Maximizing the use of COTS network management products in AF SCN control and monitor applications

Even though the network trade press has highlighted the weaknesses in commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) network management offerings, the status quo has changed little because most commercial networks are not structurally dynamic. Many military networks are comprised of strategic components, some in place for years, with limited bandwidth and increasing traffic payload requirements. Enhancing strategic networks is always more time consuming and costly than enhancing their commercial counterparts. In order to meet the increasing mission requirements, communication equipment and bandwidth are allocated on a mission support-by-support basis. Equipment is reconfigured very frequently during the day. Command and control of military networks is much more important than simply monitoring these networks. A new generation of commercial network management products is being deployed to meet this need. The US Air Force Satellite Control Network (AF SCN) is implementing a centralized control and monitor capability based of the following network management capabilities: dynamic reconfiguration and assignment; graphical user interfaces; defined sets of configuration actions; automatic trouble ticket generation and tracking; and expert system based fault detection/fault isolation. Some of these are currently COTS, others are enhancements to the COTS packages, but are tightly integrated with them. This paper describes the current support scenarios in the AFSCN, the mission goals and the network management products implemented to meet these goals.