Current network nodes enable connectivity between end-systems by supporting a static and well-defined set of protocols. The forwarding service provided by these network nodes is fixed, simple, and increasingly being implemented in hardware. Active network nodes, on the other hand, enable the unattended, dynamic instantiation of custom programs into the network node, allowing for the introduction of new protocols and services at runtime. Current prototype implementations of active network nodes achieve this flexibility by injecting a significant amount of software into the forwarding path. This paper describes an Active Network platform that is ideally suited for integration into modern, commercial-grade network nodes, such as router and switches with silicon-based forwarding paths. This Active Network platform supports the dynamic introduction of application services that can alter packet processing; it comprises the Oplet Runtime Environment (ORE) and the Java Forwarding (JFWD) API. The ORE is the substrate that provides for the secure downloading, installation, and safe execution of network services. The JFWD API is a uniform, platform-independent portal through which software services can control the forwarding path of heterogeneous network nodes. We describe how existing active networking environments can be ported onto this Active Network platform and present performance results for dynamically loaded network services on the Accelar Gigabit Ethernet Routing Switch product.
Realm Specific IP (RSIP) is a new architecture under consideration in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that can potentially alleviate some of the problems associated with partitioning of the Internet address space due to, for example, the shortage of IPv4 addresses. It is being positioned as a replacement for Network Address Translation (NAT), because, among other things, it can support end-to-end security via IPsec, which NAT cannot. This paper introduces the motivation behind RSIP, the RSIP architecture, and provides a basic overview of the RSIP protocol.
This work proposes a hybrid solution, called the smart box architecture (SBoX), that provides quality of service (QoS) in internet protocol (IP)-based networks. SBoX architecture consists of SBoX servers, which are located at the network boundary, and SBoX routers, which are add-on label switching routers (LSR), which are located at interior network nodes. This approach combines the advantages of three existing technologies: integrated services (Intserv), differentiated services (Diffserv), and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS). SBoX aggregates traffic in three levels: commodity-flows, macro-flows and micro-flows. Commodity-flows aggregate flow between every pair of edge points. The packets of the same commodity-flow are marked by an MPLS label. Commodity-flows are composed of macro-flows, which aggregate the traffic of a particular enterprise. Macro-flows are associated with an explicit service level agreement (SLA), which is offered to users. Macro-flows are composed of micro-flows, which are the traffic associated with a particular individual in an enterprise or a particular application. SBoX servers provide Diffserv like SLA to users, and use class-based queuing (CBQ) with a hierarchy of flow aggregation. SBoX servers manage macro-flows and commodity-flows only, and leave the management of micro-flows to the enterprise/users which signed the SLA for the macro-flow. SBoX routers perform MPLS routing of commodity-flows in interior network nodes. SBoX routers can be combined with existing best-effort routers to provide QoS in a network that lacks end-to-end deployment of LSRs. This paper describes the SBoX architecture and its operation in detail. It also reports experimental results obtained on a prototype network. The results indicate that the SBoX architecture can indeed provide guaranteed performance in a congested network, and that SBoX routers can be combined with commodity best-effort routers to enable QoS in a heterogeneous network.
Proxy caches for content on the Internet are high-performance platforms with complex software services. Because they understand application semantics, and because they have a great deal of memory, they are the natural place for new services that are tailored closely to site or user preferences and requirements. The engineering aspects of caches and how they contribute to a new network infrastructure for highly capable or intelligent services are examined in this paper.
