Looking for TCP stack that runs in application space

The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
space. It should have O/S & device independed APIs for interfacing w/ the
application layer, O/S services & the NIC. An additional API allowing us to
monitor statistics &/or modify behavior (MSS, etc) would also be great. The
idea is to have something we can tweak for various kinds of testing of
network products. We're prepared to port one to application space
ourselves, but would prefer to take advantage of something that already
exists. Something open source would be best, but a product we'd have to buy
would also be of interest.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Robert

On 2004-05-09, Robert <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
> space. It should have O/S & device independed APIs for interfacing w/ the
> application layer, O/S services & the NIC. An additional API allowing us to
> monitor statistics &/or modify behavior (MSS, etc) would also be great. The
> idea is to have something we can tweak for various kinds of testing of
> network products. We're prepared to port one to application space
> ourselves, but would prefer to take advantage of something that already
> exists. Something open source would be best, but a product we'd have to buy
> would also be of interest.
>
I do not know much about this however you might want to look to using a
micro-kernel rather than a monolithic kernel like Linux. With the
microkernel everything is exported to effectively 'userspace'; have a peek at
BeOS and

http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...s/Microkernel/

And of course, do try to give something back to the community if possible...

Cheers

Alex

"Robert" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<3vwnc.58102$0H1.5786592@attbi_s54>...
> The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
> space. It should have O/S & device independed APIs for interfacing w/ the
> application layer, O/S services & the NIC. An additional API allowing us to
> monitor statistics &/or modify behavior (MSS, etc) would also be great. The
> idea is to have something we can tweak for various kinds of testing of
> network products. We're prepared to port one to application space
> ourselves, but would prefer to take advantage of something that already
> exists. Something open source would be best, but a product we'd have to buy
> would also be of interest.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help!
>
> Robert

A long, long time ago I used a Unix port of Phil Karn's KA9Q/NOS. It
ran in user space atlthough it had to have root privileges. I have no
idea if it is still available or where to get it

Robert wrote:
> The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
> space. It should have O/S & device independed APIs for interfacing w/ the
> application layer, O/S services & the NIC. An additional API allowing us to
> monitor statistics &/or modify behavior (MSS, etc) would also be great. The
> idea is to have something we can tweak for various kinds of testing of
> network products. We're prepared to port one to application space
> ourselves, but would prefer to take advantage of something that already
> exists. Something open source would be best, but a product we'd have to buy
> would also be of interest.

NCSA Telnet ran under DOS in user space. There is (as far as I
know it still exists) a telnet application, ftp, lpr, and maybe
a few others. Since it runs in user space, only one such program
can run at once, but then that is the way DOS works.

I believe the early NCSA Telnet for macintosh also ran that
way, until MacTCP came along. I am not sure if MacTCP should
be called user space or not, but probably it should be considered
part of the OS.

You could use VMware, and run virtual IP stacks in virtual
machines, if that would help. You might still have to reboot
the virtual machine, but that is easier than a real machine.

-- glen

glen herrmannsfeldt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<ztqqc.21362$qA.2421783@attbi_s51>...
> Robert wrote:
> > The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
> > space. It should have O/S & device independed APIs for interfacing w/ the
> > application layer, O/S services & the NIC. An additional API allowing us to
> > monitor statistics &/or modify behavior (MSS, etc) would also be great. The
> > idea is to have something we can tweak for various kinds of testing of
> > network products. We're prepared to port one to application space
> > ourselves, but would prefer to take advantage of something that already
> > exists. Something open source would be best, but a product we'd have to buy
> > would also be of interest.
>
> NCSA Telnet ran under DOS in user space. There is (as far as I
> know it still exists) a telnet application, ftp, lpr, and maybe
> a few others. Since it runs in user space, only one such program
> can run at once, but then that is the way DOS works.
>
> I believe the early NCSA Telnet for macintosh also ran that
> way, until MacTCP came along. I am not sure if MacTCP should
> be called user space or not, but probably it should be considered
> part of the OS.
>
> You could use VMware, and run virtual IP stacks in virtual
> machines, if that would help. You might still have to reboot
> the virtual machine, but that is easier than a real machine.
>
> -- glen

Yeah, I forgot that one but at the time I chose KA9Q because the Unix
port was in better shape. I ran it on Sun boxes( the version just
before Solaris and Solaris). You needed to run as root to have access
to the NIT ( did I get that right)

In comp.os.linux.networking Robert <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> The company I work for is looking for a TCP stack that runs in application
> space.

You could have a look at User-Mode-Linux (UML). It allows you to run
Linux inside Linux. I use it to implement virtual machines and networks
for a network management course I teach.

Since it's Open Source, you can tune it as much as you like.

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!