The Fast Local Internet Protocol (FLIP) is a communication protocol for LAN and WAN, conceived for distributed applications. FLIP was designed at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to support remote procedure call (RPC) in the Amoeba distributed operating system.[1]

Comparison to TCP/IP

In the OSI model, FLIP occupies the network layer (3), thus replacing IP, but it also obviates the need for a transport layer (4) protocol like TCP.

Layers of functionality in OSI, TCP/IP, and FLIP.[1]
LayerOSITCP/IPFLIP
7ApplicationUser-definedUser-defined
6PresentationUser-definedAmoeba Interface Language (AIL)
5SessionNot usedRPC and Group communication
4TransportTCP or UDPNot needed
3NetworkIPFLIP
2Data LinkE.g., EthernetE.g., Ethernet
1PhysicalE.g., Coaxial cableE.g., Coaxial cable

Properties

FLIP is a connectionless protocol designed to support transparency (with respect to the underlying network layers of the OSI model: 2. data link and 1. physical), efficient RPC, group communication, secure communication and easy network management. The following FLIP properties helps to achieve the requirements of distributed computing:[1]

  1. FLIP identifies entities with a location-independent 64-bit identifier called Network Service Access Points (NSAPs). An entity can, for example, be a process; contrary to the IP protocol where an IP address identify a host.
  2. FLIP uses a one way mapping between the “private” address, used to register an endpoint of a network connection, and the “public” address used to advertise the endpoint.
  3. FLIP routes messages based on NSAP (transparency).
  4. FLIP discovers routes on demand.
  5. FLIP uses a bit in the message header to request transmission of sensitive messages across trusted networks.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 M. Frans Kaashoek, Robbert van Renesse, Hans van Staveren, and Andrew S. Tanenbaum. 1993. FLIP: an internetwork protocol for supporting distributed systems. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 11, 1 (Feb. 1993), 73–106. https://doi.org/10.1145/151250.151253


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