Masters Thesis: Scalable Network Management with Java Messaging

Investigate and prototype if and how a Java Messaging Service can be used to increase scalability and reliability for a distributed and scalable network management application.

Keywords: Software architecture, Scalability, Network management, Java Messaging.

Suitable for 2 persons; Master of Science in Computer Science or equivalent.

Background:
This master thesis will be performed at Transmode Systems AB. Transmode is a provider of optical networking solutions. Transmode offers a wide range of optical networking products based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). Transmode also provides a network management system called TNM. TNM is used for configuring and administering Transmode optical networks.

The individual components to be managed are called network elements or managed elements. TNM performs well when handling a few hundred network elements but when their number increases to around n , the performance of the system decreases to a point that it becomes unresponsive and starts losing notification messages, etc. Currently it is not possible to add hardware to improve scalability either. The system does not scale up.

Project description:
• Prototype replacement of the existing homegrown notification mechanism in the TNM application with a JMS implementation; ActiveMQ.
• Investigate the implications on software design, testing and server administration.
• Propose a structure for distributed polling servers and investigate if JMS is suitable tool.

Some questions that hopefully can be answered:

• Can it help in re-structuring the application?
• How much code-restructuring will it impose?
• Will it fit the minimal server configuration?
• How will it affect unit, function and system testing?
• What are the implications on server administration?