1. Concepts

Semantics studies the meaning of signs. For example, semantic addressing refers to the identifying information conveyed by an address, be it a MAC address, an IP address or any other form of addressing that provides an indication of both the identity of a machine (a terminal, router, switch, etc.) and its location, i.e. where this machine is connected to the network.

A few years ago, communication protocols were specifically designed to better control the growing size of routing tables maintained by certain routers on the Internet. These...