Enhancing Performance of Networking Applications by IP Tunneling through Active Networks

In 1995, DARPA initiated a work on a programmable concept of computer networking that would overcome shortcomings of the Internet Protocol. In this concept, each packet is associated with a program code that defines packet's behavior. The code defines available network services and protocols. The concept has been called Active Networks. The research of Active Networks nearly stopped as DARPA ceased funding of research projects. Because we are interested in research of possible successors to the Internet Protocol, we continued the research. In this paper, we present an active network node called Smart Active Node (SAN). Particularly, this paper focuses on SAN's ability to translate data flow transparently between IP network and active network to further improve performance of IP applications.