Network Management

Distributed Automated Resource Management using Software Agents

A Logical Path (LP) represents a reservation of resources through the network nodes and links

and carries the user traffic

Connection oriented networks with reservation mechanisms(MPLS, GMPLS, ATM, …)

A backup LP is a special LP that is only activated when there is a problem

in the network that affects the working LP

Software Agents communicate and negotiate between them in order to perform the following tasks:• Logical Path monitoring in order to detect congestion• Dynamic Bandwidth Management of both working and backup paths• Fault Restoration and backup bandwidth sharing management.

E.g. Not enough bandwidth in link A for both connections The Agents decide to reroute the blue connections in order to establish the green ones

A

A

AS 1 AS 4

AS 2

AS 3

AS 3 may not know that the working LP 1 go through AS 2 and

routes the backup connection through AS 2

AS 2 and AS 4 may not know that these two LPs should go through different physical links due to one

is the backup of the other

Suitable backup LP

Not useful backup LP

Inter-domain Protection ManagementInter-domain Characteristics• Network domains belong to different network providers (usually different companies) called Autonomous Systems (AS)• There are agreements between ASs in order to interconnect their networks. These agreements usually include specific details of

the service each AS offer to their peers, e.g. the link capacity (Mbits/s). This is called Service Level Agreement (SLA).• There are two types of agreements (not exclusive): Access to other AS users, and Transit through other AS networkInter-domain Problems• The AS do not want to share confidential network information to their competitors, only basic routing information.• It is not possible to perform an inter-domain optimisation of the working and backup LPs.• The main problem is the establishment of the backup LPs. A specific AS has not any kind of control over other ASs networks.

Proposed Management Mechanisms• Use of a single Software Agent representing every AS. No central authority.• Automated Negotiation based on a common ontology and standard Agent Communication Languages• Every agent internals can be different and use different AI mechanisms in order to make its decisions