Invisible Network: Concepts and Architecture

Efficient schemes for deploying and maintaining wide-area services and accessing such services are essential if the Internet is to sustain itself as the communication medium for business critical applications. This paper presents the architecture of an overlay service network called the Invisible Network. It is based on a two-stage architecture. The first-stage is responsible for service addressing, discovery, and mobility. The second-stage is responsible for quality of service aware resource allocation for wide-area services. The two stages together provide a unique service network that makes the wide-area services "invisible" by hiding the locational and implementational details of the wide-area services.