An agent‐based perspective to handover management in 4G networks

In 3G or earlier generation networks handovers are usually initiated and decided by the base station, on the basis of measurements of RSS or SNR received by the terminal, cell congestion, terminal speed etc. In 4G, due to the diversity of available radio access services, additional factors, for example user profile, application requirements, and terminal device capabilities, need also to be taken into account. We propose an agent‐based architecture that determines the timing and target network for handovers in a 4G network setting. The capabilities of the architecture are provided as a value‐added service on top of network operators' wireless access infrastructure. Network selection spans both wireless access and core routing services and is performed by user agents executing in the network side. In order to deal with trust issues we study the integration of the regulatory authority in the architecture. A performance study of the architecture's impact on handover latency is provided through a simulation system. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Split agent‐based routing in interconnected networks

Adaptive behaviour of swarm‐based agents (BT Technol. J. 1994; 12 :104–113; AAMAS Conference '02, Melbourne, Australia, Month 1–2, 2002; Softcomput. J. 2001; 5 (4):313–317.) is being studied in this paper with respect to network throughput for a certain amount of data traffic. Algorithmically complex problems like routing data packets in a network need to be faced with a dynamically adaptive approach such as agent‐based scheme. Particularly in interconnected networks where multiple networks are participating in order to figure a large‐scale network with different QoS levels and heterogeneity in the service of delay sensitive packets, routing algorithm must adopt in frequent network changes to anticipate such situations. Split agent‐based routing technique (SART) is a variant of swarm‐based routing (Adapt. Behav. 1997; 5 :169–207; Proceedings of 2003 International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems—SPECTS, Montreal, Canada, July 20–24, 2003; 240–247.) where agents are split after their departure to the next node on a hop‐by‐hop basis. Packets that are delay sensitive are marked as prioritized which agents recognize‐as being a part of a packet‐ and try to influence the two‐way routing tables. Thorough examination is made, for the performance of the proposed algorithm in the network and the QoS offered, taking into account a number of metrics. It is shown that the split agent routing scheme applied to interconnected networks offers a decentralized control in the network and an efficient way to increase overall performance and packet control reducing at the same time the packet loss concept. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A hierarchical mobile‐agent‐based security operation center

The continuous evolvement of the e‐domain has led to a significant increase in the amount of sensitive personal information stored on networked hosts. These hosts are invariably protected by security mechanisms such as intrusion detection systems, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), antivirus software, firewalls, and so forth. However, they still remain vulnerable to the threat of malicious attacks, theft and intrusion. The high false positive alarm rate of such mechanisms is particularly troublesome because false alarms greatly degrade the efficiency of the security framework. Security operation centers (SOCs) provide an automated solution for analyzing the threat to a network such that appropriate protective measures can be put in place. This paper proposes a novel hierarchical mobile‐agent‐based SOC to overcome the vulnerability of traditional static SOCs to single point of failure attacks. In addition, the network is partitioned into multiple divisions, each with its own alert detection and aggregation methodology to improve the computational efficiency of the data collection and fusion process. The data acquired in the various divisions are fused and correlated in an efficient manner via intrusion detection message exchange format, XML, session and timer methods The experimental results confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed hierarchical mobile‐agent‐based SOC framework. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Desktop versus web‐based network management

This paper introduces a novel management paradigm called desktop‐based management that enables management of network resources from a desktop environment. It also covers the design and the implementation of SMB_―SNMP, a simple desktop‐based management system that allows people to manage SNMP resources from a desktop environment. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed XML‐based network management using JPVM

The proliferation of the Internet and related applications has led to an increasing need for a more efficient and scalable network management framework. As the size of networks increases, more challenges are presented to network managers. One of these challenges is how to distribute the management tasks to achieve efficiency and scalability. In this paper, we present a framework using JPVM to distribute the management work among multiple gateways. We compare the performance of this approach and that of the single gateway approach. Both approaches are DOM‐based. Our findings show that the parallel approach can considerably reduce the response time for requesting the management information from multiple devices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating the performance of a middleware protocol architecture for tele‐measurement

The rapid growth of network infrastructures and the large availability of instrumentation supporting remote control have encouraged the deployment of complex and sophisticated laboratories and the design of software platforms for accessing the resources present there. Although the market offers several solutions to remotely manage equipment, little attention has been paid to the hardware and software architectures devoted to control distance learning experimental environments and to manage laboratories consisting of heterogeneous devices. The paper illustrates the architectural approach adopted within the LABNET project and describes in detail the main software components of the devised platform, which allows to exploit the instrumentation via a common Web user interface, thus making the system available independent of any specific (commercial) environment or application. Specifically, attention is focused on the LABNET server (LNS), which represents the supervising central unit and, therefore, a very critical element of the system. The paper mainly points out the architecture and protocols at the basis of the LNS and discusses a set of performance tests aimed at proving the effectiveness of the system and comparing it with a well‐known commercial solution. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of SNMP‐XML translator and gateway for XML‐based integrated network management

The research objective of our work is to develop a SNMP MIB to XML translation algorithm and to implement an SNMP‐XML gateway using this algorithm. The gateway is used to transfer management information between an XML‐based manager and SNMP‐based agents. SNMP is widely used for Internet management, but SNMP is insufficient to manage continuously expanding networks because of constraints in scalability and efficiency. XML–based network management architectures are newly proposed as alternatives to SNMP‐based network management, but the XML‐based Network Management System (XML‐based NMS) cannot directly manage legacy SNMP agents. We also implemented an automatic specification translator (SNMP MIB to XML Translator) and an SNMP‐XML gateway. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

Scalability of software defined network

With the development of software-defined networking (SDN),its scalability has become one of the most important issues of SDN.The features of SDN was studied which lead to its scalability problem when SDN was applied to large-scale network.The three main causes leading to scalability problem were discussed:control plane and data plane separation,logical centralized control and fine-grained flow control.Meanwhile,the studies which focus on the scalability of SDN from three aspects:scalability of performance,scalability of geographic and scalability of control was presented.Further,the studies on the performance evaluation of the scalability of SDN were introduced.Finally,the future work was discussed.     

Web Services‐based network management: approaches and the WSNET system

While the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is still the dominant protocol for managing network elements in IP‐based networks and the Internet, network managers are acknowledging its limitations with respect to configuration management, application development and decentralization of management tasks. Web Services (WS) have been recently proposed to alleviate these limitations, given their pertinence to both decentralized management paradigms (e.g., CORBA), and XML management systems which provide efficiency in configuration management operations. This paper reviews architectures for WS‐based network management, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. These architectures address management of both individual network elements and composite multi‐device networks. Moreover, the paper introduces the architecture of a prototype system for WS‐based network management, namely WSNET. Along with presentation of the WSNET system, we provide a set of experimental results reporting performance figures for the WSNET system, as well as for systems based on other WS architectures. These figures allow for a comparative evaluation of the various systems, and manifest the benefits of the WSNET implementation. An important conclusion from our work is that WS should be seen as an accompaniment to conventional SNMP management rather than a replacement. However, there are also cases (e.g., need for secure remote access) where WS serve as a core rather than auxiliary solution, given that conventional methods are not applicable. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving MANET performance by a hop‐aware and energy‐based buffer management scheme

A hop‐aware and energy‐based buffer management scheme (HEB) is proposed in this paper. HEB can provide better quality of service to packets with real‐time requirements and improve MANET power efficiency. In our algorithm, the buffer is divided into real‐time and non‐real‐time partitions. We consider the number of hops passed, the power levels of the transmitting node, the predicted number of remaining hops, and waiting time in the buffer to determine packet transmission priority. In addition, specialized queue management and a probabilistic scheduling algorithm are proposed to decrease retransmissions caused by packet losses. Mathematical derivations of loss rates and end‐to‐end delays are also proposed. Coincidence between mathematical and simulation results is also shown. Finally, the HEB is compared with first in first out, random early detection, and hop‐aware buffering scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces loss rates, power consumption, and end‐to‐end delays for real‐time traffic, considerably improving the efficiency of queue management in MANET. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An agent‐based workflow scheduling mechanism with deadline constraint on hybrid cloud environment

Summary

With the advances of cloud computing, business and scientific‐oriented jobs with certain workflows are increasingly migrated to and run on a variety of cloud environments. These jobs are often with the property of deadline constraint and have to be completed within limited time. Therefore, to schedule a job with workflow (short for workflow) with deadline constraint is increasingly becoming a crucial research issue. In this paper, we, based on previous work, propose an agent‐based workflow scheduling mechanism to schedule workflows that are with deadline constraint into federated cloud environment.

Design and Methods

We add a workflow agent into the original framework to schedule the deadline‐constraint workflow. The workflow agent can smoothly schedule workflows to the cloud system according to their required resource and automatically monitor their execution. In order to accurately predict the execution time of each task to meet deadline constraint on certain VM with given resource, we inherit the use of rough set theory to estimate execution time of task in our previous work.

Result and Discussion

A heuristic algorithm that is embedded into the workflow agent is also proposed because the problem had been shown to be NP‐complete. The mechanism also adopts dynamic job dispatching method to reduce the usage of VM and to improve the resource utilization. We also conducted experiments to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness.

Conclusion

The experimental results show that the prediction time is very close to the real execution time and can efficiently schedule multiple scientific workflows to meet the deadline constraints simultaneously.     

Introducing a light-weight autonomic network middleware based on stigmergic mechanisms

Autonomous systems are capable of performing activities by taking into account the local environment and adapting to it. No planning is necessary therefore autonomous systems have to make the best of the resources at hand. Locality in this case is no longer geographical but rather the information and applications on the boundary of the autonomic communicating element which may be distributed over a wide area. The aim of autonomous communication systems is that they exhibit self-awareness properties, in particular self-contextualisation, self-programmability and self-management. In this paper, we identify the need for autonomous systems, their architecture, the path of evolution from traditional network elements, the need for open networks and future trends within autonomic computing.     

Analyzing network performance management

The performance management model, an object-oriented model upon which the ANSI performance management interface standard is based, is discussed. The managed objects, the relationships between the objects and the behavior of the objects in the model are reviewed. In order to illustrate the power and flexibility of the model, several examples are presented that show how the model may be tailored to fit specific needs. The examples include static monitoring of spontaneous events and collection and generation of measurement reports. The strengths and weaknesses of the OSI developed model are described     

Design and implementation of a web‐based Internet performance management system using SNMP MIB‐II

This article is aimed at defining items of analysis using SNMP MIB‐II for the purpose of analyzing the performance of Internet‐based networks running on TCP/IP protocol, and then utilizing these items, in conjunction with various Web technology and JAVA, to design and implement a Web‐based interface of a management system to analyze the performance of the Internet. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于中间件技术的装备管控系统设计与实现

针对装备管理中存在的问题,提出构建基于中间件技术的装备管控系统,给出系统架构,详细介绍了系统设计与实现方法,对系统装备资源接入方式进行了阐述。     

An efficient and lightweight embedded Web server for Web‐based network element management

An Embedded Web Server (EWS) is a Web server which runs on an embedded system with limited computing resources to serve embedded Web documents to a Web browser. By embedding a Web server into a network device, it is possible to provide a Web‐based management user interface, which are user‐friendly, inexpensive, cross‐platform, and network‐ready. This article explores the topic of an efficient and lightweight embedded Web server for Web‐based network element management. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种基于资源管理的视频服务器自适应QoS控制中间件

介绍了一种基于资源管理的视频服务器自适应QoS控制中间件,提出了“软”资源预留机制,提高了服务器资源管理的可靠性和准确性。在此基础上,提出了主动QoS调整机制。实验表明该中间件可以有效地确保系统QoS。     

Desktop videoconferencing performance based on an ATM metropolitanarea network

The DIVINE project enables us to evaluate a high-quality desktop videoconferencing system on an ATM network. After presentation of the methodologies and performance measurement tools used, we analyze the QoS of multimedia services implemented on the DIVINE system. Some performance evaluations have been achieved on the OASICE ATM MAN     

An energy efficient middleware for an ad-hoc AAL wireless sensor network

DIA (Dispositivo Inteligente de Alarma, in Spanish) is an AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) system that allows to infer a potential dangerous action of an elderly person living alone at home. This inference is obtained by a specific sensorisation with sensor nodes (portables and fixes) and a reasoning layer embedded in a PC that learns of the users behaviour patterns and advices when actual one differs significantly of the normal patterns. In AAL systems, energy is a limited resource therefore sensor devices need to be properly managed to conserve energy. In this paper, we introduce the design and implementation of innovative and specific mechanisms at the sensory layer middleware which is capable of, first to discriminate spurious motion detections assuming that these signals do not resemble the patterns of real motion detections and, second to reduce the dynamics of messages by a sensor signal processing in order to compress the whole information in one single event. The middleware achieves power saving by modifying the raw information from sensors and adapting it to the predefined semantic of the reasoning layer. It manages the important task of data processing from sensors (raw information), and transfers the pre-processed information into the top layer of reasoning in a more energy efficient way. We also address the trade-off between reducing power consumption and reducing delay for incoming data. We present results from experiments using our implementation of these mechanisms at the middleware that comprises from node firmware to the PC driver. The number of messages of the proposed method with respect to the raw data is reduced by approximately 98.5%. The resources used in the PIR signal processing is reduced by approximately 85%. The resulting delay introduced is small (10–19 s) but system dynamics is slow enough to avoid contextualisation errors or reduction of system performance. We consider these results as very satisfactory.