Developing Pattern-Based Management Programs

We have recently proposed a novel approach to distributed management for large-scale, dynamic networks. Our approach, which we call pattern-based management, is based on the methodical use of distributed control schemes. From an engineering point of view, our approach has two advantages. First, it allows for estimating the performance characteristics of management operations in the design phase. (This was the subject of an earlier paper.) Second, it reduces the complexity of developing scalable, distributed management programs, by promoting the re-usability of key software components. In this paper, we demonstrate how pattern-based management programs can be designed and implemented. We propose an object model for these programs and give a concrete example of how a management task, such as obtaining the current link load distribution of the entire network, can be realized. The example illustrates that our model facilitates writing the key software components in a compact and elegant way.