Distributed Management of High-Layer Protocols and Network Services through a Programmable Agent-Based Architecture

This paper proposes an architecture for distributed management of upper layer protocols and network services called Trace. Based on the IETF Script MIB, the architecture provides mechanisms for the delegation of management tasks to mid-level managers, which interact with monitoringand action agents to have them executed. The paper introduces PTSL (Protocol Trace Specification Language), a graphical/ textual language created to allow network managers to specify protocol traces. The specifications are used by mid-level managers to program the monitoring agents. Once programmed, these agents start to monitor the occurrence of the traces. The information obtained is analyzed by the mid-level managers, which may ask action agents for the execution of procedures (Perl scripts), makingthe automation of several management tasks possible.