Active network technology

The modern electronic world is increasingly interconnected. Many technologies exist today that facilitate communications amongst individuals, organizations and equipment. As a result, larger and faster networks are being constructed. However, the current model of building higher bandwidth links combined with more powerful processors in switching and routing elements contains a fundamental flaw. It is not the deployment of sophisticated equipment, but the protocol infrastructure the equipment is bound to that slows the introduction of new software. This protocol problem has a possible new solution. That solution exists in developing active networks (AN) technology. For if the protocol infrastructure is the bottleneck, then many of the problems are rooted in updating the protocol software on these networks. This software is responsible for interpreting and processing all the traffic. It can be changed to provide new functionality and flexibility