Security Schemes for a Mobile Agent Based Network and System Management Framework

In previous research work, we proposed an integrated framework to guide the design of a Mobile Agent based Network Management (MANM) system, namely the Mobile Agent based framework for Security enhanced Autonomous network and system Management (MASAM). This framework offered two distinct advantages: (1) the provision of a secure agent-based management infrastructure and (2) the capability of achieving enhanced network management functionalities. In this paper, we propose two novel security schemes, namely the Visibility Domain Protection Scheme (VDPS) and the Visa Based Authentication Scheme (VBAS), for protection of management information and authentication and resource access control of management agents, respectively. These schemes seamlessly fit into the modular MASAM framework and facilitate two major security components defined in its abstract architecture. The efficiency of the two security schemes, focusing on the aspects of security and performance, is demonstrated and evaluation results are compared with the SNMPv3 standard.