A network management approach enabling active and programmable Internets

This article presents a management framework intended for the evolution of present-day networks to hybrid infrastructures characterized by a mixture of forwarding, computing, and storage resources that are collectively known as programmable or active networks. Our approach is based on the synergies obtained by combining the policy-based network management paradigm and the facilities offered by the active and programmable networks under management. The former is specially suited to support user customization and adaptive solutions to the network environment, while the latter allows the support of part of the management application. The evaluation scenarios have shown that the management framework behaves as expected and also reveal promising performance figures.