Overlay network for location-independent communication between computer systems

摘要

A computer network system having an overlay network, which comprises of a plurality of nodes and an initiator node connected via a reference. The generalized references are links, which interconnect the nodes and form an overlay topology. The system uses position information in the overlay topology for message routing between participating applications in the overly network. The automatic generation of path-based service identifiers and service locations is another aspect of the system.