A mobile agent-based active network architecture for intelligent network control

Abstract

The innovation and evolution of network technologies and services to enhance network functionality have traditionally encountered the problems of backward-compatibility and standardization. To resolve the related issues, active networks have been introduced to enable specific customization of network functionality without the lengthy standard-mediated committee processes. In this paper, we exploit the capability of mobile agent technology to construct an active network architecture. We argue that the mobile agent can be a building block for specific network customizations, and introduction of new network functionality. Both integrated and discrete operational models of network customizations can be supported in our prototype implementation. For the service development and deployment, an abstract service structure and a service loading mechanism are presented. Furthermore, we provide an agent management/control mechanism and devise a service management/control mechanism, which is either not available or incomplete in the other related work. The proposed architecture allows new service introduction, and as a result, achieves improved network functionality.