A language-based approach to protocol implementation

Abstract

Morpheus is special-purpose programming language that facilitates the efficient implementation of communication protocols. Protocols are divided into three categories, called shapes , so that they can inherit code and data structures based on their category; the programmer implements a particular protocol by refining the inherited structure. Morpheus optimization techniques reduce per-layer overhead on time-critical operations to a few assembler instructions even though the protocol stack is not determined until runtime. This supports divide-and-conquer simplification of the programming task by minimizing the penalty for decomposing complex protocols into combinations of simpler protocols.