LNTP-an efficient transport protocol for local area networks

The authors describe a connection-oriented transport-level protocol (local network transport protocol, LNTP) specifically designed for use on LANs (local area networks). The fundamental philosophy in the design of LNTP is simplicity. Features irrelevant to the LAN environment are not included, resulting in a simpler and more efficient protocol. LNTP uses a simple but effective two-region flow control mechanism which is activated only when the traffic intensity exceeds some value. This eliminates control packets during normal operation and increases concurrency between sender and receiver. LNTP runs under 4.2 BSD UNIX in place of TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol). Detailed comparisons between LNTP and TCP/IP show that LNTP is several times faster, although end-to-end throughput rates are only 30% faster because of the overhead attributed to Ethernet and UNIX layers. However, the reduced CPU cycles as well as the increased network throughput indicate that LNTP is a viable replacement for TCP/IP.<>