Using SNMP to manage guaranteed performance connections

Abstract

The demand for integrated services in packet-switched, communication infrastructures has prompted the development of services that provide performance guarantees. In order to provide these performance guarantees, resources are reserved in the network along a path thus forming a guaranteed performance connection. The resources required for a connection are usually reserved via customized resource reservation (or management) protocols that are non-standard and not widely supported. In this paper we describe the use of a standardized management framework for monitoring and controlling guaranteed performance connections. The management protocol, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), is used to monitor and control guaranteed performance connections of the Tenet Real-Time Protocol Suite. Using SNMPv1 it is possible to establish a guaranteed performance connection between two host, monitor the dynamic state of the connection during runtime, modify its traffic and performance parameters and its route during runtime, and terminate the connection. In the paper we also discuss the procedure used in controlling the connection and present a prototype implementation of the Tenet Real-Time Protocol Management Information Bases (MIBs). Experiments were conducted on this implementation and an initial performance analysis is provided.