Lisp-based agent platform and applications for inter-domain network management

The Internet consists of several thousand interconnected autonomous systems (ASes). For enabling the autonomous network management that ensures stable access at the inter-AS level and flexible inter-domain routing control, it is important to know how the routing information originated from an AS spreads throughout the Internet and to control inter-AS routing information using feedback actions based on observed network status at multiple ASes. Because each AS is controlled by a single administrative authority based on that AS's own policy, a cooperative distributed problem solving is desirable. To cope with these requirements, we have proposed a multi-agent-based inter-AS diagnostic system called ENCORE and inter-AS routing adjustment system called AISLE / VR. They consist of a collection of intelligent agents that are located in multiple ASes and perform collective observation, analysis, and control. These systems are constructed on the agent platform that provides utility functions on distributed environments. For the purpose of flexibility for incremental design and modification through the development and application phases, we adopted Lisp as the base language and have constructed stable systems that can demonstrate the effectiveness of our basic design for autonomous inter-AS network management.