Multicasting within the network allows to more efficiently use the bandwidth. Adapting close to the client shrinks the feedback loop and allows a faster adaptation. Finally, the load of adapting and multicasting data can be distributed to different nodes, which lowers the chance of having a single loaded server. We follow the concept and terminology of Amir et al. The term Active Service is an abstract term, denoting a piece of software that can be installed on these network nodes.
Applications use concrete services, such as adaptive filters or multicast filters.
As shown in the introduction example, multicasting filters and adaptive filters can be expected to increase the quality of the application. We claim that already in the current Internet, active services can be deployed with very limited addings to the network infrastructure. This claim is important for three reasons. Other proposals, such as Active Networks, require a complete change in the network structure, and their deployment is therefore slow on a large, shared network. We expect that these experiments will provide vital information on the deployment of active services and their influence on the application.