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 multidevice 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.

[1]  M. Suzuki,et al.  The IEEE P1520 standards initiative for programmable network interfaces , 1998 .

[2]  Mani Subramanian,et al.  Network Management , 1999 .

[3]  JU DULDGQHW.  Managing networks over the Web: Classification of Approaches and an Implementation , 1999 .

[4]  A. Watson,et al.  OMG (Object Management Group) architecture and CORBA (common object request broker architecture) specification , 2002 .

[5]  John Soldatos,et al.  XMLNET: An Architecture for Cost Effective Network Management Based on XML Technologies , 2005, Journal of Network and Systems Management.

[6]  Jean-Philipp Martin-Flatin.  Web-Based Management of IP Networks and Systems , 2002 .

[7]  Rachel Jane McCrindle,et al.  Using SOAP to clean up configuration management , 2001, 25th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference. COMPSAC 2001.

[8]  Torsten Klie,et al.  Integrating SNMP agents with XML-based management systems , 2004, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[9]  Nikolas Mitrou,et al.  A framework for designing ATM management systems by way of abstract information models and distributed object architectures , 2001, Comput. Commun..

[10]  G. Pavlou,et al.  On management technologies and the potential of Web services , 2004, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[11]  M.-P. Gervais,et al.  Enhancing telecommunications service engineering with mobile agent technology and formal methods , 1998, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[12]  William Stallings,et al.  SNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3, and RMON 1 and 2 , 1999 .

[13]  James Won-Ki Hong,et al.  An embedded Web server architecture for XML-based network management , 2002, NOMS 2002. IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium. ' Management Solutions for the New Communications World'(Cat. No.02CH37327).

[14]  James Won-Ki Hong,et al.  XML-based configuration management for IP network devices , 2004, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[15]  Aiko Pras,et al.  On the future of Internet management technologies , 2003, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[16]  Thomas Magedanz,et al.  Mobile service agents enabling "intelligence on demand" in telecommunications , 1996, Proceedings of GLOBECOM'96. 1996 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference.

[17]  James Won-Ki Hong,et al.  Development of SNMP‐XML translator and gateway for XML‐based integrated network management , 2003, Int. J. Netw. Manag..

[18]  Torsten Klie,et al.  Towards XML Oriented Internet Management , 2003, Integrated Network Management.

[19]  Raouf Boutaba,et al.  Lightpaths on demand: a Web-services-based management system , 2004, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[20]  Vladimir Tosic,et al.  Web Service Offerings Infrastructure (WSOI) - a management infrastructure for XML Web services , 2004, 2004 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37507).

[21]  Francisco J. Garijo,et al.  The Application of Intelligent and Mobile Agents to Networks and Service Management , 1998, IS&N.

[22]  Radu State,et al.  An extensible agent toolkit for device management , 2004, 2004 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37507).

[23]  James Won-Ki Hong,et al.  Design and implementation of XML-based configuration management system for distributed systems , 2004, 2004 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37507).

[24]  Jae-Oh Lee,et al.  Enabling network management using Java technologies , 2000, IEEE Commun. Mag..