The problem with the Internet is … I could go on forever. But the real problem with the Internet is that it’s the underlying infrastructure for vital communications and can’t easily be tinkered with as we find more problems. Or can it?
This article from NetworkWorld U.S. outlines work being done by researchers at Princeton University to add a service access layer in between the IP network layer (Layer 3) and the transport layer (Layer 4). This so-called Layer 3.5 would make Web services such as Gmail and Facebook more easily accessible via a services naming scheme. Data centre operators could benefit by running Web servers in virtual machines across the cloud, and rely less on traditional load balancers.
The researchers are looking for ways to bring the technology, called Serval, to market.
Re-architecting the Internet. Who’d have thought?