A DSM Cluster Architecture Supporting Aggressive Computation in Active Networks

Active networks allow computations to be performed innetwork at routers as messages pass through them. Active networks offer unique opportunities to optimize networkcentric applications in ways that are not possible using conventional networks. Unfortunately, the need to route packets at full network speed means that very little computation can be done per packet, per router. This seriously restricts the range of in-network applications that can be developed. Computationally intensive applications are restricted to executing outside the network and thus many potential innetwork optimizations are precluded. We propose a scalable cluster architecture using software Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) that can be used as an “attached processor” at routers for executing active code. This novel application of DSM enables the construction of aggressive active network protocols by providing significant compute capacity outside the router’s critical packet routing path. The use of DSM simplifies the implementation, and extends the capabilities, of the active packet execution engine in ways that a message passing cluster cannot. Further, the characteristics of active processing enable specific optimizations to consistency maintenance.