A language-based approach to protocol implementation

Morpheus is a special-purpose programming language that facilitates the efficient implementation of communication protocols. Protocols are divided into three categories, called shapes, so that they can inherit code and data structures based on their category. The programmer implements a particular protocol by refining the inherited structure. Morpheus optimization techniques reduce per-layer overhead on time-critical operations to a few assembler instructions even though the protocol stack is not determined until run time. This supports divide-and-conquer simplification of the programming task by minimizing the penalty for decomposing complex protocols into combinations of simpler protocols.< >