Hi Nico,
For some use cases I'd think an IGMP-like protocol would be best. Specifically for pub/sub, where a URI might denote/resolve to one or more group membership management services, where publishers, routers, and subscribers join as such and where the topology is worked out dynamically (this is easy enough for publishers and subscribers, but a bit harder for routers as real topology information would be nice to have but possibly difficult to extract from the network).
As an analogy, I would say pub/sub subscriptions basically work as IGMP.As for the name service (btw, we should think of a better name for the thign) the analogy is more like a network admin running around with cables, plugging in switches etc.
The core difference being that the former is fully automatic, while the latter is fully human-driven.
Martin
