1. A network for delivering multimedia services, comprising: a plurality of hardware components; a computer readable memory containing instructions that, when executed by a respective one of the plurality of hardware components, causes the plurality of hardware components to: instantiate a plurality of match-action tables for storing rules, each match-action table comprising a first column defining a header edit instruction to be performed on a matching message, each match-action table further comprising a second column defining a forwarding instruction to be performed on the matching message; instantiate a plurality of standardized simple switch applications, each standardized simple switch application being the same as the other standardized simple switch applications of the plurality of standardized simple switch applications and each standardized simple switch application comprising: an interface for receiving the matching message; a function for editing the matching message in accordance with the header edit instruction defined in the first column of the match action table and determining an identification information for a destination device of the matching message in accordance with the forwarding instruction defined in the second column of the match-action table; and an interface for transmitting the matching message to the destination device according to the identification information; and instantiate a plurality of rules managers for managing the rules; wherein: a first standardized simple switch application of the plurality of standardized simple switch applications, a first match-action table of the plurality of match-action tables, and a first set of rules managers of the plurality of rules managers, operate to perform a first network function for application level message processing, whereby the first network function is performed by the first standardized simple switch application by performing the application level message processing according to the rules stored in the first match-action table and managed by the first set of rules managers; and a second standardized simple switch application of the plurality of standardized simple switch applications, a second match-action table of the plurality of match-action tables, and a second set of rules managers of the plurality of rules managers, operate to perform a second network function for the application level message processing, the second network function being different from the first network function, whereby the second network function is performed by the second standardized simple switch application by performing the application level message processing according to the rules stored in the second match-action table and managed by the second set of rules managers.