The third kind of communication network

A new kind of network different from IP and ATM networks is proposed in this paper, called Vector Network (VN). The main difference from the networks today is the forwarding address. It takes the ports of a node as the basic objects to code and form the forwarding address, instead of node and link for IP and ATM networks respectively. The new forwarding address, called Vector Address (VA), makes the network resilient and simple. The main property of the network based on VA are as follows: (1) Relatively simple, there is no need to lookup a table for forwarding; (2) Light path, no extra-cost for multi-path transmission for a flow, compared to single-path transmission for the same flow; (3) Absolutely independent, the data and control planes are not coupled directly; (4) QoS supported, as it is a connection-oriented; (5) Better security, it is due to the property of the VA, i.e. relative location, unreadable, un-enumerable, able to be encrypted; (6) Good scalability, because the address is unlimited in length; (7) Fractal, the architecture of the network is fractal.