Active networks as a developing and testing environment for network protocols

Active Networks is a modern network approach in which pieces of code can be downloaded and executed on network devices, affecting in this way their behavior. This approach alters the philosophy of a computer network, makes it resemble to a distributed system and affects not only network protocols, services or applications, but also high-level mechanisms and procedures. One of the affected procedures is the development and testing of new protocols. By exploiting active network properties the development of a network protocol can be simplified to software development. Expensive and time-consuming hardware implementations are avoided, while the code can be developed, shared and tested by individual researchers. Testing can be performed on actual conditions instead of using inaccurate simulations. Early implementations of the protocol, which can be modified easily while the protocol evolves, can be used to obtain useful feedback. This paper describes our experiences of developing and testing of some of theietf cops family protocols in an Active Environment.