A network management architecture for battlefield networks

Managing the future digital battlefield networks presents unique challenges: (1) the need to enable seamless, end-to-end network management interoperability across different network management systems that involves multiple network administrative domains, and heterogeneous network technologies, (2) the need to support user, terminal, and network equipment mobility management with large user population and wide geographical area coverage, and (3) the need to facilitate rapid network deployment and fault-tolerant network management. In this paper we describe a CORBA-based network management architecture to address these challenges. In particular, we propose to support network management applications utilizing a distributed object database framework where network information is managed, accessed, and manipulated as a collection of distributed CORBA objects. We will integrate the TMN tiered principle with the manager/agency distributed management paradigm to support management scalability for battlefield networks. An application of the proposed architecture to realize network self-configuration capabilities is also presented.