Network Management

Course Description

Techniques of planning, controlling, organizing and decision making for a telecommunications network; accounting, security, fault management, configuration, and maintenance. Protocols and architectures for network management.

Prerequisites   
    TELCOM 2000/2100

Course Goals

• understanding of the definition of network management
• use of the FCAPS model for network management
• understanding of the concept of a MIB
• application of the concept of a MIB
• reinforced understanding of the OSI 7 layer model
• relationship between 802.xyz, IP, ICMP, UDP, TCP and the 7 layer model
  
• understanding of protocol constraints
• understanding of ARP, RIP and OSPF as network management protocols
• application of ARP, RIP and OSPF as network management protcols
• SNMP v1, function and use
• SNMP v2 & v3 function and use
• RMON section of the MIB and its use
• MPLS and its use in network management
• DNS for network management
• DHCP concepts and usage in network management
  

• Homework ....................... 20%
• Midterm Exam ................. 25%
• Final Exam ....................... 35%
• Project ............................. 20%
  

• All work must be the student's own, unless collaboration is specifically and explicitly permitted. Any unauthorized collaboration or copying will at minimum result in no credit for the affected assignment and may be subject to further action under the Guidelines on Academic Integrity of SIS and the University of Pittsburgh. A document discussing these guidelines was included in your orientation materials, and you should acquaint yourself with them.
• Laboratory work will be done in groups, however individual lab reports must be submitted and be the work of each individual student.
• Assignments are due at the beginning of the class (see table). Late assignments may be folded, spindled, multilated or lost by the Instructor or GSAs before, during or after grading, unless specific arrangements are made by the student with the Instructor at least 3 days before the assignment is due. Surviving late assignments will be penalized.
• I reserve the right to reject any assignment that I deem unreadable. This means type up long blocks of text, use a spell checker and grammar checker. Write mathematical analysis neatly. Draw figures using a computer or at least a straight-edge. Everything must be on 8.5"x 11" paper, stapled together. You really don't want to know why this statement is in here do you?
• I reserve the right to modify course requirements administering surprise quizzes for up to 100 points if I feel that students are not pursuing a reasonable amount of course related reading, writing and computing. Should this option be exercised, the point distribution for grades will be changed accordingly.
• You are expected to check this page on a regular basis for any changes to the problems and syllabus. All are subject to change as the course proceeds and will be publicized in the updates section .
• The easiest means of contacting me is by electronic mail first ( jkabara@pitt.edu ). This helps me organize my time, and ensures a more accurate and efficient response outside of office hours. I read my electronic mail throughout the day every day and will usually respond with an answer within a few hours of reading it, and almost always the same day. If the nature of your question requires an interactive session, please come to my office during office hours as scheduled. If, for some unforeseen reason, I cannot make office hours, I will announce that in class whenever possible. I do not make appointments during office hours; I will be available on a first come, first served basis.
  
• You are expected to read the assigned material before the associated lecture
• Notes, assignments etc. are located as the links listed in the table, you are responsible for retrieving assignments from the web.
• Project
  
• A group (3 or less students)  course project involving a performance study using either measurements, simulation, queueing theory or a combination of these techniques  is required. Each group must send a  list of its members via email to the GSA and the instructor  by  no later than (see schedule). If  some individuals cannot find a group, I will appoint them to one. A suggested list of projects will be provided on (see schedule). Each group must select a project or propose a project (subject to approval) by (see schedule), if one is not selected I will select one for the group. An initial progress report is DUE (see schedule). The final project must be submitted no later than (see schedule).
  

• Look at the software tools above
• Look at the additional links
• You can use to hardware in the networking lab to test your system
• Ideas
• Use the network general sniffers and build an RMON command center for serveral lans in the networking lab
• Use Linux tools to receive trap messages and generate SMS messages with the problem
• Use either Linux or Windows tools to poll devices and create a long-term log
• Even better, configure a polling system that is dynamic, polling for more MIB entries at long intervals, but if a threshold is reached it will poll fewer variables more often
• use snmp tools to automatically verify a running configuration against a local copy
• use snmp tools to automatically predict the performance in the near future and in the long term