A mechanism for the dynamic construction of clusters using active networks

In this paper we describe an active networks framework for dynamically constructing clusters in response to user requests for computational service. Active network nodes match requests for computational service to appropriate offers of such service using recent access and predicted usage pattern information to construct clusters on-demand. The active networks approach exploits the fact that network devices are in an ideal position to decide which resources should be combined to build clusters in response to particular requests. This approach offers advantages in terms of anonymity of service (systems are unaware of one anothers' existence), scalability (scheduling is distributed across many network processors), fault tolerance (service is distributed so failures are recoverable and/or localized) and automatic localization (clusters are created as close to the requester as possible).