A Logical Architecture for Active Network Management

This paper focuses on improving network management by exploiting the potential of
"doing" of the Active Networks technology, together with the potential of "planning,"
which is typical of the artificial intelligent systems.We propose a distributed multiagent
architecture for Active Network management, which exploits the dynamic reasoning
capabilities of the Situation Calculus in order to emulate the reactive behavior of a
human expert to fault situations. The information related to network events is generated
by programmable sensors deployed across the network. A logical entity collects this
information, in order to merge it with general domain knowledge, with a view to
identifying the root causes of faults, and to deciding on reparative actions. The logical
inference system has been devised to carry out automated isolation, diagnosis, and even
repair of network anomalies, thus enhancing the reliability, performance, and security
of the network. Experimental results illustrate the Reasoner capability of correctly
recognizing fault situations and undertaking management actions.