The complexity of fine-tuning local behaviour to achieve a global optimum for application-specific services cannot be addressed with current network technologies. However, by viewing a network as a system and modelling network elements according to software design principles inspired by grid technologies, complex interactions in a network become part of the application.
Publications
Robert J. Meijer, Rudolf J. Strijkers, Leon Gommans, Cees de Laat, "User Programmable Virtualized Networks" IEEE e-Science 2006 Amsterdam [pdf]