One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating network service virtualization. During operation, the system receives (202) a service request from a client, and initializes a communication session with the client. The system constructs (206) an interest using session state information that can identify the client and/or a previous communication session. The interest comprises a hierarchically structured variable-length name. The system then broadcasts (216) the interest to a number of servers. The system subsequently forwards to the client data received from a server which responds first to the interest.