Transport protocols: limitations, evolution obstacles and solutions for an actual deployment in the Internet

The Transport layer, designed for old networking contexts and now obsolete applications requirements, is inefficient. This paper discusses the reasons behind this inefficiency and the obstacles to the evolution of Transport protocols. The discussion is then extended to derive new requirements for the Transport layer, both functional and architectural, in order to ensure optimal performances in all current and future contexts. To meet these new requirements, a novel architectural design of the Internet Transport layer is proposed following a service-oriented and a component-based approach. The proposed solution allows for optimization of the Transport service performance, facilitation of its utilization, and is aimed at allowing the integration of new services as needed.