Self-configured multiple-network-interface socket

MuniSocket (Multiple-Network-Interface Socket) provides mechanisms to enhance the communication performance properties such as throughput, transfer time, and reliability by utilizing the existing multiple-network-interface cards on communicating hosts. Although the MuniSocket model has some communication performance advantages over the regular socket, it also has a number of usability and manageability drawbacks including the complexity of establishing multiple channels and configuring them for good communication performance. This paper discusses some enhancements for MuniSocket using autonomic computing techniques. These techniques include self-discovery for discovering the existence of network interfaces and their performance properties, self-configuration for establishing channels over the interfaces, and self-optimization for selecting the best channels combinations for efficiently sending messages of varying sizes. While these techniques enhance the communication performance among computers, they also reduce the complexity of configuring MuniSocket and make its interface compatible with the regular TCP socket interface, which in turn allows for a transparent use of MuniSocket by the applications.