Self-configuration techniques for MuniSocket

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 between a pair of computers. Although the MuniSocket model has some communication performance advantages over the regular socket, it has a number of configuration complexity drawbacks including the complexity of establishing multiple channels and configuration for good communication performance under different connection scenarios. This paper develops some selfconfiguration techniques for MuniSocket. These techniques are self-discovery technique for discovering the existence of network interfaces and their performance properties, self-configuration for establishing channels over the interfaces, and selfoptimization for selecting the best channels combinations for sending various message sizes. While these techniques enhance communication performance among computers, they also reduce the complexity of configuring MuniSocket and making its interface compatible with the regular TCP socket interface.