A pro-active routing protocol for configuration of signaling channels in Server and Agent-based Active network Management (SAAM)

Abstract

As networks are upgraded to provide services for streaming applications, the current way of routing is not satisfactory. Server and Agent based Active network Management (SAAM) introduces a novel network architecture that provides guaranteed quality of services to real-time traffic. In SAAM, the server and routers need to establish two-way, robust, and efficient signaling channels for exchange of control and management information. Any change in network topology must be determined and handled as they occur in order to support guaranteed services. Local detection of topological changes and hop-by- hop dissemination of knowledge of these changes is not optimal for SAAM architecture. A reactive method of updating routing tables takes longer time than tolerable for real-time traffic. Therefore, a pro-active approach that reconfigures the signaling channels in real time and without degrading services to user traffic is mandatory. This thesis resents such a pro-active routing protocol for configuring the signaling channels of a SAAM region.