A Model for Flexible High-Performance Communication Subsystems

Many emerging applications require very diverse services from the underlying communication subsystem. Future communication nodes will have to offer a high degree of flexibility in selecting service characteristics and considerable efficiency in implementing them. In this paper, we present a function-based communication model that allows applications to request individually tailored services from the communication subsystem. Based on service requirements and available resources, suitable protocol machines are configured to serve the application. This configuration is done using a proper combination of functional modules. The concept of layering is therefore abandoned for both flexibility and efficiency reasons. © 1993 IEEE