On the efficiency of decentralised monitoring using mobile agents

This paper considers the problem of improving the efficiency and scalability of current monitoring systems, which generally follow a centralised and static management model. Several alternative solutions based on Mobile Agents (MAs), specifically tailored to network monitoring are described. In particular, the key problem of computing efficiently the initial number and location of MAs is addressed, and two algorithms for rapid MA deployment are proposed. Moreover, mathematical models for the proposed MA solutions and for the common technique of centralised polling are built and a comparative analysis of their performance is carried out. Performance is expressed in terms of traffic (incurred by the monitoring system) and monitoring delay. Results on traffic show that MAs typically offer improved efficiency, although they do not always scale better than polling. However, results on delay demonstrate that MA solutions improve both scalability and efficiency under all circumstances.