SNMP Management of MASIF Platforms

In this paper we describe the architecture, the development and the assessment results of an SNMP agent that allows MASIF compliant platforms to be managed through SNMP. The major outcome of this work is a simple integration of mobile agent technology with any well-established commercial network management system. 1. SNMP Management of Mobile Agents The SNMP is, so far, the framework of choice from a large number of equipment (hardware, software and technical knowledge), so any near upcoming management architecture must deal with SNMP standards. Thus, the coexistence of mobile agent technology with SNMP equipment and management tools will be welcome. Although the Distributed Management charter of the IETF is considering the SNMP centralized architecture inconvenient, we see in this issue a great area where the mobile agent paradigm can prove its capabilities [1]. This enrichment is easier to achieve if the mobile agents are themselves managed by SNMP thus facilitating the integration. Several approaches consider mobile agents for managing networks and services due to the distributed nature, efficiency savings, traffic reduction and robustness [2][3]. Besides, adding flexibility and the possibility to improve management efficiency also brings some difficulties, namely it increases the agent management difficulty and introduces yet some usability challenges and possibly threats [4]. This leads to the fact that mobile agents also need to be managed. Why should mobile agents be managed by SNMP? First of all, SNMP is specifically designed for management operations. Moreover, there are available several SNMP based powerful applications and quite a number of installed systems rely on them. This way it is possible to integrate both the mobile agent technology and the SNMP management architecture thus getting the advantages of both [5][6]. On the other hand, MASIF interfaces specify a common access method to mobile agent platforms. So, any MASIF platform can be managed by following the same procedures, with the same tools. By adding an SNMP layer over Mobile Agent Facility (MAF) interfaces we are able to manage any compliant platform using a well-known SNMP NMS.