| Abstract: | The Mobile Agent (MA) technology is gainingimportance in the distributed management of networks andservices for heterogeneous environments. MA-basedmanagement systems could represent an interestingalternative to traditional tools built upon theclient/server model, either SNMP- or CMIP-based. Twomain requirements currently limit the acceptance of MAsolutions for management: the need of interoperabilityand the request for security. Without security,management systems cannot suit global untrustedenvironments, such as the Internet; withoutinteroperability, they cannot interact with existingtools and legacy systems. The paper describes an MA-basedmanagement system with security and interoperability asthe two main design objectives. It is an open managementframework that grants interoperability by providing compliance with CORBA, the most diffusedstandard in the area of object-oriented components. Inaddition, it is based on a thorough security model andprovides a wide range of tools and mechanisms to build and enforce flexible securitypolicies. |
