An architectural model for intelligent network management

Traditional network management approach involves the management of each vendor’s equipment and network segment in isolation through its own proprietary element management system. It is necessary to set up a new network management architecture that calls for operation consolidation across vendor and technology boundaries. In this paper, an architectural model for Intelligent Network Management (INM) is presented. The INM system includes a manager system, which controls all subsystems and coordinates different management tasks; an expert system, which is responsible for handling particularly difficult problems, and intelligent agents, which bring the management closer to applications and user requirements by spreading intelligent agents through network segments or domain. In the expert system model proposed, especially an intelligent fault management system is given. The architectural model is to build the INM system to meet the need of managing modern network systems. This work is supported by Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, National “863” High-Tech Programme and National “973” Fundamental Research Programme of China. LUO Junzhou is a Professor of Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, the secretary-general of Petri Net Committee of China Computer Federation, an active member of New York Academy of Science. His current research interests include Petri net based protocol engineering, computer network, and concurrent engineering. GU Guanqun is the President of Southeast University, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a member of CIMS Expert Group of National “863” Program. His current research interests include high-performance network, protocol engineering, intelligent computer network, and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). FEI Xiang received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from Dept. of Control Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He is currently working towards the Ph.D. degree from Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University. His research interests include high-speed computer network, protocol engineering and knowledge based network resource management and scheduling.