This paper presents a new delay system approach to network-based control. This approach is based on a new time-delay model proposed recently, which contains multiple successive delay components in the state. Firstly, new results on stability and H-infinity performance are proposed for systems with two successive delay components, by exploiting a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and by making use of novel techniques for time-delay systems. An illustrative example is provided to show the advantage of these results. The second part of this paper utilizes the new model to investigate the problem of network-based control, which has emerged as a topic of significant interest in the control community. A sampled-data networked control system with simultaneous consideration of network induced delays, data packet dropouts and measurement quantization is modeled as a nonlinear time-delay system with two successive delay components in the state and, the problem of network-based H-infinity control is solved accordingly. Illustrative examples are provided to show the advantage and applicability of the developed results for network-based controller design. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.