Network management in a large-scale OSI-based campus network using SNMP

The authors expand on their experience in a practical network management system by using the simple network management protocol (SNMP) in the context of a large-scale open systems interconnection (OSI)-based campus-network. Various aspects of network management are examined and the importance of time is shown. The network management infrastructure comprises intelligent, time-synchronized agents and expert managers. Agents are deployed to collect information about the network segments to which they are attached. The expert manager talks to the agents and gathers relevant network information which is used in conjunction with a network knowledge base, to reconstruct the overall network traffic characteristic, to evaluate the status of the network and to take/suggest some action. The model allows some global control, monitoring and management without installing agents on all elements connected to the network. The use of time labels and narrow time windows enables the manager to obtain a reasonably accurate picture of the network status. The introduction of composite time-labeled objects reduces the burden of management traffic on the network