Uniform and infinitely scalable system and method for communication between application processes providing both point-to-point and multi-point connectivity without dependance on end-to-end addressing, using a framework of nameservers as exchanges for sharing named contexts of communication. Application processes define and reference the contexts by name on nameservers addressed by pathnames, and the framework then synthesises the end-to-end transport between the requesting processes by first concatenating the service paths taken by the defining and referencing requests to form end-to-end service paths, and then using these end-to-end service paths to perform the requisite signalling to the underlying physical networks for setting up the transport. Only local references are used in the configuration of the nameservers and switches, and in the computation and signalling of the service and transport paths, respectively. Each shared context provides a virtual network address space for multiple, simultaneous connections, and the contexts also serve as in-network framework for hosting connection management facilities, including in-network authentication, as well as transport mechanisms providing diverse qualities of service.
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