Design and Implementation of a Python-Based Active Network Platform for Network Management and Control

摘要

Active networks can provide lightweight solutions for network management-related tasks. Specific requirements for these tasks have to be met, while at the same time several issues crucial for active networks can be solved rather easily. A system addressing especially network management was developed and implemented. It provides a flexible environment for rapid development using the platform-independent programming language Python, and also supports platform dependent native code. By allowing to add new functions to network devices it improves the performance of Internet routers, and simplifies the introduction and maintenance of new services. To show the capabilities of the approach, two different quality of service related applications, that is a simple multicast algorithm and an approach to automatically set up tunnels, have been implemented. The evaluation of these services shows the advantages of the architecture, and its benefits for the task of network and quality of service management.