Thesis (M.C.S.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-97). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Community networks (in South Africa and Africa) are often serviced by limited bandwidth network backhauls. Relative to the basic needs of the community, this is an expensive ongoing concern. In many cases the Internet connection is shared among multiple sites. Community networks may also have a lack of technical personnel to maintain a network of this nature. Hence, there is a demand for a system which will monitor and manage bandwidth use, as well as network use. The proposed solution for community networks and the focus within this dissertation, is a system of two parts. A Community Access Point (CAP) is located at each site within the community network. This provides the hosts and servers at that site with access to services on the community network and the Internet, it is the site's router. The CAP provides a web based interface (CAPgui) which allows configuration of the device and viewing of simple monitoring statistics. The Access Concentrator (AC) is the default router for the CAPs and the gateway to the Internet. It provides authenticated and encrypted communication between the network sites. The AC performs several monitoring functions, both for the individual sites and for the upstream Internet connection. The AC provides a means for centrally managing and effectively allocating Internet bandwidth by using the web based interface (ACgui). Bandwidth use can be allocated per user, per host and per site. The system is maintainable, extendable and customisable for different network architectures. The system was deployed successfully to two community networks. The Centre of Excellence (CoE) testbed network is a peri-urban network deployment whereas the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) network is a rural deployment. The results gathered conclude that the project was successful as the deployed system is more robust and more manageable than the previous systems.

Monitoring unused IP address space by using network telescopes provides a favourable environment for researchers to study and detect malware, worms, denial of service and scanning activities. Research in the field of network telescopes has progressed over the past decade resulting in the development of an increased number of overlapping datasets. Rhodes University's network of telescope sensors has continued to grow with additional network telescopes being brought online. At the time of writing, Rhodes University has a distributed network of five relatively small /24 network telescopes. With five network telescope sensors, this research focuses on comparative and correlation analysis of traffic activity across the network of telescope sensors. To aid summarisation and visualisation techniques, time series' representing time-based traffic activity, are constructed. By employing an iterative experimental process of captured traffic, two natural categories of the five network telescopes are presented. Using the cross- and auto-correlation methods of time series analysis, moderate correlation of traffic activity was achieved between telescope sensors in each category. Weak to moderate correlation was calculated when comparing category A and category B network telescopes' datasets. Results were significantly improved by studying TCP traffic separately. Moderate to strong correlation coefficients in each category were calculated when using TCP traffic only. UDP traffic analysis showed weaker correlation between sensors, however the uniformity of ICMP traffic showed correlation of traffic activity across all sensors. The results confirmed the visual observation of traffic relativity in telescope sensors within the same category and quantitatively analysed the correlation of network telescopes' traffic activity.

Traditional network monitoring techniques suffer from a number of limitations. They are usually designed to solve the most general case, and as a result often fall short of expectation. This project sets out to provide the network administrator with a set of alternative tools to solve specific, but common, problems. It uses the network at Rhodes University as a case study and addresses a number of issues that arise on this network. Four problematic areas are identified within this network: the automatic determination of network topology and layout, the tracking of network growth, the determination of the physical and logical locations of hosts on the network, and the need for intelligent fault reporting systems. These areas are chosen because other network monitoring techniques have failed to adequately address these problems, and because they present problems that are common across a large number of networks. Each area is examined separately and a solution is sought for each of the problems identified. As a result, a set of tools is developed to solve these problems using a number of novel network monitoring techniques. These tools are designed to be as portable as possible so as not to limit their use to the case study network. Their use within Rhodes, as well as their applicability to other situations is discussed. In all cases, any limitations and shortfalls in the approaches that were employed are examined.

Bandwidth management is a topic which is often discussed, but on which relatively little work has been done with regard to compiling a comprehensive set of techniques and methods for managing traffic on a network. What work has been done has concentrated on higher end networks, rather than the low bandwidth links which are commonly available in South Africa and other areas outside the United States. With more organisations increasingly making use of the Internet on a daily basis, the demand for bandwidth is outstripping the ability of providers to upgrade their infrastructure. This resource is therefore in need of management. In addition, for Internet access to become economically viable for widespread use by schools, NGOs and other academic institutions, the associated costs need to be controlled. Bandwidth management not only impacts on direct cost control, but encompasses the process of engineering a network and network resources in order to ensure the provision of as optimal a service as possible. Included in this is the provision of user education. Software has been developed for the implementation of traffic quotas, dynamic firewalling and visualisation. The research investigates various methods for monitoring and management of IP traffic with particular applicability to low bandwidth links. Several forms of visualisation for the analysis of historical and near-realtime traffic data are also discussed, including the use of three-dimensional landscapes. A number of bandwidth management practices are proposed, and the advantages of their combination, and complementary use are highlighted. By implementing these suggested policies, a holistic approach can be taken to the issue of bandwidth management on Internet links.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Information and communication technologies are moving fast. Consequently, organisations must be aware of this evolution and adapt to take full advantage of the benefits offered by these technologies. Cloud computing is a new concept of accessing data centers and various computing resources via the internet through any devices and from anywhere. Large organizations, such as Higher Education Institutions (HEI), are gradually adopting cloud computing to reduce their very high budgets. In emerging countries, more and more HEIs are adopting the services offered by cloud computing, more precisely in South Africa in the Western Cape. However, cloud computing affects the way IT services are delivered by traditional HEI IT departments. Thus the objective of this study is to explore the impact of cloud computing on the role of the IT department of HEIs, using a case study. To fulfil this objective, interviews were conducted within the IT department of an HEI, including the IT staff, and it was found that cloud computing affects the role of the IT department by changing the roles and responsibilities of some IT staff, as well as the focus of certain posts in the department. In addition, cloud computing also affects the department's culture. Fortunately, no IT staff have lost their posts. Other results show that training and certification were necessary for the IT to adapt to the changes. Cloud computing adds value to the IT department because it offers a daily 24-hour service as opposed to the traditional IT department.

Orientador: Edmundo Roberto Mauro Madeira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T04:15:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Freitas_RicardoBatista.pdf: 1724833 bytes, checksum: ed34480e6446ddb4976ca277d8073c3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: A evolução tecnológica ocorrida nas últimas décadas proporcionou o acentuado crescimento da Internet, o surgimento de novos dispositivos capazes de conectarem-se a ela, como sensores e PDAs, e a criação de uma multitude de aplicações online. Esse novo cenário trouxe desafios muito distantes dos inicialmente considerados na criação da Internet, surgindo assim a necessidade de novas arquiteturas para atendê-los genuinamente: as Redes de Próxima Geração (Next Generation Networks (NGNs)). Com a crescente facilidade de acesso, a Internet tem ganhado uma importância cada vez maior na vida cotidiana e atividades como transações bancárias, jogos online e videoconferências têm demandado cada vez mais segurança, rapidez e largura de banda. Para assegurar essas características nas NGNs, o gerenciamento da qualidade de serviço (Quality of Service (QoS)) é essencial e terá que enfrentar grandes desafios como mobilidade, heterogeneidade de tecnologia e autonomia de nós e domínios. Visando abordar esse desafio, este trabalho apresenta uma estratégia para reserva de recursos no gerenciamento de QoS inter-domínios em Redes de Próxima Geração. Essa estratégia leva em conta a alta mobilidade esperada nas NGNs e propõe a reutilização de reservas para acelerar o restabelecimento da QoS após movimentações de nós ou redes. Para a implementação dessa estratégia, optou-se pela adaptação do Virtual Topology Service, o qual é um serviço que permite aos domínios divulgarem informações de QoS, através de topologias virtuais, e negociarem reservas de recursos independentemente da tecnologia que utilizar~ao para concretizar essas reservas. A estratégia proposta e sua implementação foram testadas em diferentes cenários de mobilidade em um protótipo de NGN real. A análise dos resultados dos testes mostrou que o reuso de reservas acelera a reserva de novos recursos e, consequentemente, o restabelecimento da qualidade de serviço esperada pelo usuário / Abstract: The technological evolution that happened on the last decades fostered the steep growth of the Internet, the creation of new Internet capable devices, like sensors and PDAs, and the creation of a multitude of online applications. This new scenario brought challenges very different from those initially considered on the creation of the Internet, so emerged the need for new architectures that genuinely address them: the Next Generation Networks (NGNs). With continuously easier access, the Internet is becoming extremely important to our daily lives and activities like banking transactions, online games and videoconference are demanding more security, speed and bandwidth. In order to ensure these characteristics in NGNs, the quality of service (QOS) management is essential and will have to face great challenges like mobility, technology heterogeneity, and domain and node autonomy. Aiming to address these challenges, this work presents a strategy for resource reservation in inter-domain QoS management in Next Generation Networks. This strategy takes into account the high mobility expected in NGNs and proposes the reuse of reservations to speed up the QoS reestablishment after node or network movements. For the implementation of this strategy, we decided to adapt the Virtual Topology Service, which is a service that helps the domains to advertise QoS information, through virtual topologies, and to negotiate resource reservations independently from the technology they will use to enforce these reservations. The proposed strategy and its implementation were tested in different mobility scenarios over a real NGN prototype. The analysis of the test results showed that the reservation reuse accelerates the reservation of new resources and, consequently, the reestablishment of the QoS expected by the user / Universidade Estadual de Campi / Ciência da Computação / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

Orientador: Edmundo Roberto Mauro Madeira, Nelson Luis Saldanha da Fonseca / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T03:41:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Malheiros_NeumarCosta_D.pdf: 3612194 bytes, checksum: e5c84ef5d3c3f025b775cde399720ea6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: À medida que novas tecnologias de rede são desenvolvidas, torna-se mais complexa a tarefa de gerenciar os serviços e protocolos de comunicação. Diante de tal complexidade, a gerência das redes de comunicação atuais representa um grande desafio. As soluções de gerência tradicionais, com uma arquitetura centralizada, não apresentam um alto grau de escalabilidade e não são capazes de prover reconfiguração dinâmica dos protocolos de comunicação em reposta às constantes mudanças nas condições da rede. Neste trabalho, apresenta-se uma solução factível e eficaz para auto-configuração de protocolos de comunicação. Propõe-se uma abordagem cognitiva para a reconfiguração dinâmica de parâmetros de protocolos a fim de evitar a degradação de desempenho resultante de eventuais alterações nas condições da rede. O arcabouço proposto, denominado CogProt, provê, através de mecanismos de aprendizagem e decisão, o ajuste de parâmetros dos protocolos durante a operação da rede. Parâmetros de interesse são periodicamente reconfigurados de acordo com informações de monitoramento a fim de aumentar o desempenho médio do sistema como um todo. A abordagem proposta é descentralizada e pode ser aplicada no ajuste dinâmico de uma ampla variedade de protocolos em diferentes camadas da arquitetura da rede. Apresenta-se uma série de estudos de caso para ilustrar a aplicação da abordagem proposta. Estudos baseados em simulação e um experimento em um ambiente de rede real foram realizados para avaliar o desempenho do arcabouço CogProt. Os resultados demonstram a eficácia da abordagem proposta em reagir prontamente às mudanças no estado da rede e melhorar o desempenho médio dos protocolos / Abstract: As network technologies evolve, the complexity of managing communication infrastructures and protocols increases. Such complexity makes the management of current communication networks a major challenge. Traditional centralized solutions for network management are not scalable and are incapable of providing continuous reconfiguration of network protocols in response to time-varying conditions. In this work, we present a feasible and effective solution for self-configuration of communication protocols. We propose a cognitive approach for dynamic reconfiguration of protocol parameters in order to avoid performance degradation as a consequence of changing network conditions. The proposed cognitive framework, called CogProt, provides runtime adjustment of protocol parameters through learning and reasoning mechanisms. It periodically reconfigures the parameters of interest based on acquired knowledge to improve system-wide performance. The proposed approach is decentralized and can be applied to runtime adjustment of a wide range of protocol parameters at different layers of the protocol stack. We present a number of case studies to illustrate the application of the proposed approach. Both simulation and wide-area network experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach to improve overall performance for different network scenarios and also to avoid performance degradation by timely reacting to network changes / Doutorado / Ciência da Computação / Doutor em Ciência da Computação

Orientadores: Leonardo de Souza Mendes, Mario Lemes Proença Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T02:04:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Amaral_AlexandredeAguiar_M.pdf: 2806398 bytes, checksum: 8a624028da0fcad69cc19e194d5e788c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Estratégias voltadas para a detecção de anomalias em redes de computadores emitem alarmes como forma de notificação ao administrador de rede. Esses alarmes são essenciais para a gerencia de rede, pois são evidencias de uma anormalidade. Entretanto, uma única anomalia pode gerar um numero excessivo de alarmes, tornando a inspeção manual inviável. Nesta dissertação, e apresentado um sistema de correlação de alarmes automatizado, divido em três camadas, que obtém os alarmes primitivos e apresenta ao administrador de rede uma visão global do cenário afetado pela anomalia. A camada de pré-processamento faz a compressão dos alarmes utilizando seus atributos espaciais e temporais, os quais são reduzidos a um único alarme denominado DLA (Alarme em Nível de Equipamento). A camada de correlação busca, através dos DLAs e de informações sobre a topologia da rede, inferir o caminho de propagação da anomalia, sua origem e destino. A camada de apresentação prove a visualização do caminho e elementos de redes afetados pela propagação da anomalia. O sistema apresentado nesta dissertação foi aplicado em diversos cenários que apresentavam anomalias reais detectadas na rede da Universidade Estadual de Londrina. Foi demonstrada sua capacidade de identificar, de forma automatizada, o caminho de propagação do trafego anômalo, proporcionando informações úteis e corretas ao administrador de rede para o diagnostico do problema / Abstract: Anomaly detection systems for computer networks send alarms in order to notify the network administrator. These alarms are essential for network management because they are evidences of an abnormality. However, a single anomaly may generate an excessive volume of alarms, making the manual inspection unfeasible. In this work, it is presented an automated alarm correlation system divided into three layers, which obtains raw alarms and presents to network administrator a global view of the scenario affected by the anomaly. In the preprocessing layer, it is performed the alarm compression using their spatial and temporal attributes, which are reduced to a unique alarm named DLA (Device Level Alarm). The correlation layer aims to infer the anomaly propagation path and its origin and destination using DLAs and network topology information. The presentation layer provides the visualization of the path and network elements affected by the anomaly propagation through the network. The presented system was applied in various scenarios that had real anomalies detected on the State University of Londrina network. It demonstrated its ability to identify in an automated manner the anomalous traffic propagation path, providing useful and accurate information to the network administrator to diagnose the problem / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Digital audio networks allow multiple channels of audio to be streamed between devices. This eliminates the need for many different cables to route audio between devices. An added advantage of digital audio networks is the ability to configure and control the networked devices from a common control point. Common control of networked devices enables a sound engineer to establish and destroy audio stream connections between networked devices that are distances apart. On a digital audio network, an audio transport technology enables the exchange of data streams. Typically, an audio transport technology is capable of transporting both control messages and audio data streams. There exist a number of audio transport technologies. Some of these technologies implement data transport by exchanging OSI/ISO layer 2 data frames, while others transport data within OSI/ISO layer 3 packets. There are some approaches to achieving interoperability between devices that utilize different audio transport technologies. A digital audio device typically implements an audio control protocol, which enables it process configuration and control messages from a remote controller. An audio control protocol also defines the structure of the messages that are exchanged between compliant devices. There are currently a wide range of audio control protocols. Some audio control protocols utilize layer 3 audio transport technology, while others utilize layer 2 audio transport technology. An audio device can only communicate with other devices that implement the same control protocol, irrespective of a common transport technology that connects the devices. The existence of different audio control protocols among devices on a network results in a situation where the devices are unable to communicate with each other. Furthermore, a single control application is unable to establish or destroy audio stream connections between the networked devices, since they implement different control protocols. When an audio engineer is designing an audio network installation, this interoperability challenge restricts the choice of devices that can be included. Even when audio transport interoperability has been achieved, common control of the devices remains a challenge. This research investigates protocol command translation as a means to enable interoperability between networked audio devices that implement different audio control protocols. It proposes the use of a command translator that is capable of receiving messages conforming to one protocol from any of the networked devices, translating the received message to conform to a different control protocol, then transmitting the translated message to the intended target which understands the translated protocol message. In so doing, the command translator enables common control of the networked devices, since a control application is able to configure and control devices that conform to different protocols by utilizing the command translator to perform appropriate protocol translation.