We have previously proposed, implemented and demonstrated an Application Layer Active Network (ALAN) infrastructure. This infrastructure permits the dynamic deployment of active services in the network, but at the application level rather than the router level. Thus the advantages of active networking are realised, without the disadvantages of router level implementation. However we have previously left unsolved the issue of appropriate placement of ALAN supported services. This is an Application Layer Routing problem. In this paper 1 we define this problem and show that, in contrast to IP, it is a multi-metric problem. We then propose an architecture that helps conceptualise the problem and build solutions. We propose detailed approaches to the active node discovery and state maintenance aspects of Application Layer Routing (ALR).
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