Meta-signalling for open network control

Distributed applications have wide ranging requirements. Message-based applications must now co-exist with multimedia-based applications that often require precise bounds on the delivery of data. A single best effort service is no longer sufficient. Attempts at supporting a wide variety of applications have come from different directions, and have inevitably led to a scenario where one is better at supporting a certain type of application than the other. What is clear is that different network services and different protocol stacks are required in order to satisfy the needs of the emerging variety of application types. This paper discusses an approach to providing seamless integration for different network control mechanisms, providing access to network services in a clear and consistent manner. We build on the previously defined Open Service Model and introduce the idea of meta-signalling, used to negotiate end-to-end network requirements. We employ the Internet Protocol as a means for signalling control information, and object technology as a mechanism for providing distributed resource management. We look at the requirements for a signalling protocol, notably reliability, low bit rate and low delay, and consider how in the context of an IP network we can provide a level of quality of service for signalling messages.