Abstract: A service provider node has an active network daemon running on it. Users control an adaptive pipeline via the active network capability of the service provider node by sending coded instructions to the service provider node. An adaptive pipeline is constructed within the service provider node according to control parameters contained in the coded instructions sent to it by a user. The adaptive pipeline includes a decode and an encode stage with zero or more intermediate filtering stages. The number and type of intermediate stages is determined by the values of the specified flow parameters.