System-assisted service evolution for a future Internet — The H∀Mcast approach to pervasive multicast

The Internet has been successful in providing a uniformly available IPv4 unicast service, accessible via the socket API which eased application deployment. However, this tightly shaped concept failed to promote a heterogeneous network layer (including IPv6) or additional services like multicast. In this paper, we propose methods for diversifying the Internet service capabilities with the help of enhanced end system intelligence and an API abstraction towards the applications. We provide a general architecture for the example of hybrid adaptive mobile multicast (H∀Mcast) which allows for various realizations and pluralistic deployments. The achievement of our contribution is a universal, robust service access that allows group applications to run everywhere, no matter what the status of regional technological deployment will be.