Simulation Based Performance Evaluation of Network Management Operations Using Mobile Agent Paradigm

Nowadays, most network management systems operate SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). These protocols use the client-server model, on which the management station acts as a client that provides a user interface to the network manager and interacts with agents, which are servers that manage remote access to the Management Information Base (MIB). In certain circumstances (e.g. at times of network stress), this client-server interaction generates significant traffic that overloads the management station. A distributed paradigm is a possible way to perform management functions when networks grow significantly. In this sense, mobile agent is an option to distribute the network management [1]. These agents move to the place where data are stored and select information the user wants. They decentralise processing and control, and, as a consequence, reduce the traffic around the management station, and distribute processing load. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using a mobile agent as compared to a static agent in alleviating loading created by network management protocols and to investigate the performance behaviour of network management concepts using simulation [5]. Initial results on Traffic and Load show that performance is better when the number of managed nodes on the network are increased.