Autonomic Network Management for Next Generation Networks

With the exponential growth of current computer networks, the need for autonomic network management is clearly increasing. While there have been many attempts to tackle autonomicity in network management environments, the platforms are too specific and apply only to very specific environments. A different approach is presented in this paper whose the concept of a dedicated network management platform based on autonomic principles is adopted. This platform encourages a more generic and streamlined approach for targeted research in autonomic network management by providing a lightweight, platform-agnostic middleware which gives access to communication primitives, platform-specific augmented support, basic data storage support and a query language for information retrieval in a dynamicallycomposed atomic functional units environment.