The objective of this project is to formulate a framework for a non-layered internetworking architecture in which complex communication tasks are accomplished by combining elemental functional blocks in a configurable manner. The framework consists of (1) building blocks of fine functionality, (2) explicit support for combining elemental blocks to accomplish complex communication tasks, and (3) control elements to facilitate cross-layer interactions. This is a holistic view of network design, allowing applications to work synergistically with the network architecture and physical layers so as to meet the application's needs within resource availability constraints. The architecture is flexible and extensible so as to foster innovation and accommodate change, it supports a unified Internet, it allows for the integration of security and management features at any point in the networking stack, and it is positioned to take advantage of hardware-based performance-enhancing techniques. A significant amount of effort is devoted to fleshing out the details and refining the various elements of the architecture, and to laying the theoretical foundations for facilitating a synergy among the applications, network architecture, and physical layers so as to select the appropriate functional building blocks and tune their behavior for a specific communication task.
Broader Impact
This project has the potential to open new directions in the design of self-configurable and self-optimizing network architectures. The framework of automatically assembled fine-grain functional building blocks can be the centerpiece of a future Internet architecture which interacts harmoniously with applications and the physical layer to optimize user experience.
