Cabernet: connectivity architecture for better network services

Deploying and managing wide-area network services is exceptionally challenging. Despite having servers at many locations, a service provider must rely on an underlying best-effort network; a network provider can offer services over its own customized network, but only within limited footprint. In this paper, we propose Cabernet (Connectivity Architecture for Better Network Services), a three-layer network architecture that lowers the barrier for deploying wide-area services. We introduce the connectivity layer, which uses virtual links purchased from infrastructure providers to run virtual networks with the necessary geographic footprint, reliability, and performance for the service providers. As an example, we present a cost-effective way to support IPTV delivery through wide-area IP multicast that runs on top of a reliable virtual network.