The concept of the autonomic systems
has been derived from a biological entity called the autonomic nervous system
(ANS). In human body this system is responsible for carrying out functions such
as blood pressure and circulation, respiration and emotive response.
In this
article we discuss about the various components of the autonomic networking.
Components of Autonomic Networking
Autognostics:
- This
category of autonomic components includes capabilities such as that of
awareness, self – discovery and self – analysis.
- With all these
capabilities, an autonomic system is capable of having a high – level
view.
- In other words, we can say that perceptual sub–systems are
represented by it which serves the purpose of gathering, analyzing and
reporting on the conditions and states of the system.
- These components
provide a basis to the system for responding and validating its decisions.
- In simple words, autognostics provide self – knowledge.
- This component if is
rich, might provide various perceptual senses.
-In autonomic systems,
models of both the external and internal environments are embedded through
which perceived threats and states can be assigned some relative value.
- When it comes to autonomic networking, inputs from the following are taken
for defining the state of the network:
a) Various network elements
such as network interfaces and switches (inclusive of the current state and
specification and configuration.
b) End – host
c) Traffic flows
d) Logical diagrams
e) Design specifications
f) Application performance data
- This component inter operates with
the other components of the autonomic system.
Configuration
management:
- The responsibility for the interactions that take place among
the interfaces and the elements.
- It consists of an accounting capability
with which it is possible to track the configurations over the time under
various circumstances.
- Metaphorically, they act as the memory for the
autonomic systems.
- Provision and the remediation over a network can be
applied through the configuration settings.
- In addition to these, two
other things which can be applied are the selective performance and the
implementation affecting access.
- This category only contains the actions
that are taken by the human engineers.
- There are a very few exceptional
cases where the interface settings are configured manually using the
automated scripts.
- The dynamic population of the devices is maintained
implicitly.
- This component must have the capability operating on all
devices and to recover the old configuration settings.
- There can be some
situations where the states may become unrecoverable.
- Therefore, the sub –
system must be capable of assessing the consequence of the changes before
they are issued.
Policy management:
- This
component is inclusive of the following:
a) Policy specification
b) Deployment
c) Reasoning over the
policies
d) Update of policies
e) Maintenance of the
policies
f) Enforcement
- The reasons for including this
component are:
a) Configuration management
b) Definition of the roles
and relationships
c) Establishment of trust
and reputation
d) Description of business
processes
e) Definition of performance
f) Constraints on behavior
issues such as privacy, resource access, collaboration and security.
- It represents a model of ideal
behavior and environment representing effective interaction.
- For defining the
constituents of a policy it is important to know what all is involved in its
management.
Autodefense:
- The
mechanism presented by this component is both dynamic and adaptive in
nature.
- This mechanism has been developed to keep the network
infrastructure safe from the malicious attacks.
- Further, it also prevents
the illegal use of the infrastructure for attacking the various
technological resources.
- This component has the capability of striking a
balance between the various performance objectives that have threat management actions.
- This component can be compared to the immune system of
the human body.
Security:
The
structure provided by the security component is responsible for defining
and enforcing the relationships between the following:
a) Roles
b) Content
c) resources
