Active Network Vision and Reality: Lessons from a Capsule-Based System

Summary

The authors of this paper aim to understand more about Active Networks. They do so by designing, implementing and evaluating ANTS active network toolkit, which provides a flexible network layer and addresses some of the performance and security concerns due to code injected into the network. They also point to 3 areas that they have not yet resolved: capsule model of programming, accessibility of that model to all users, and applications can be constructed using that model.

Criticism & Questions

I think this is an interesting contract to RON. Both are trying to solve the general problem of application-aware routing, but in different ways. While RON is implemented at the application layer, active networks are at the IP layer. Although I think active networks are a great idea in theory, they will be a pain to implement correctly. And, since they allow users to input code into the network, without proper isolation, it could lead to a security nightmare.