A conceptual modeling framework for internet traffic engineering problems

Abstract

We present a conceptual modeling framework for analyzing and modeling solutions to different Internet Traffic Engineering (ITE) problems involving measurement, characterization, and control of network or inter-network traffic. The framework bases itself on the concept of "Clusters" which can, in fact, be used to model many other network problems. Our effort is targeted towards a large- scale initiative for designing a Unified Modeling Language (UML) Profile for conceptual modeling of typical next- generation network problems. In this paper we present UML-based framework to support modeling ITE problems. The modeling framework extends UML 1.5 and is contributes towards an initiative by the authors to create a robust UML Profile for ITE (PoITE). The contribution of the work is to provide the area of ITE with basic concepts and structure for designing UML models for solving ITE problems. In brief, the area of ITE encompasses issues pertaining to the performance evaluation and performance optimization of operational IP networks. Traffic Engineering (9,10), as such, focuses on the application of technology and scientific principles to the measurement, characterization, modeling, and control of network or inter-network traffic (3). ITE is a complex area of networking that takes into account many aspects and scenarios corresponding to different environments. However, in this paper, we consider an abstraction that avoids many finer details of ITE, and instead, focuses on providing a generic framework that can support modeling ITE problems. This document is based on: • RFC3272 (Principles of Internet Traffic Engineering) (3), and