Modeling control channel dynamics of the SAAM Architecture using the NS network simulation tool

Abstract

The explosive growth of the Internet and the advent of real-time network applications have stretched the capacity of current network technology. It has become evident that to realize the full potential of the Information Super Highway a new network architecture would have to be developed. It was for these reasons the Next Generation Internet Project was started. As a part of this effort the Server and Agent based Active network Management (SAAM) Project was started. SAAM is a server based hierarchical routing architecture designed to provide Quality of Service (QoS) routing services for network resource intensive applications. Because the study of this topic entailed emulating large Wide Area Networks, a simulation of the entire architecture would have to be developed. This thesis provides the first step towards achieving that goal. The model developed as the basis for this thesis concentrates on the control traffic overhead required to configure and implement the routing mechanism of SAAM. Specifically it simulates the control channel dynamics required to pass control messages between servers, routers and real-time applications.