Advanced Network Management Advanced Network Management

(NM) with mobile agents(NM) with mobile agentsThe Perpetuum Mobile Procura ProjectThe Perpetuum Mobile Procura Project

Dr. Andrzej Bieszczad

Carleton University

Problem with legacy NM SystemsProblem with legacy NM Systems

Few managers - many agents model• lots of data transmission• high CPU costs• synchronization of the databases and the network

Heterogeneous environment• interoperability problems• proliferation of human-machine interfaces (HMI)

Monolithic applications• often price paid in size and performance• hard to maintain

Manager/operator intensive

Project goalsProject goals

Explore the use of mobile agents to overcome the problems of legacy systems

Explore intelligent distributed management methods

Deliver a Java-based platform for simulated and actual network management

Educate

DescriptionDescription

Address the throughput problem by delegating authority

Limit the use of processing resources through periodic execution

Synchronize views of a network by automatic and continuous provisioning

Limit the requirements for human attention by delegation and employing intelligent managing methods

Description (continued)Description (continued)

Address the HMI problems with NM tools based on Web standards

Engineer a suite of simple NM tools rather than a monolith, so the size and performance are not sacrificed

Use distribution and extensibility to keep maintainability under control

Overcome the interoperability issues by plug-and-play capability

Technology usedTechnology used

Mobile code– servlets– netlets– applets

JAVA

– portability– code mobility– Web support– very strong support from the industry

Technology generatedTechnology generated

code mobility toolkit– mobility mechanism

• transport• migration

Virtual Managed Components– attributes– constraints– recovery– plug and play

Technology generated (continued)Technology generated (continued)

interface to legacy systems (initially through SNMP/DPI)

extensibility scheme for legacy systems (initially through SNMP/DPI)

Web-based NM tools simulated environment for explorations

Competitive Analysis (technology)Competitive Analysis (technology)

– JMAPI (Sun)• complete NM solution for traditional NM

– Servlets (Sun)• uses Java’s RMI (RPC-like framework)

– Aglets (IBM)• addresses high level software utility agents

• uses Java’s RMI

– SAIC Afterburner Agent Framework• a DAI workbench re-implemented in Java

– Java2go• a toolkit for mobile code

Competitive Analysis (research)Competitive Analysis (research)

Agents are popular almost at every research center• most work falls into Distributed AI• theories rooted in logic

NM with mobile agents - few centers– NM by delegation

• Columbia U., Y. Yemini

– Mobile agents for telecommunications• Technical University of Berlin, T. Megadantz

– Diagnosis with agents• University of Hannover, W. Nejdl

StaffStaff

– Bernard Pagurek, Professor• head

– supervisor

– Andrzej Bieszczad, Adjunct Professor• senior researcher

– co-supervisor

– Cheryl Schramm• software engineer

– Agent-oriented Web-based management tools

Master’s students/projectsMaster’s students/projects

– Gatot Susilo:• A Java-based mobile code framework for

advanced network management

– Ahmed Mohgrabi:• Problem-based management with mini-

experts (intentional)

Other projectsOther projects

– 4th year projects• Andre Campeau:

– Simulated network environment for explorations in network management based on mobile agents

– NM course project• Pierre Ernst:

– Novel approaches to agent extensibility

CollaboratorsCollaborators

– Tony White (principal NM researcher, NRC ; Ph.D. candidate, SCE)• swarm intelligence for intelligent networking

– Amir Zeid (Ph.D. candidate, SCS)• system management (TINA, ODP)• Towards plug-and-play networks

Projects not staffedProjects not staffed

– Towards self-repairing networks– automatic fault recovery

– Towards plug and play networks– automatic provisioning

– Network and netlet security– preventing piglets– density control

– Intelligent methods for NM– particularly diagnosis and fault management– prospects for many projects applying Distributed

Artificial and Computational Intelligence

ScheduleSchedule

Mobility toolkit - available now Simulator - April’97 Virtual Managed Component Interface - Summer’97 Manager tools - will start to appear in April/May’97 Problem-based management - end of 1997 Other DAI methods - 1998+ Plug and play networking - 1998+ Self-repairing networks - 1998+

URL: http://www.sce.carleton.ca/netmanage/perpetum.shtml

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