Self-management of Hybrid Networks: Introduction, Pros and Cons

In the last decade ‘self-management’ has become a popular research theme within the networking community. While reading papers, one could get the impression that self-management is the obvious solution to solve many of the current network management problems. There are hardly any publications, however, that discuss the drawbacks of self-management. In this paper we will therefore introduce self-management for the specific case of hybrid networks, and discuss some pros and cons. In particular, this paper investigates the feasibility to employ self-management functions within hybrid optical and packet switching networks. In such networks, large IP flows can be moved from the IP level to the optical level, in an attempt to reduce the load at the IP layer and enhance the quality of service (QoS) of the flow that is moved to the optical level. One of the typical management tasks within such networks, is the establishment and release of lightpaths. This paper identifies the advantages and disadvantages of introducing self-management to control such lightpaths.