Client delegated control within an ASP infrastructure

Abstract

Network programmability is a means by which some of the network operator's control is ceded to the network user. While the research community recognizes that networks need to be more programmable to accelerate the speed with which innovation can be introduced, operators have been understandably loath to 'open up' their networks until there is some compelling reason to do so. We present a problem: the dynamic creation and modification of Service Level Agreements (SLA) in an Application Service Providers (ASP) infrastructure, which we argue can only be addressed by allowing clients some degree of programmability over that infrastructure. The entity that clients instrument is termed an Instant Corporation or ICorp and encapsulates server, network and proxying devices. We consider the issues involved in a ASP infrastructure which supports such client delegated control through a description of a working implementation called the ICorpMaker.