A development framework for efficient uniform control of heterogeneous communication networks.

Abstract

As new Internet networking technologies appear, there is a growing need for efficient control of Network Elements (NE) (i.e. routers, switches, etc.). However, today's NE control is largely a manual activity, therefore inefficient and unscalable, and the inherent heterogeneous nature of complex networks---that is, the fact that NEs are of different technologies and have different functionality and configuration-management interfaces---makes NE control even more difficult and challenging. This thesis presents a solution that allows the development of automated, distributed web-based control of heterogeneous NEs through a common interface that hides the underlying NE-specific differences, allowing control of heterogeneous NEs in a transparent way. This solution consists in a software development framework oriented towards reliability---thus service availability---performance---hence scalability---and fast extensibility---hence easy integration and rapid adaptability to the ever-changing networking technologies---without neglecting security. General design requirements are first discussed. Next, particular attention is given to CLI (Command Line Interface) protocols, where issues related to the automation of CLI interaction are extensively discussed. A real-time approach, using extended finite state machines, is proposed as a key element in this framework. Finally, a working and efficient implementation that supports CLI automation is presented, where emphasis is laid upon the short delays---typically a day---required to augment the application with a new set of NE control operations---Traffic Conditioning operation set for example.