Home network protocol with device-centric addressing

Abstract

Existing plans for home networks are aimed at the short to medium term and postulate that TCP/IP will extend to home networks. This view may be unsustainable in the long term, with increasing network diversity. This paper proposes a network/transport home network protocol (HNP) that supports multiple levels of flexibility. Protocol layer fusion is possible through a combined mode or TCP compatibility is preserved with a split mode. Within combined mode simple or flexible sub-modes are possible. HNP introduces device-centric addressing allowing anycast and broadcast to be easily supported. Relative to IP addressing, header overhead is reduced and short command messages are supported.