Oracle Replication - Survivability

Simply put, my database should be up 24x7!

I'm looking forward to Oracle Symmetric Replication - wherein the replicated database becomes available automatically(without the DBA
intervention) to the users(dispersed geographically)in the event of the
master database going down. The users should be able to use the same
'database connect string' or 'service name' - in other words
'transparent'

to database going down. Once the master database is brought up, it should
be synchronized with the Standy/Replicated Database.

Two issues are involved here

1. Replicating the Entire Database
2. Replicated Database availability on the same service name - automatically.

For point a, thought of using the Symmetric Replication feature and For point b, eliminating tnsnames.ora from all the client machines and instead use Oracle Names and have some daemon process polling in for the master database availability every minute. In case of a master database failure/unavailability, it would change the Oracle Names configuration file for that service to point to the replicated database.
I'm not sure whether this would work. Kindly advice.

Would using the 'Standby Database' feature help solve the problem?

thanks in advance

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