PDF of this tutorialDistribution in the IN affords improvement at all levels of execution, operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning. The main benefit found with distribution of intelligence is the ability to define systems that meet fluctuating demands logically. A distributed system is one proactively designed for reactive behavior. In the IN, traffic loading is the principle reagent that influences the transitions between system states. Distributing the detection and reaction to state transitions between differing computing systems is an effective means of performing system modification while injecting the least amount of intrusive actions. In a distributed system, intelligent actions perform cures that are not worse than the disease.
At various layers of telecommunication systems, intelligent distribution occurs in several logic points:
- data/link (switching systems) implementations—These implementations dynamically allocate links or channels as nodes encapsulating those entities become available. Conversely, they deallocate when the nodes are removed or altered.
- network implementations—These implementations perform dynamic routing and congestion algorithms based on behavior characteristics of participating elements. Such implementations route through or around nodes based on their current and predicted performance.
- transport implementations—These implementations mediate call flow between the objectives of the nodes to receive the calls and distinguish between node typing so that the appropriate call is enacted on the node that can best facilitate the objectives of the call.
- session implementations—These implementations correlate service provisioning to nodes capable of performing the service in question. Again, such implementations use the behavior patterns of the nodes in question combined with their ability to perform the service tasking to establish route paths to service nodes considered to be capable of performing the deployed service.
Network Management
The general theme so far is to allocate to heterogeneous members of one’s distributed IN those tasks considered relevant to the capabilities of those members. Configuration in this instance is an intelligent activity that dynamically changes as the nature of both the service requirements and system specifics change. This is intelligent behavior based on intelligent distribution. Perhaps the most commonly addressed distributed intelligent activity, however, runs a course through all of these activities. This is the action of performing network management.
Using the standard means of action/reaction to events within the system, network management works proactively to perform the traditional actions: configuration, event (fault), performance, provisioning, and security management. Each of these actions is triggered by behavior events in each of the participating systems. The network manager in this instance can either be an independent or participatory member of the system. As a result of the distributed nature of the system, the network manager becomes the vehicle for the overall coordination of state between the member elements to be able to define a single system state.
