Methodologies for PVC Configuration in Heterogeneous ATM Environments Using Intelligent Mobile Agents

Traditionally, the functionality enabling the confi guration of Permanent Virtual Connections (PVCs) in heterogeneous Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) envi ro ments has been accomplished through the use of client/server technologies. However, this approa ch suffers from a number of problems in the areas o f flexibility, extensibility and efficiency, and as n etworks become increasingly complex and dynamic, th e need for a new paradigm has become apparent. This paper is concerned with the analysis of a prop osed solution wherein intelligent mobile agents are utilized to provide autonomous network configuratio n management functionality. Configuration methodologies based on a single mobile agent acting serially and multiple mobile agents acting in para llel are compared in terms of time duration and network l ad. The use of a small expert system to provide t he intelligence needed to handle error situations is i nvestigated. A test environment composed of three simulated ATM switch nodes is developed for validat ion purposes.

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