In message
<200008270329(_dot_)XAA26678(_at_)viper2(_dot_)alleghenypower(_dot_)com>,
"Rakers, Jason" w
rites:
That depends on your definition of an "active" network. If you consider an
active network to be a network able to recover from errors and equipment
failure automatically, block unwanted traffic, and provide dynamic updates
of the best routes available....those active networks are here today.
Active networking is still a research topic, although there exist a few
companies (mostly startups AFAIK) these days that are trying to incorporate
similar technology in their products. If you ask 10 researchers, you'll get
12 definitions of active networking, all of them containing strong notions
of on-the-fly programmability of network elements (no, updating the Cisco IOS
via tftp or what-have-you doesn't count :-)
-Angelos