Design of a Dynamically Extensible System for Network Monitoring using Mobile Agents

Abstract

We present here a framework together with a set of paradigms for mobile agent based active monitoring of network systems. In our framework mobile agents are used to perform remote information filtering and control functions. Such agents can detect basic events or correlate existing events that are stored in a database to enforce system policies. A system administrator can securely modify the monitoring policies and information filtering functions of its agents, or install new agents at a node. The framework presented here includes monitor, subscriber, auditor and inspector agents. The policies and itineraries of these agents can be modified dynamically. In response to certain trigger events agents may change their itineraries to correlate event data. We present here a set of experiments that we have conducted using the Ajanta mobile agent system to evaluate and demonstrate the capabilities of our mobile agent framework.