Message packing as a performance enhancement strategy with application to the Totem protocols

Packing a number of messages into a single packet for transmission can be used as a strategy to improve the performance of communication protocols. We investigate this technique and its application to the Totem reliable ordered multicast protocols. The mechanism underlying message packing is also analyzed by means of a buffer model with exponential message lengths and exponential interarrival times between messages. The results obtained from the analysis and from the implementation of this strategy in the Totem protocols show that message packing is a very effective technique for improving the performance, especially for messages of small length.