Efficient message-passing and autonomic management architecture for NGNs

There is a gap between the increasing complexity of computer networks and the human operators ability to manage them. This gap, likely to become bigger in the coming years, needs to be addressed by more dynamic and autonomic management techniques. The ultimate aim is to provide the network with the functionality to manage itself. This paper outlines an architecture which provides support to facilitate self-organisation in a network's management/control plane. The central element of this research is a novel message-passing framework, facilitating de-composition and dynamic composition of services. The overall design of the autonomic network management architecture is first introduced but the focus is on the communication protocols and interactions between Atomic Functional Blocks, the basic auto-nomic management elements that provide a network management service.