Middleware Networks

This work describes a framework for developing IP Service Platforms and emerging managed IP networks with a reference architecture from the AT&T Labs GeoPlex project. The main goal is to present basic principles that both the telecommunications industry and the Internet community can see as providing benefits for service-related network issues. Topics covered include Application Program Interfaces (APIs), reference architecture, and a model implementation. Part I begins with fundamentals of transport, and quickly transitions to modern transport and technology. Part II elucidates requirements and unifying design principles for the Internet. These fundamental principles establish the basis for consistent behaviour in view of the explosive growth underway in large-scale heterogeneous networks. Part III demonstrates and explains the resulting architecture and implementation. It should be useful for students, researchers, network professionals, software developers, system architects and technically-oriented managers involved in the definition and deployment of modern Internet platforms or services.