1. A network for delivering multimedia services, comprising: a plurality of hardware components; computer readable memory containing instructions that, when executed by a respective one of the hardware components, causes the hardware component to instantiate a plurality of simple switch applications, each simple switch application comprising: a plurality of rules defining message edits and determination of identification information for a destination device of a message; an interface for receiving a message; a function for editing the message and determining identification information for a destination device of the message according to the rules; and an interface for transmitting the message to the destination device according to the identification information; computer readable memory containing instructions that, when executed by a respective one of the hardware components, causes the hardware component to instantiate a plurality of rules managers for managing the rules; and a particular simple switch application of the plurality of simple switch applications and a particular set of rules managers of the plurality or rules managers operating to perform a network function for application level message processing, whereby the network function is performed by the particular simple switch application by performing application level message processing according to the rules managed by the particular set of rules managers.