A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example avoiding data copy and task switching by processing protocol headers of network PDUs as a serial tape to be processed in order such as by a single method. Other processing includes reducing stages and simplifying protocol processing and multiplexing during network communications. Address changing in an active network can be implemented by assigning multiple addresses to an entity so that a new address can replace the old address. Peer-to-peer application searching can be performed among networks that can be accessible or non-accessible networks. Utilizing anycast sets that include selected and alternative addresses to enable immediate or near immediate alternative route selection on failure or congestion. Other embodiments are disclosed.