Design and implementation of interprocess communication procedures on Ethernets

The interprocess communication (IPC) protocols are in the heart of any distributed/networking system. They are responsible for exchanging data reliably between processes on the same machine and more importantly across machines. In this thesis, we discuss the design and implementation of two IPC systems developed on two Ethernets. The main reasons for developing the IPC systems are to provide users and application processes with flexible access to any of the networks, and to support an integrated processing environment which allows users and processes on one network to access hosts and facilities on any of the networks. The services that our IPC system provides include a reliable datagram service and a virtual circuit service. A file-transfer facility is also provided on top of the IPC system.