One of the major challenges of emerging networks (fixed and mobile) lies in the flexible provision of a high variety of existing and newly emerging services. However, existing networks are highly inflexible and do not easily allow for the provision of new services. This can be seen as an important reason for the slow introduction of IPv6, multicast services and the like on the Internet. In this context, one dream of future networks is to make them programmable comparable to the way computers are programmable. This calls for a convergence of computer, storage and communication within networks.

A goal of this Dagstuhl seminar is to discuss the potential of such open service platforms. New concepts as well as experiences gained with existing technology should stimulate intensive discussions. Especially, since we want to bring together researchers from different "schools4 (active networking, programmable networks, intelligent networks, agent technologies).

Especially the following topics are of interest:

• Active networking architectures
• Agent technologies
• Intelligent networks
• Dynamically deployable services
• Congestion control
• Multicast services
• Security issues related to active and programmable networking technologies
• Service location
• Service description
• Active signalling
• Experiences with prototypes
• Provision of testbeds
• Transition strategies