Hierarchical adaptive distributed system-level diagnosis applied for SNMP-based network fault management

Fault management is a key functional area of network management systems, but currently deployed applications often implement rudimentary diagnosis mechanisms. This paper presents a new hierarchical adaptive distributed system-level diagnosis (Hi-ADSD) algorithm and its implementation based on SNMP (simple network management protocol). Hi-ADSD is a fully distributed algorithm that has diagnosis latency of at most (log₂N)² testing rounds for a network of N nodes. Nodes are mapped into progressively larger logical clusters, so that each node executes tests in a hierarchical fashion. The algorithm assumes no link faults, a fully-connected network and imposes no bounds on the number of faults. Both the worst-case diagnosis latency and correctness of the algorithm are formally proved. Experimental results are given through simulation of the algorithm for large networks. The algorithm was implemented on a small network using SNMP. We present details of the implementation, including device fault management, the role of the network management station, and the diagnosis management information base