Providing customisable remote management services using mobile agents

Network and service management have attracted a lot of attention in terms of research and standardisation in recent years. Architectural frameworks such as the TMN try to address the management needs of broadband networks and services, catering for multi-domain, multi-operator environments while also allowing for electronic customer access to management services. Similar services will be offered by Internet ISPs in the future, addressing the next generation IP networks with QoS guarantees. These management services are fixed though in the sense that new features can only be added after a full research-standardisation-deployment cycle and are static as far as their use is concerned: they execute according to their in-built logic and clients may customise their operation only through tuning standardised operational parameters before their execution. The advent of mobile agent technologies opens new possibilities, allowing dynamic and customisable services to be offered to customers, who can control their remote execution in provider domains. In this paper we explain how mobile agents can enhance traditional connectivity management services, presenting the relevant architecture, design and experience of a customisable management system based on mobile agents.