Experiences in using MUWS for scalable distributed monitoring

Efficient Web services (WS) based network monitoring of managed devices is a difficult task due to the relatively big overhead WS impose. In the past we proposed mechanisms to perform distributed monitoring efficiently, minimizing the relevant overhead. Standardization of WS operations is also important in order to achieve interoperability. The WS Resource Framework (WSRF) tries to standardize the messages exchanged with resources representing the state of a device. Adopting WSRF´s concepts, the Management Using Web Services (MUWS) standard aims to support device management in an interoperable manner. In this paper we propose methods to use the mechanisms introduced in our previous work combined with MUWS in order to establish the means to retrieve management information efficiently and at the same time achieve interoperability. We also present our experiences in using custom as well as standardized solutions for monitoring devices that range from small to large resource-capable systems. We describe the motivations for this research and present ideas on techniques that need to be adopted for WS based monitoring based on what we have learned in the process.