Monitoring large management domains with mobile agents

In this paper, we consider the use of Mobile Agent (MA) technology for managing large domains of networked devices. We present a performance analysis of mobile agents in a distributed network environment. In particular we consider both reliable (such as wired Ethernet networks) and an unreliable network environments (such as wireless networks). The performance of MAs directly affects their ability to monitor the management domain. Measurement readings of the domain state are only useful if they can be collected and delivered to management stations in a timely manner. In this paper, MA performance is analysed as a function domain size. Moreover, methods for improving MA performance in large domains are investigated.