Network management using mobile agent

Network management application is inherently distributed. As the networks become more and more large and complex, current management paradigms are unsuitable for these tasks. A mobile agent is an autonomous, mobile and some intelligent program unit. As a new distributed computing paradigm, it has many special features. We investigate the paradigm of the network management using mobile agent (NMMA). The fundamental architecture is given; its advantages and some examples of management application based on it are discussed. To investigate its capability, a prototype implementation has been realized based on the mobile agent system Voyager. The research has shown that NMMA is very flexible, portable, and scalable. With NMMA, management applications can be developed in a more efficient way.