Active services are application-specified programs that are executed inside the network. The location where the active service is executed plays an important role. The dynamic behavior of networks requires that the selection of the most suitable location to instantiate a service is done at run time. To dynamically place an active service, information about the network (topology, bandwidth) and the application (type of the service) is necessary. This paper describes a method to dynamically search for available active service locations in the Internet. To be deployed in the current Internet, a solution is required to scale well to large networks, and to demand as little changes to the Internet as possible, especially not at lower network layers. Finally, the solution must be flexible and customizable to take application requirements into account. The proposed solution makes use of the routing path between two end systems. Active service locations that are located close to the routing pat...
Roger Karrer, Thomas R. Gross