A
virtual machine running on an endpoint device may
encode a mark comprising routing parameters within one or more packets of a packet
stream to indicate services and / or costs to be utilized in
processing and / or communicating the packet
stream. The
virtual machine may communicate the packet
stream to another network device. The routing parameters within the marks may indicate device capabilities, service class, quality measurements, latency and / or
power usage. The routing parameters may comprise costs that may indicate capacity, efficiency and / or performance of
power usage, bandwidth, absolute and / or relative latency, frame-drop eligibility, memory and
processing. The packet stream is received and inspected to identify the marks and / or routing parameters. A
virtual machine may be initialized and / or configured to process and / or communicate the packet stream based on the routing parameters. Routing may utilize based SPB, TRILL, and / or AVB.