Abstract— This paper tackles the need for a Resource Management Database under the scope of the Generic Path (GP) architecture, as a result of the 4WARD 7 th FP project clean-slate approach. GP is a concept for generalizing data transport and/or transformation across a network facility, allowing for instance route identification and path classification. Though, the GP notion by itself misses a way to efficiently track availability of resources and for coordinating and combining the information of multiple GPs in a versatile way. The present work proposes filling such gap by adding these and other enhancements through the use of a hierarchical management solution, based on the intelligent organization and interaction of records. This approach is aimed to act as an adaptable and configurable resource management model, with concepts realizable in current networks by systematic deployment in network elements – therefore towards the notion of a flat architecture. Index Terms—Generic Path, resource management, cross-layer design, 4WARD I. INTRODUCTION ontinuous technology evolution has pushed Internet's range of services to be largely extended, both reflected in more obvious users’ needs (e.g.: VoIP calls using IP signaling) or more disruptive paradigms (e.g.: social- networking as in Twitter). Bandwidth-hungry services such as Video on Demand (VoD) or Peer-to-Peer (P2P) raised network scalability and reliability problems not easily solved due to the extreme complexity derived from the existing “cocktail” of networking protocols. Another problem is that in most of the cases the introduction of a new application implies doing cross-design or layers patching, violating the Internet model. The global implementation of some possible solutions to the referred problems (and others like mobility), such as IPv6, multicast, IPSec, MIP or Quality of Service (QoS), have always faced reluctance by Service Providers in being widely provided, for example due to the lack of immediate gain or the possibility for a gradual alleviation of the problems through the natural evolution of technologies they were intended to solve [1]. * Instituto de Telecomunicações, Campus Universitário de Santiago, P-3810-193 AVEIRO - PORTUGAL ¥ Universidade de Aveiro In a novel vision of confronting the problem, the Clean- Slate approach proposes to totally redesign Internet architecture by ignoring current design constrains and analyzing actual and potential requirements. Theoretically, such an approach would permit mechanisms currently featured as add-ons to appear embedded in the base architecture. Initial work started at US through NSF's GENI (Global Environment for Networking Innovation) project for developing an infrastructure for supporting and implementing novel architectures [2], as part of its FIND (Future INternet Design) program. Two of those most known projects are RNA [3] and SILO [4]. RNA examines the implications of using a single, tunable protocol for different layers of the protocol stack, reusing basic protocol operations across different protocol layers. This avoids reimplementation, and encourages cleaner cross-layer interactions and support of dynamic service composition, and understanding the impact of layers in the architecture. As for SILO, it is characterized as a framework for highly configurable and complex communication tasks. It consists of building blocks that may be combined to accomplish from simple to highly complex communication tasks, and control elements to provide cross-layer interactions. Following these steps, FIRE (Future Internet Research and Experimentation) program was launched under the 7 th Framework Program of European Union, along with Japan's AKARI and many others from around the globe. The amount of work currently being developed bears proof of the importance of Internet's improvement for assuring world-wide sustainability [5]. The 7 th FP 4WARD Project (which is officially complete) was the European's flagship for Future Internet research, combining multiple complementary network architectures in a common object-oriented framework [6]. Among its features (network of information, native management, virtualization and network of information which are out of scope in this paper), a new connectivity paradigm named GP is proposed. The GP architecture aims to reduce connectivity complexity by deploying a unique way to provide communication between any entity, regardless of their location or architectural level. In other words, it provides an abstraction for data transport across and/or data manipulation inside a network facility. Also, by its object-oriented approach, it allows the definition of classes for each path type and respective instantiation, as well as the identification of routes, among other features. Data transport over GPs occurs by mapping sessions into physical resources, such as links, network interfaces, routers, etc. On the need for a Control Mechanism in Generic Paths S. Figueiredo*, Rui L. Aguiar* ¥ C