A windows-based active-router architecture

As computing power becomes cheaper, more and more functionality is being deployed inside computer networks, to provide better services to users. Examples of such services include support for Quality-of-Service (QoS), multicast, mobility and security. Nevertheless, such functionalities are still lacking in most networking systems. Active networking is a step towards enhancing the static and inflexible structures of current networks. This paper focuses on the design and development of technologies that allow rapid deployment of functionality throughout the network. The paper presents the design and implementation of a Windows-Based Active Router (WBAR) architecture, which provides flexibility for the development of future network services. The hardware is based on a personal computer with 2GHz, Intel P4 processor. The designed AR depends on the use of Windows OS and efficient C programming. Windows OS is rarely used in such projects due to complexity of kernel-mode programming.