A bandwidth monitoring mechanism enhancing SNMP to record timed resource reservations

The efficient use of resources and the lossless transfer of data bursts in future optical networks requires the accurate knowledge of the available bandwidth for each network link. Such information is important in monitoring congestions and can be used by appropriate load balancing and congestion avoidance mechanisms. In this paper we propose a mechanism for monitoring and subsequently managing bandwidth resources, using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). In the proposed mechanism, link bandwidth availability is not a scalar parameter, but a function of time that records the future utilization of the link. For every output port, each agent-node maintains a simple data structure in the form of a table that records the utilization profile of that outgoing link. With the addition of new objects in the Management Information Base (MIB) of each agent-node and proper synchronization, SNMP can be used to update and retrieve the reservations made on the links in order to obtain an instant picture of the network traffic situation.