AbstractThe next generation Internet will not only be defined by its technological progress but also by innovative Internet applications which offer new features, more interactivity, and a better user experience. Structured overlay networks, which create a well-defined virtual topology above the basic transport network, are a powerful means to easily create such Internet applications. There are many different approaches to realize structured overlay networks which in their core functions share the same basic principles. In this work we summarize the fundamentals of structured overlay networks, describe their inherent problems, and present an overview of our solutions. We then show how all these ideas have been put into practice in terms of a distributed carrier grade communication platform.