Stanford prof is beating the drum for a new protocol to replace TCP
Homa is a rethink of networks for the AI age
Retired Stanford professor John Ousterhout is advocating for a new protocol called Homa to replace the current TCP protocol, which he believes is ill-suited for modern AI workloads. Ousterhout argues that Homa, a message-based protocol, offers significant improvements over TCP, particularly in terms of latency for short messages.
He claims that Homa's shortest-remaining-processing-time algorithm prioritizes shorter messages, resulting in a 92-microsecond 99th percentile latency - 13 times faster than TCP's 1.2-millisecond latency under similar conditions. Homa operates alongside TCP, allowing for a gradual transition from TCP to Homa without requiring a reboot.
Ousterhout is currently drafting an IETF standardization document for Homa and working to incorporate it into the Linux kernel. He is also collaborating with large companies to assess the protocol's potential applications. Despite its promising performance, Homa has faced criticism from some network experts, who question Ousterhout's performance claims and view it as a solution looking for a problem.
However, as AI workloads continue to demand faster network performance, Homa may eventually find its solution.
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