ALASA: When service overlay networks meet peer-to-peer networks

A number of service overlay network architecture have been proposed to provide solutions over the existing Internet infrastructure. These range from application layer multicast, QoS provisioning, and application adaptations, to reliable routing. At the same time, peer-to-peer networks have attracted a lot of attention both from business and research communities. They have been considered as one of the architectures capable of providing robust, scalable, and self-organizing networking solutions. In this paper, we present a service overlay network framework, called ALASA (Application Layer Active Service Architecture), to provide a solution for distributed on-demand services across the Internet. Combining the advantages of service overlay networks and peer-to-peer networks, the ALASA is flexible and dynamic enough to be scaled Internet wide, as well as to create a fair service market place for service provisioning.