A Platform for Heterogeneous Interconnection Network Management

A comprehensive network management function built into the interconnection network provides a means of meeting user needs of fault tolerance, performance, accounting, and security. However, meeting these needs on a heterogeneous interconnection network is several levels more complex than on a homogeneous network because of the existence of multiple protocol stacks for communication. An architecture that will solve this problem by analyzing the heterogeneous interconnection network as a single entity is proposed. The authors present the design issues evaluated in choosing this approach and establish the need for the various components in this architecture. An overview is presented of each of the components, and their place in the architecture is pointed out. >