Management in telecom environments that are based on active networks

The paper addresses the question how the benefits of active networking, such as customized packet processing in the data path and flexible service management, can be achieved in a telecom environment. More precisely, we ask: How can a network provider, whose infrastructure is based on active networking technology, support a large number of customers, all of which independently install, run, and manage their own active services on the provider’s shared infrastructure? We propose a framework that defines the interactions between customer and network provider for the purpose of service provisioning and service management. The key concept in this framework is a generic active service, called the Virtual Active Network (VAN) service, which is offered by the provider to its customers. Our framework de-couples service life-cycle management, which is under the complete control of the customer, from the provisioning of network resources in the provider’s domain, which is performed in a cooperative fashion between customer and provider. The goal of the paper is to demonstrate that our framework can be realized with considerable benefits for both customers and providers. To prove this point, we discuss the realization of a VAN provisioning and management architecture on ANET, an active networking platform we have developed, and we show how a customer installs and manages active services on this platform. 1 This work was performed while both authors were at ETH Zurich. Correspondence should be directed to Rolf Stadler (www.ctr.columbia.edu/~stadler).