DAFS

The term DAFS is an acronym for Direct Access File System. It is the latest file access protocol that is designed to take the advantage of the remote direct memory access or RDMA and along with that it interconnects a lot of different technologies like InfiniBand, VI and iWARP. The reason that work is being done on this protocol to improve it and to make it more efficient is that this protocol will dramatically enhance the performance, reliability and scalability of the database applications, e-commerce, computer farm etc in the data center environment and enhancing all these fields means greater output and more efficient system.

The DAFS protocol was established and made by a group name the DAFS collaborative, which consisted of more than 85 countries. The first version of this protocol was released in the year 2001 and was submitted as an internet draft to the IETF.

DAFS is a network file system and is quite similar to NFS and CIFS, Network file systems and Common Internet File System respectively. The main role of this protocol is that it allows the applications to transfer the data while by passing the Operating system, buffering mechanism and other networking protocol operation which slow down the entire process of data transfer immensely. VI or Virtual interface is the main underground architecture which is used by the DAFS to transport the data.

The main advantage of this protocol aside from high data transfer rate is that no burden falls on the operating system; hence, the OS is free to carry out other task, and commands given to it by the user. Many companies today make use of java and java operated applications; therefore, programmers are now working on making this protocol work on the java too, to facilitate the organizations and clients who are making use of these java applications.