AMnet: efficient and flexible provision of heterogeneous multicast services

AMnet is a framework for flexible and rapid service creation and provides primarily heterogeneous user-tailored group communication services, AMnet is based on Active and Programmable Networking technologies and uses active nodes (AMnodes) located within the network to execute so-called service modules for the provision of individual group communication services. It is, however not limited to group communication since it provides a rather generic framework. The AMnode design is shaped for the efficient execution of flexible loadable service modules, including dedicated hardware support.