Fast and Secure Protocol: Difference between revisions

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{{IPstack}}

The '''Fast Adaptive and Secure Protocol''' ('''FASP''') is a [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] data transfer [[Communication protocol|protocol]]. FASP is a network-optimized network protocol developedcreated by Michelle Munson and Serban Simu, productized by [[Aspera (company)|Aspera]], and owned by [[IBM]]. The associated client/server software packages are also commonly called Aspera.<ref name="register">{{cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/01/aspera/|title=Aspera high speed file transfer: Let the cloud protocol wars begin|website=[[The Register]]}}</ref><ref name="ena">{{cite web|url=https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browse/read-download#downloading_files_aspera|title=European Nucleotide Archive: Downloading using Aspera}}</ref> The technology is [[patented]] under US Patent #20090063698, ''MethodBulk andData systemTransfer'' forand aggregate bandwidth control''others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/patents/US20090063698|title=Method and system for aggregate bandwidth control}}</ref>

Similar to the [[Connectionless communication|connectionless]] [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]] protocol, FASP does not expect any feedback on every [[Network packet|packet]] sent. Only the packets marked as really lost must be requested again by the recipient. As a result, it does not suffer as much loss of throughput as [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] does on networks with high [[Latency (engineering)|latency]] or high [[packet loss]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://downloads.asperasoft.com/en/technology/shortcomings_of_TCP_2/the_shortcomings_of_TCP_file_transfer_2|title=Aspera - High-speed file transfer software -|website=downloads.asperasoft.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://gcn.com/Articles/2014/05/15/FOSE-Data-transfer-protocol.aspx|title=FASP transfer protocol speeds data transmission to the cloud}}</ref> The protocol innovates upon naive "UDP data blaster" protocols through an optimal control-theoretic retransmission algorithm and implementation that achieves maximum goodput and avoids redundant retransmission / retransmission overhead.

Large organizations throughout the media and entertainment industry, and like [[IBM]],{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} the [[European Nucleotide Archive]],<ref name="ena" /> the US [[National Institutes of Health]] [[National Center for Biotechnology Information]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/faspftp/1000genomes/|title=NCBI 1000 Genomes: Aspera Download}}</ref> and others<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asperasoft.com/partners/joint-partner-solutions/|title=Aspera Joint Partner Solutions|date=20 January 2018|website=asperasoft.com}}</ref> use the protocol in different areas. [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] also wants to use the protocol for uploading to data centers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Amazon-nutzt-schnelleres-uebertragungsprotokoll-fuer-Web-Services-788844.html|title=Amazon nutzt schnelleres Übertragungsprotokoll für Web Services|last=Schwan|first=Ben|website=heise online}}</ref> The technology was recognized with many awards including an Engineering Emmy from the Academy of Film and Television. Finally, while there is no published crossover, the protocol appears to be an inspiration for Google's BBR high speed TCP as BBR uses many concepts described and implemented in the FASP specification.

==Security==

{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2018}}

FASP has built-in security mechanisms that do not affect the transmission speed. The [[encryption]] [[algorithm]]s used are based exclusively on [[open standard]]s. BeforeSome theproduct transfer,implementation [[SSH]]use issecure used for [[key exchange]] forand authentication. Thesesuch randomlyas generated, one-way[[SSH]]. keys are discarded at the end of the transmission.

The data is optionally encrypted or decrypted immediately before sending and receiving with the [[Advanced Encryption Standard|AES-128]]. To counteract attacks by monitoring the encrypted information during long transfers, the AES is operated in [[cipher feedback mode]] with a random, public [[initialization vector]] for each block. In addition, an integrity check of each [[Block (data storage)|data block]] takes place, in which case, for example, a [[man-in-the-middle attack]] would be noticed.

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FASP's flow control algorithm, unlike TCP's, completely ignores packet drops. Instead, it acts on changes in measured packet delivery time. When that is growing, queues are getting longer and channel bandwidth is exceeded; falling, queues are getting shorter. Acting on this information is complicated because the receiver has it and the sender needs it, but its lifetime is often less than the transmission delay; and measurements are noisy. Thus, the sender uses a predictive filter fed updates from the receiver.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21909190 | title=Ex Aspera Dev here. I did the encryption and early parallel work. There is a lot... &#124; Hacker News }}</ref>

The transmission rate is chosen to match and not exceed the available channel bandwidth, and trigger no drops, accounting for all traffic on the channel. By contrast, TCP slowly increases its rate until it sees a packet drop and falls back, interpreting any drop as congestion. On a channel with long delay and frequent packet loss, TCP never approaches the actual bandwidth available. FASP cooperates with TCP flows on the same channel, using up bandwidth TCP leaves unused.

==See also==