Content-Based Networking: A New Communication Infrastructure

Abstract

We argue that the needs of many classes of modern applications, especially those targeted at mobile or wireless computing, demand the services of content-based publish/subscribe middleware, and that this middleware in turn demands a new kind of communication infrastructure for its proper implementation. We refer to this new communication infrastructure as content-based networking. The service model of this network must directly support the interface of an advanced contentbased publish/subscribe middleware service. At the same time, the implementation must be architected as a true distributed network, providing appropriate guarantees of reliability, security, and performance. We do not propose content-based networking as a replacement for IP, nor do we advocate an implementation of a publish/subscribe middleware at the network level (i.e., within routers). Instead, we argue that contentbased networking must be designed according to established networking principles and techniques. To this end, in this paper, we formulate the foundational concepts of content-based networking, and relate them to the corresponding concepts in traditional networking. We also briefly review our experience with content-based publish/subscribe middleware and suggest some open research problems in the area of content-based networking.