg>  ::= <hdr> <body>
      <hdr>  ::= "type" "addr"
      <body> ::= "data" ! <msg>

   (2) Multiplexing is:

      <msg>  ::= <hdr> <body>
      <hdr>  ::= "type" "addr"
      <body> ::= "data" ! <msgs>
      <msgs> ::= <msg> ! <msgs> <msg>

   (3) Multi-addressing is:

      <msg>  ::= <hdr> <body>
      <hdr>  ::= "type" "addr" ! <hdr> "addr" <body> ::= "data"

   (4) Obviously the most general system is:

      <msg>  ::= <hdr> <body>
      <hdr>  ::= "type" "addr" ! <hdr> "addr" <body> ::= "data" ! <msgs>
      <msgs> ::= <msg> ! <msgs> <msg>

   Please consider (4) as a proposal.










Cohen                                                           [Page 3]


IEN 52                                                    11 August 1978
Multiplexing



The point is twofold:

   (1) Save overhead to reduce the number of BITs.

   (2) Save overhead to reduce the number of PACKETs.

3Mbit/sec at 500 bits/packet is 6,000 packets/sec.

Today's gateways can handle 6 packets/sec, with the hope to double it by
next year.....  The factor of 1,000 between these two numbers should
serve as a warning light.








































Cohen                                                           [Page 4]