New Approaches To Resource Management In Integrated Services Backbone Long-Haul Communication Networks

The authors report on a testbed that explores technologies to meet the future network operations and management requirements of government networks. This testbed focuses on two different but complementary layers of network management capabilities: integrated multiclass traffic management and cooperative user/provider leased network management. In this first (and in fact lower) layer, mathematical optimization techniques are applied to multiclass bandwidth allocation (joint routing and access control). In the upper layer a distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) approach is applied to the automation of negotiation and cooperation over leased capacity between the backbone network management system, the user, and an external provider system such as a local exchange carrier. The development of this testbed shows an example of the cross-functional interactions from different disciplines required to build the next-generation management systems. The authors also describe an evolution path for government communication networks toward a diversified, efficient, fault-tolerant, and highly automated multiservice provider.