Research of the node operating system (NodeOS) in an active network

This paper firstly proposes a three-layered NodeOS structural model that divides the functionality of NodeOS among hardware abstraction layer, resource management layer and API layer, and discusses the primary functions of each layer. NodeOS built on this model will be open and programmable. Then, from the view of supporting fair and customized services, this paper puts forward a general NodeOS service model that defines three types of NodeOS services according to the tradeoff between quality of service and cost of service, then specifies a general method to map special application-oriented services to NodeOS services, and lastly discusses the resource allocation policies and corresponding enforcement mechanisms. Finally, after analyzing the security requirements of active net, this paper puts forward a general but powerful security architecture for NodeOS, which embeds elementary security mechanisms in NodeOS by enforcing well-designed domain relations and encapsulating sensitive underlying interfaces, and provides further security services of authorization management and packet checking by integrating additional service facilities.