AMnet: heterogeneous multicast services based on active networking

AMnet flexibly provides communication services inside the network. It is based on active networking and on a hardware/software codesign in order to improve efficiency. Group communication is explicitly addressed since it is an important paradigm for existing and emerging networked applications. The goal of the AMnet approach is the provision of scalable quality-based support for heterogeneous group communication. It uses so-called service modules for efficient and flexible service support within intermediate systems. This paper gives an overview of AMnet. The design of an AMnode as an active intermediate system with hardware-supported service capabilities is presented. Furthermore, a simple control and signalling suite for heterogeneous multicast services is proposed.