Active routing

We describe active routing as a mechanism that can be used by individual network users, network managers, or network owners. Active routing is related to, and compared with, the current work on label switching. We address several implementation issues including the evolution from our current network structure and the distributed sand boxes. Sand boxes are used to control the resources that the participants acquire and to limit the harm that they can inflict on others. We show how active routing can reduce the need for new standards, such as IPv6, how it can extend the capabilities of label switching, and how it can be used for restoration, quality of service routing, policy routing, mobility, and receiver controlled routing. Active routing creates a free market system where network providers compete to sell their resources and implementors compete to sell their active routing programs. We establish a framework to quantitatively compare networks and service providers.