METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTENT PROCESSNG AND ROUTING

A method and apparatus for incorporating content processing and content routing intelligence into networks. In one embodiment, the content processing and routing (CPR) system is aware of the content and requirements of data and service requests, as well as the capabilities of all services accessible via the system. Efficient network routing is accomplished by considering the capabilities of the available transmission channels, and the transmission needs of all current transmission service requests. Service requests are routed to the most suitable service or combination of services to fulfill the request. A mechanism is also provided for transparently converting data to accommodate data format differences between clients and services. In one embodiment, the CPR system comprises a system kernel consisting of the core software modules that are required to load, initialize and start CPR services, and allow the services to communicate securely. The CPR services conform to several general service types. These types include application services which act as the interface between a specific external application or device and the CPR system; kernel services which provide services on behalf of the kernel; content services which act on information in transit through the CPR system; routing services which contain the routing logic specific to a particular application; and link services which provide for the joining of two CPR instances over a network or other transmission channel. Data exchange is supported for bounded data in the form of media objects and unbounded data in the form of media streams.