Design of a Rule Engine for Analyzing Messages from Network Elements

With the rapid changes taking place in the network operation environment, ISPs today face a challenge. Networks are becoming more complex with the inclusion of diverse types of devices. New services such as IPTV and VoIP make the jobs of network administrators more difficult, by requiring new equipment, with new protocols and new technologies. As well, ISPs are forced to reduce the costs of network management, as the harsh competition in the market is an obstacle to increasing and strengthening management personnel. ISPs must maximize the efficiency of network management by having a small number of engineers deal with their complex networks. For network administrators to overcome these challenges, they need a support tool. In this paper, we will introduce our efforts to design and implement a rule engine that can take the dizzying array of messages coming from all kinds of network equipment and change it to a much more readable form.