| Abstract: | Many of the modern network management solutions are based on commercially available management platforms. These platforms offer common management services, such as support for multiple‐management protocols, alarm management, and event correlation. Most of these platforms are based on the traditional manager—agent model adopted in standard protocols, such as Internet SNMP. However, these platforms suffer from limitations imposed by the centralized, static, polling‐based management model of SNMP, and the need for maintaining a central intelligence at the platform level. In view of the dynamic nature of evolving networks, future network management solutions need to be flexible, adaptable, and intelligent without increasing the burden on network resources. We have addressed this requirement with a new management platform architecture based on ontology‐driven mobile agents. This paper presents the new management platform architecture, its prototype implementation, and the results of its evaluation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
