Application of mobile agents in managing the traffic in the network and improving the reliability and quality of service

Currently telecommunication networks consist of heterogeneous networks, therefore controlling and managing the traffic in these networks will be complex tasks and difficult. Network management activities for these diverse networks require gathering and analyzing huge amount of data from the network. Then based on the activities involved in the network, decisions must be made at different times, and the real-time requirements for various types of traffic must be set instantly. Existing network management follows a centralized approach thus the process of data gathering and analysis usually involves huge transfer of management data. This consequently generates congestion in the area around management stations and it causes lack of scalability, especially if they are connected by wireless links. Therefore, we need to have a model for distributed and intelligent network management with mobile agents that can analyze data and make decisions in order to preserve the reliability and quality of service for the end users. Mobile agents are the intelligent entities and are option to the distributed network management. They can move across the networks, and by using load balancing method regularly, they can distribute the load over a network. In addition, mobile agents can make decisions in order to reduce the network traffic. This paper discusses and analyzes the application of mobile agents in distributed network management for improving its reliability and quality of service.