This does sound rather like the work of the IETF ForCES
working group; the intent there is to split one logical
router - to the outside world - into separate pieces. The
focus is on the separation of layers 5/6/7 (BGP, OSPF etc
routing protocols, traffic shaping, NAT) from layer 3
(packet forwarding), the general purpose applications from
the specialised packet processing. But it will allow
multiple BGP engines and multiple packet processing engines
to interconnect to form a logical whole.
But don't hold your breath; the RFC are a year away.
Tom Petch, Network Consultant
nwnetworks(_at_)dial(_dot_)pipex(_dot_)com
+(44) 192 575 3018