A future-proof application-to-network interface

The current socket API is one obstacle for innovation in the Internet. In order to communicate, applications need a lot of networking know-how: They need to perform name-to-address resolution, select an appropriate transport protocol, and they need to implement application-layer protocols. If new transport protocols are introduced, an existing application needs to be modified in order to support them. If multiple protocols and address families are available at the same time, the application needs to select one of them. We therefore propose a new application-to-network interface that reduces the necessary networking know-how at application-level to foster independent evolutions of applications and the network stack. To achieve this goal, networking functionality currently done by the applications themselves is pushed down below the API. Our interface aims at being simple and intuitive for the application programmer, separating application and networking concerns, and being suitable for any current and future networking technology.