Sudha Ramesh
sudha@research.telcordia.com
Keith Landgraf
kflandg@lts.ncsc.mil
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What is a Mobile Agent (MA)?
A Loose, Operational Definition
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Mobile Agent Illustration
Traditional Network
Management System
Adaptors
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Prior Research: MAs for Network Management
Ÿ Many papers, some dating back >10 years
Ÿ Papers have offered much conjecture on the benefits
of MAs for network management, principally:
– reduction in data traffic related to network management
– better scalability resulting from a more-distributed network
management paradigm
Ÿ The claims are unsubstantiated and remain dubious
Ÿ The REAL value may be in providing carriers with
greater flexibility in network-management capabilities
– filling gaps in conventional management functionality
– facilitating speedy support of new services and features
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Our Research Goals
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Network Example - Metro Ethernet
Multi-tenant
GbE L2
Building Switch
LAN 1
LAN 2
ISP Point
of Presence
•••
Web Hoster
LAN n
Access
Ring
Metro/Regional Network Access
(GbE/10GbE Core) Ring
VoIP
Data Storage GW Gateway
Facility
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Why Focus on Ethernet?
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Metro Ethernet Management Challenges
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Example MA Applications in Metro Ethernet
Auto-Discovery
Service Lookup
Provider Service
Service Service
Object Object
RMI Service
Object
Client
Managed Network Element
Ÿ Commercial
– Aglets from IBM
– AgentBuilder from IntelliOne Technologies
– GrassHopper from IKV++ Technologies
Ÿ Academic & Research
– D’Agents from Dartmouth University
– Mobile Code Toolkit from Carleton University
– Hive from MIT
– JATLite from Stanford University
– JADE from CSELT, Italy
– FarGo from Isreal Institute of Technology
– Ajanta from Univ. of Minnesota
– MAgNET from UCSB
A Switch
Hardware
Access
Agent Control Operating
Receptor JVM System
Adapter
MIB
Access
Control
Switch
JVM
Hardware
Adapter
Operating
CLI System
commands
MIB
A
A
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Observations
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