A model for service-oriented communication systems

Using innovative protocols at the transport or network layer is difficult today. Even if such protocols become available, most applications are not able to utilize them because usage of TCP/IP is hard coded into the application. Service-oriented communication systems (SOCS) aim to decouple applications from lower level protocols. Therefore, a service-oriented interface between applications and the transport layer is introduced. A broker mediates transport service requests to appropriate configurations of transport service providers. A flexible and protocol independent specification schema for defining service requirements and offers is regarded as a key element for such an interface. The specification schema enables short and simple descriptions as well as detailed and sophisticated descriptions and can thus scale with information available about service providers, network status, as well as application and user requirements.