Self-configuration of Network Devices with Configuration Logic

Autonomic networking is an emerging approach to the management of computer networks that aims at developing self-governed devices. Among the main issues of autonomic systems is the question of self-configuration. In this paper, we describe a method for discovering and self-generating the configuration of a network device in order to dynamically push a new service into a network. On each configuration, several rules representing the semantics of the services are expressed in a logical formalism called Configuration Logic. From these rules, we show how to use traditional satisfiability methods to automatically generate or modify the configuration of a device with respect to the configuration of its neighbours. We illustrate our case with an example of a switch that automatically discovers its VLAN configuration when connected to an existing network. The results presented here have been implemented into the configuration management tool ValidMaker.