Efficient reliable multicast on Myrinet

Abstract

The paper describes a reliable multicast algorithm on top of reliable point-to-point communication. The algorithm uses a flow control method based on a credit scheme to prevent message loss caused by overflow of software buffers. The multicast algorithm has been implemented by extending the Illinois Fast Messages software for Myrinet, which supports reliable point-to-point communication but no multicast. To obtain low latency and high throughput, forwarding of messages is handled entirely by the network adapter boards without involving the hosts. Measurements on an 8-node Myrinet system show that the implementation achieves high performance.