N2N: A Layer Two Peer-to-Peer VPN

The Internet was originally designed as a flat data network delivering a multitude of protocols and services between equal peers. Currently, after an explosive growth fostered by enormous and heterogeneous economic interests, it has become a constrained network severely enforcing client-server communication where addressing plans, packet routing, security policies and users' reachability are almost entirely managed and limited by access providers. From the user's perspective, the Internet is not an open transport system, but rather a telephony-like communication medium for content consumption. This paper describes the design and implementation of a new type of peer-to-peer virtual private network that can allow users to overcome some of these limitations. N2N users can create and manage their own secure and geographically distributed overlay network without the need for central administration, typical of most virtual private network systems.