Control and performance monitoring of a multimedia platform over the ATM Pilot

This paper presents the Netw ork Management Platform that have been deployed to control and monitor the BETEUS network. BETEUS performs multimedia application trials in a testbed based on an ATM WAN interconnection of local ATM nodes. Sophia-Antipolis (F), Lausanne (CH), Zurich (CH), and Geneva (CH) are interconnected over the European ATM Pilot. The BETEUS application platform allows geographically separated participants to actively take part in group discussions from their personal workstations equipped with audio and video facilities. BETEUS application platform is a typical example of future multimedia applications with its complexity with regard to numerous factors such as information type, distribution of users and their interactions, information flow, and stringent Quality of Service requirements. Performance may degrade at several levels: network equipment, interworking equipment, drivers, protocol stacks, etc. It is therefore necessary to develop a network management platform that is able to monitor the different parameters of interest during intensive usage of the multimedia applications. In addition to standard and proprietary MIBs provided with the networking devices, specific MIBs have been de veloped and integrated in the management en vironment. They are requested using standard protocols (CMIP/SNMP). The management activities involve the network (local ATM devices), the systems (multimedia hosts), and the applications (audio and video). At each local site a single interface, the Mediation Device, is in charge of routing requests of the management system to the agents that are distributed in the site. It is also in charge of filtering and delivering the events sent by the agents to the management system. The Mediation Device uses CMIP to communicate with the network management centre and SNMP to communicate with the local agents of the LAN. The Network Management Platform focuses more specifically on measurement of performance statistics of network utilisation. The result is a better understanding of the Quality of Service for end user applications in a real environment, of the use of network management to influence existing end to end application servicing, and of the answer of ATM and current equipment to the needs of end user applications.