Application level active network (ALAN) server management architecture

摘要

This paper presents the details of the policy-based security and resource management architecture for Application Level Active Network (ALAN) servers. ALAN is an active network architecture which enables deployment of user-customised processes (proxylets), which enhance the existing services or introduce new services to the end-user, on the select group of servers in an IP network. The issues of security and resource management in this scenario are of crucial importance so as to efficiently facilitate and control the resource consumption of user-specified processes on the active servers, as well as to protect the server platforms from unauthorised proxylet deployment or malevolent behaviour. The architecture allowing efficient resource and security control is presented in this paper, including detailed UML diagrams capturing the management functionality, as well as a set of concrete management policies for the ALAN scenario. The example XML policies are also given, and the deployment of this architecture in real-life trials is described. This development forms a part of a larger management architecture for ALAN-enabled networks developed in the context of the IST project ANDROID (Active Network DistRibuted Open Infrastructure Development).