This section starts with a brief overview of network processing in UNIX operating systems. It then points out problems that arise when a system of this type faces large volumes of network traffic. Finally, we argue that these problems are important by discussing common sources of high network traffic.
To simplify the discussion, we focus on the TCP/UDP/IP protocol suite, and on BSD-derived UNIX systems [13]. Similar problems arise with other protocol suites, in System V-derived UNIX systems, and in many commercial non-UNIX operating systems. Figure 1 illustrates the BSD networking architecture.
