CSN 283: Computer Network Analysis and Design

NETWORK MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

 Presentation outline

 Introduction
 Background
 Defining Network Management
 Network Management Mechanisms
 Architectural Consideration
 Introduction

 Network management (NM) consists of the set of

functions to control, plan, allocate, deploy, coordinate,
and monitor network resources.

 Network management used to be an afterthought in

many network architectures

 Today, and in the future, networks are a resource whose

integrity must be measurable and verifiable.
 Introduction

 The network management, architecture, begins with

the requirements and flow analysis.

 Areas that should be addressed during the analysis

process include:
Which network management protocol to apply
 Implementing high-level asset management as part of
the network management architecture
Reconfiguring the network often to meet various
different requirements
 Introduction

The need to monitor the entire system from a single

location or device
Testing service-provider compliance with SLAs and
policies
The need for proactive monitoring (discovering
performance problems before users, applications, and
devices are impacted by them)
 Requirements for out-of-band access
 Defining Network Management

 Network management can be viewed as a structure

consisting of multiple layers:

Business Management: The management of the

business aspects of a network, for example, the
management of budgets/resources, planning, and
agreements

Service Management: The management of delivery of

services to users, for example, for service providers
this would include the management of access
bandwidth, data storage, and application delivery.
 Defining Network Management

Network Management: The management of all network

devices across the entire network
Element Management: The management of a collection
of similar network devices, for example, access routers
or subscriber management systems.
Network-Element Management: The management of
individual network devices, for example, a single router,
switch, or hub.
 Defining Network Management

 Network management can be divided into two basic

functions:
the transport of management information across the
system, and the management of NM information
elements

 These functions consist of a variety of tasks—

monitoring, configuring, troubleshooting, and planning,
that are performed by users, administrators, and network
personnel.
Defining Network Management
 Defining Network Management

 challenges in developing a network management

architecture:

define what network management really means to the

organizations that will be performing the tasks and
receiving the end services , namely, the users, or
customers, of the system.
 Defining Network Management

 Four categories of network management tasks

 Monitoring for event notification

 Monitoring for trend analysis and planning
 Configuration of network parameters
Troubleshooting the network
 Network Devices and Characteristics

 A network device is an individual component of the

network that participates at one or more of the protocol
layers. This includes end devices, routers, switches,
DSUs, hubs, and NICs.

 Network devices have characteristics that can be

measured. They are grouped into end-to-end, per-link,
per-network or per-element characteristics.
 Network Devices and Characteristics

 End-to-end characteristics are those that can be

measured across multiple network devices in the path of
one or more traffic flows, and may be extended across
the entire network or between devices.

Examples of end-to-end characteristics for network

devices are availability, capacity, delay, delay variation
(jitter), throughput, error rates, and network utilization.
 Network Devices and Characteristics

 Per-link/per-network and per-element

characteristics are those that are specific to the type
of element or connection between elements being
monitored. These characteristics may be used
individually, or may be combined to form an end-to
end characteristic.
Examples of per-link characteristics are propagation
delay and link utilization
 Network Devices and Characteristics

examples of per-element characteristics include (for an IP

router) IP forwarding rates (e.g., in IP packets /second),
buffer utilization for the router, and any logs of
authentication failures.
Network Devices and Characteristics
 Network Management Standards

 Simple Network Management Protocol

• SNMP V1, V2, V3

 TMN Model
• Just a framework for network management systems

 Web-based Approach
 Network Management Protocols

 There are currently two major network management

protocols:

 simple network management protocol (SNMP)

common management information protocol (CMIP).
 These network management protocols provide the
mechanism for retrieving, changing, and transport of
network management data across the network.
 Network Management Protocols

 SNMP provides facilities for collecting and configuring

parameters from network devices. These are done
through the SNMP commands.
 Parameters that are accessible via SNMP are grouped
into management information bases, or MIBs.
 SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) builds on the previous
versions of SNMP, providing more secure
authentication and ability to retrieve blocks of
parameters
 Network Management Protocols

 SNMP has been widespread use and forms the basis for
many popular commercial and public network
management systems
 The features of SNMP which made it popular:-
Its design is simple, hence it is easy to implement on a
large network
Its simple design makes it easy for a user to program
variables they would like to have monitored.
 Network Management Protocols

 SNMP is used in:

• monitoring mechanism
• Instrumentation mechanism
• configuration mechanisms
 Monitoring Mechanisms

 Monitoring is obtaining values for end-to-end, per-link,

and per-element characteristics.

 The monitoring process involves collecting data about

the desired characteristics, processing some or all of this
data, displaying the (processed) data, and archiving a
subset of this data.
 Monitoring Mechanisms

 Data are usually collected through a polling (actively

probing network devices for management data) or
monitoring process involving a network management
protocol (e.g., SNMP) or proxy service.

Examples:
Monitoring for Event Notification
Monitoring for Trend Analysis and Planning
 Monitoring Mechanisms

 Monitoring for Event Notification

An event is something that occurs in the network that is
noteworthy. This may be a problem or failure in a
network device, across the network, or when a
characteristic crosses a threshold value.
Events may be noted in a log file, on a display, or by
issuing an alarm, depending on the priority
level of the event.
Example
 Example…

Ping is used to gather roundtrip delay information,

which is presented as a chart on the monitoring system.
A threshold of 100 ms has been chosen for this display.
When this threshold is crossed, it triggers an alarm to
notify the network manager that a problem may exist in
the network.
 Monitoring Mechanisms

 Monitoring for Trend Analysis and Planning

End-to-end, per-link, and per-element characteristics
used for event monitoring can also be put to work in
trend analysis.

Trend analysis utilizes network management data to

determine long-term network behaviors or trends. This
is helpful in planning for future network growth .
Example
 Instrumentation Mechanisms

 Instrumentation is the set of tools and utilities needed to

monitor and probe the network for management data.
 Instrumentation mechanisms include access to network
management data via SNMP, monitoring tools, and
direct access.
 Instrumentation can be coupled with monitoring,
display, processing and storage to form a complete
management system.
 Instrumentation Mechanisms

 for the network management architecture is to ensure

that the instrumentation is accurate, dependable, and
simple.

 There are a couple of ways to ensure accuracy in the

instrumentation: testing and taking alternate
measurements.
 Configuration Mechanisms

 Configuration is setting parameters in a network device

for operation and control of that element.
Configuration mechanisms include direct access to
devices, remote access to devices, and downloading
configuration files.
 Configuration Mechanisms

SNMP set commands

Telnet and command line interface (CLI) access
Access via HTTP
 Access via common object request broker architecture
(CORBA)
 Use of FTP/TFTP to download configuration files
Network