Active Networks and Active Network Management: A Proactive Management Framework

Active networking is an exciting new paradigm in digital networking that has the potential to revolutionize the manner in which communication takes place. It is an emerging technology, one in which new ideas are constantly being formulated and new topics of research are springing up even as this book is being written. This technology is very likely to appeal to a broad spectrum of users from academia and industry. Therefore, this book was written in a way that enables all these groups to understand the impact of active networking in their sphere of interest. Information services managers, network administrators, and e-commerce developers would like to know the potential benefits of the new technology to their businesses, networks, and applications. The book introduces the basic active networking paradigm and its potential impacts on the future of information handling in general and on communications in particular. This is useful for forward-looking businesses that wish to actively participate in the development of active networks and ensure a head start in the integration of the technology in their future products, be they applications or networks. Areas in which active networking is likely to make significant impact are identified, and the reader is pointed to any related ongoing research efforts in the area.
The book also provides a deeper insight into the active networking model for students and researchers, who seek challenging topics that define or extend frontiers of the technology. It describes basic components of the model, explains some of the terms used by the active networking community, and provides the reader with taxonomy of the research being conducted at the time this book was written. Current efforts are classified based on typical research areas such as mobility, security, and management. The intent is to introduce the serious reader to the background regarding some of the models adopted by the community, to outline outstanding issues concerning active networking, and to provide a snapshot of the fast-changing landscape in active networking research. Management is a very important issue in active networks because of its open nature. The latter half of the book explains the architectural concepts of a model for managing active networks and the motivation for a reference model that addresses limitations of the current network management framework by leveraging the powerful features of active networking to develop an integrated framework. It also describes a novel application enabled by active network technology called the Active Virtual Network Management Prediction (AVNMP) algorithm. AVNMP is a pro-active management system; in other words, it provides the ability to solve a potential problem before it impacts the system by modeling network devices within the network itself and running that model ahead of real time.

Active networking is a new, radical paradigm in communication networking. Management and security of networks embedded with this powerful new technology are both challenging and critical. Active Networks and Active Network Management introduces the concept of active networks and its impact on future networking services and applications. The book details a unique solution for network management as an example of an innovative service enabled by this technology's singular aspects. Active networking, though a nascent concept still in its infancy, is rapidly gaining maturity as evidenced by its increasing presence in academic and industrial research circles. The book presents the reader with useful, timely information on this topic, recognizing that, as networking products become ever more active, it is crucial to understand the growing benefits of active networking.

Stephen F. Bush is a Computer Scientist at General Electric Research and Development in Niskayuna, New York. Dr. Bush conducts research in advanced networking concepts. He has numerous patents pending in the area of network security and vulnerability analysis and provisional patents for active networks in both terrestrial and spacebased communication systems. Dr. Bush received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and M.S. in Computer Science from Cleveland State University. Before joining General Electric Research and Development, Dr. Bush was a researcher at the Information and Telecommunications Technologies Center at the University of Kansas where he contributed to the DARPA Rapidly Deployable Radio Networks Project. Dr. Bush completed his Ph.D. research at the University of Kansas where he received a Strobel Scholarship Award. He received the award of Achievement for Professional Initiative and Performance for his work as Technical Project Leader at General Electric Information Systems in the areas of network management and control while pursuing his Ph.D.

Amit B. Kulkarni is a Computer Scientist at General Electric Research and Development in Niskayuna, New York. Before joining GE Corporate Research & Development, Dr. Kulkarni was a researcher at the Information and Telecommunications Technology Center at the University of Kansas where he worked on the DARPA Multidimensional Applications and Gigabit Inter-network Consortium (MAGIC-II) project. He received his B.S. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Pune, India, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.