In order to accommodate rapid contemporary networks evolution, in a
scalable and cost-effective manner, it is desirable to have an adaptable
network which deploys a reconfigurable logic device to modify or change
the processing element and the corresponding protocol, when needed. To
address this requirement, this book presents a novel adaptable network
framework which provides predefined adaptation and non-predefined
adaptation to fulfil the flexibility. In the non-predefined adaptation
framework, networks can dynamically update the network elements at
either the system level or the function level after the system has been
deployed; in the predefined adaptation framework, the network elements
are provided with different adaptable functional components at the time
of deployment and these are chosen as required by service level
agreements on the fly. This book should help shed some light on this new
and exciting programmable future networks, and should be especially
useful to professionals in reconfigurable computing and communications
fields, or anyone else who may be considering utilising reconfigurable
logics for programmable network devices in future communication
networks.