Semantic and Architectural Framework for Autonomic Transport Services

Fast development of Internet technologies has diversified by one hand the categories of distributed multimedia applications (i.e. IPTV, VoIP, VoD, video-conferencing, etc.) and by the other hand the available network technologies (i.e. high speed, wireless, mobile, etc.). This important evolution of application and network layers has deeply impacted the traditional transport layer. Indeed, traditional transport protocols (i.e. TCP and UDP) were well dimensioned for the original best-effort network model. However, specializations of the transport mechanisms were required to cope with new network technologies (e.g. TCP extensions for satellite or Wi-Fi networks). Likewise, new protocols such as DCCP and SCTP were proposed to enhance the basic transport services in order to include new mechanisms (e.g. more adapted network congestion avoidance strategies or multi-homing support for mobility). However, these partial enhancements and new developments in the area of transport protocols have not followed a reusable and service oriented approach intended to easily incorporate future protocol extensions and specializations. This paper presents a framework for communication services composition aimed at providing the basis for designing and developing autonomic transport services. This framework is intended to dynamically compose reusable transport mechanisms. A semantic space incorporating descriptions for user requirements, transport components and underlying network services is included in this framework in order to guide transport service composition process.