Semantic Routing for Improved Network Management in the Future Internet

One of the most fundamental management aspects of the Future Internet is the representation of management and operational data. The vast majority of languages and data structures used by network device manufacturers, such as SNMP-based designs and Command Line Interfaces, are data-oriented and are not conducive to representing semantic knowledge. Furthermore, such languages have no ability to represent business concepts, such as a Service Level Agreement, or higher-level concepts, such as the ability to maximize revenue for all users. To solve this problem, we draw inspiration from semantic routing, which traditionally has been used to connect users and applications with desired content and services based on intent, meaning, and other semantic qualities. We define a type of semantic routing that can be used for both semantic querying and network management tasks, and use it to create a semantic overlay network that enables routing to be done on the meaning of the packets. This can be used to provide valuable insight into how best to implement personalized and context-aware services, as well as choose between multiple reconfiguration alternatives for a given scenario.