Active Network Service Composition

<p>Active Network is a novel approach of networking to mobile users in which the nodes are programmed to perform custom operations on the messages that pass through the node. It provides an architectural support for dynamically deploying new protocols in an existing network topology. The routers in an active network can download and execute code that is contained in the packets passing through them, thus rendering the node recognized and run totally new protocols without making any changes to the architecture of the network. Because the network's behavior can be altered at any time, active networks could be used to provide dynamic quality of service (QoS) or to support dynamic solutions to traffic congestion. This research implements and tests such specialized Active Networks security service known as the firewall and the ping service in Active Network. Active Network environment will be implemented on a small scale test scenario in order to study the performance and characteristics of active networks