Patent ID: RE44798

Claim:
A network device comprising: a plurality of network interfaces each implementing at least one low level protocol stack layer and comprising a network based cross-layer agent associated with the at least one low level protocol stack layer; and a control system associated with the plurality of network interfaces and comprising: an application based cross-layer agent associated with at least one high level protocol stack layer including an application layer, the application based cross-layer agent adapted to obtain information identifying a second network device with which the application layer desires to establish a network connection and provide the information identifying the second network device to an arbitration agent; and the arbitration agent adapted to: identify the one of the plurality of network interfaces as a network interface for establishing a network connection with the second network device based on the information identifying the second network device; effect interconnection of the at least one high level protocol stack layer and the one of the plurality of network interfaces identified as the network interface for establishing the network connection with the second network device; and effect interconnection of the network based cross-layer agent of the one of the plurality of network interfaces identified as the network interface for establishing the network connection with the second network device and the application based cross-layer agent for a duration of the network connection, thereby providing a complete protocol stack having a cross-layer architecture for the network connection.