Session T3D
NETWORK MANAGEMENT: A CAPSTONE DESIGN EXPERIENCE
Roger H. Brown1
Abstract  This paper describes a graduate course in
Network Management and its capstone project/design
experience. First the paper introduces the objectives of
Network Management and presents the characteristics and
culminating features of the course assignments. We believe
the network management project/design assignment is a
valuable synthesizing opportunity and makes this a worthy
capstone course in the Graduate Certificate program in
Computer Network Communications. The Network
Management course is offered by Rensselaer At Hartford
and focuses on the essential aspects of monitoring,
controlling and managing a significantly large enterprise
network. The course encourages the computer science or
engineering student to look at the bigger operational issues
of network configuration, fault, performance, accounting
and security management. The course and its design project
span the disciplines of computer science, computer
engineering, information technology and management.
Second, the paper presents the project/design proposal
requirements. Each student, working in groups of 2-4
students, is expected to prepare a proposal for network
management systems and services for a hypothetical
company that has medium-to-large size LANs and WAN
networks. The requirements are open ended, and as a
resulting benefit, the student teams explore contemporary
management solutions as well as newer frontiers of object-
oriented, web-based enterprise management. The paper
concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the
project/design proposal assignment.
Index Terms  capstone course, culminating experience,
network management, project, proposal).
INTRODUCTION
Network Management in the context of real world
telecommunications and digital networks is immense. In the
telecommunications arena we have global or wide area
network (WAN) infrastructures, made up of copper, fiber,
satellite, and cellular or wireless communication channels,
providing broadband data and voice services for many
customers. WANs are international in scope and extent.
Within the corporate or business environment we have local
area networks (LANs) allowing each employee shared
access to internal file servers, databases, application servers,
email, etc. The LANs are connected to the WANs and
everybody is connected to the “big I” Internet. It has been
said that traditional companies known for voice and video
communications are moving towards data communications.
And at the same time, traditional data communication and
computer companies are moving towards voice and video. It
is a large, evolving, high technology field. The demands for
network management systems and services are obvious.
1
Roger H. Brown, Rensselaer At Hartford, Dept. of Engineering & Science, 275 Windsor St, Hartford, CT, 06120, rhb@rh.edu
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Network Management in the context of a 3-credit, 15-
week, graduate course must be more constrained. It is
impossible to cover everything. The course and project work
described herein applies to a course offered a Rensselaer At
Hartford within the Computer Science and Computer
Engineering graduate programs. The course has been offered
for the past decade and has gone through several changes.
We have changed because the protocols and the industry
have changed and we have made changes to address the
needs of the students. We have changed texts. In the past we
have used Black [1], Feit [3], Hegering [4], Lieinwand and
Fang [5], Miller [6], Rose [7], Stallings [8], Terplan [10],
and most recently we have selected Subramanian [9].
Currently the course covers the operations management of
the popular Internet or TCP/IP based networks more
completely, while setting aside the management of the
telecommunication (voice) networks.
The course is offered to computer science, computer
engineering, and information technology graduate students.
They have satisfied the prerequis ite courses - a minimum of
the basic Computer Communication Networks course which
is based on the 7 layer OSI model, and at least one additional
follow-on advanced graduate course. Several advanced
graduate courses are offered each year, giving the students
the opportunity to have some background in local area
networks (LANs), broadband or wide area networks
(WANs), network analysis and design; or network security
before embarking on a course in network management.
While database is a critical part of managing information
there is no expectation of background knowledge in
relational or object oriented databases. Nor is there a
prerequisite for software design or programming skills.
Define the Problem
Network management deals with the application of
theories and principles of electrical engineering, computer
engineering, computer science and information technology.
Network management is not just limited to the data traffic of
local and wide area networks, it also has roots in
telecommunications, i.e. voice traffic. It is a broad subject.
Many students are very new to concepts of managing a
network and investigating the business or operational side of
an enterprise network. The students will be challenged to
broaden their knowledge of engineering and science, to
include operations management.
To understand and to have some degree of comfort and
confidence with the functions, tasks and operations of
network management, it is essential that a student read as
much as possible. So in essence, how can the course be
structured that encourages reading without being dry and
November 6 - 9, 2002, Boston, MA

unappealing. In addition, how can we structure assignments
to allow each student to demonstrate their understanding of a
newly acquired body of knowledge.
Possible Solutions
We could ask that students write a term paper on some
aspect of network management, perhaps exploring a text
chapter in more depth and integrating recent results found in
ACM or IEEE journals or conference proceedings. While
this would be a worthy assignment, perhaps traditional, it
would not cause the student to study the topic of network
management evenly or broadly. It would be an assignment
with depth rather than breadth.
Idealy if we (students and faculty) could have a
reasonably sized LAN coupled with a WAN, a network
managment system console, many remote agents, with active
traffic on the network, all at our finger tips, we could have
quite the experience. However, such an “hands-on”
opportunity is not the case on our campus. Our technical
support staff do not want faculty or students managing,
monitoring, controlling, adjusting, or fixing anything on the
campus-wide network. Having a “crashable system” to
experimentally manage is just not yet a realistic solution.
Give the students more quizes or exams in hopes that
they will read and study more? Doubtful. If everybody is to
take the same quiz or exam, then everybody must read the
same set of articles, internet standards, and texts. Too much
structure and not enough independent investigation.
Our choice is to assign a semester long project – a
network management design experience We ask the students
to work in groups of 2, 3, or 4 to investigate an “enterprise
wide” networking infrastructure that is in need of network
management systems and services (their problem) and
propose a comprehensive solution. The project scope or
specifications are constructed to encourage the following
behaviors:
• reading beyond assigned text chapters;
• reading and application of internet standards documents;
• reading network vendor documentation; followed by
• writing and presenting a carefully thought out solution.
In the sections that follow we present the content of the
graduate level course in Network Management, the student
design of a hypothetical enterprise network, followed by the
scope and res ponsibilities of the Network Management
Systems and Services Proposal that each project team will
prepare and submit at the end of the semester.
NETWORK M ANAGEMENT: COURSE CONTENT
Terplan [10] provides an excellant definition of network
management. He writes “Network management means
deploying and coordinating resources in order to plan,
operate, administer, analyze, evaluate, design, and expand
communication networks to meet service level objectives at
all times, at a reasonable cost, and with optimal capacity.”
The definition sets the stage for the course and applies
equally to an internet-based networking infrastructure as
well as a “voice plus data” telecommunications network.
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Session T3D
Five Functional Areas
The Open Systems Interconnet (OSI) Reference model
gave us a seven layer structure for organizing and defining a
basic course in computer communication networks.
Similarly, the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) for the OSI environment defines the following
functional areas of network management.:
• Fault Management
• Configuration (and Name) Management
• Accounting Management
• Performance Management
• Security Management
The functional areas define the scope or topic areas of
operational management that we wish to cover in our course
in network management. As we explore each functional area
we highlight the appropriate tools, applications, and
supporting standards and protocols.
The Managed Object
As we begin, we define the concepts of a Managed
Object (MO). A network may be managed by representing
network resources as managed objects. Each MO is a data
variable representing one aspect of the managed resource
e.g. on/off status, number of packets sent, etc. A collection
of MOs is called the MIB (Management Information Base),
that is, a collection of access points at the agent(s) for the
network management system (NMS). Monitoring equates to
retrieving values from MIB objects in agents. Controlling
equates to setting values within the MIB objects in agents.
MOs are standardized across systems. The Structure of
Management Information (SMI) defines syntax (format) and
semantics (meaning) of management information stored in
the Management Information Base (MIB). Abstract Syntax
One (ASN.1) is a formal language standardized by ITU-T
(X.208 and X.680) and ISO 8824 that clarifies how data are
arranged , what meaning they have and the expected data
type. The transfer syntax is how data must be transformed
before it is transferred over the network to/from agent and
manager. The standard transfer syntax is Basic Encoding
Rules (BER). Perhaps one of the more challenging tasks in
the course is to give the student reading and writing
experience in ASN.1 documentation.
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
SNMP management, often called Internet management,
is the mo st widely used network managment system [9]. The
protocol(s) have matured and evolved into three revisions
(SNMPv1, SNMPv2, SNMPv3) and is capable of managing
more than just the Internet, as it is implemented in most
network components in an enterprise network system.
SNMP is the protocol to transfer messages to/from the
agents and the managers. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 is called
“community based” with trivial security. It is used in many
real networks as a read-only monitoring solution. We spend
very little time on the international ISO and OSI standards in
network management. Rather we spend more time on the
study of the popular SNMP protocols and put more focus on
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 Session T3D

the security enhanced version 3 of SNMP. In version 3 we “software entites” that are installed in routers, switches,
can truly authenticate and secure the exchange of messages hosts, servers, interfaces, and other network elements that
to/from the manager and the agent. One inportant advantage are responsible for maintaining the local MIB, i.e. the many
is that the standard documentation for these standards, as managed objects (MOs) and their current values. Simple
shown in Table I, is readily availble, on the Internet, free of architectures have the manager polling the agents
charge. (GetRequests) and agents providing (Get Responses)
TABLE I management data when asked. To reduce the burden of
REQUEST FOR COMMENT (RFC): SNMP V3 STANDARDS polling all network managment information, a policy of trap
RFC Title Date directed polling is implemented in the simple architecture.
2571 An Architecture for Describing SNMP 1999 Traps are unsolicited messages from the agents to the
Management Frameworks manager when conditions warrant special notification. More
2572 Message Processing and Dispatching 1999 complicated distributed architectures are possible using a
for SNMP hierarchy of agents, managers, and manager-of-managers.
2573 SNMPv3 Applications 1999 Independant systems of remote monitoring using the RMON
2574 User-Based Security Model for 1999 MIB can be added to capture events, collect data, for further
SNMPv3 off-line analysis.
2575 View-Based Access Control Model 1999 Other Directions in Network Management
(VACM) for SNMP
To explore all of the material discussed above requires a
full semester. Many other topics exist within the realm of
Remote Monitoring (RMON)
network management. We have tried to broaden the scope of
The RMON task or system is primarily a set of managed the course and include the ISO standards of network
objects or MIBs and a methodology for monitoring the management: Common Management Information Protocol
behavior of intranets, local area networks, traffic at the (CMIP), Common Management Information Services
boundarie between LANs and WANs. RMON is a powerful (CMIS) and the corresponding object-oriented model of
tool for performance management where collected data can managed objects, Common Information Model (CIM).
be presented in histograms and graphs to pictorial represent In the last lecture, we introduce the concepts of desktop
the network behavior. In addition, types of data traffic can management and the Web-based Enterprise Management
monitored, answering the question: “which applications architecture. This leads to the introduction of Java
generate the most traffic?” Management Extensions. Regrettably more time is required
TABLE II to do justice to this new and expanding topic area.
REQUEST FOR COMMENT (RFC): RMON 1 AND RMON 2 STANDARDS
RFC Title Date ROLE-PLAY: STUDENTS DEFINE AND
1757 Remote Network Monitoring Feb DESIGN A NETWORK
Management Information Base 1995
(RMON MIB) Within the first two weeks of the semester each team is
2021 Remote Network Monitoring Jan required to define an enterprise network for a large
Management Information Base Version 1997 company. The company might have several divisions (each
2 (RMON2 MIB) using SMIv2 with an internal LAN) and at different locations (requiring
wide area network connectivity). At one or more locations
the company would have a connection to the Internet (global
Hardware / Software Management Tools connectivity) and a web server to support their customer
Management tools are necessary for troubleshooting a base. A simple “top-level” topology is shown in Figure 1.
network. Engineers and operations personnel involved in The more adventurous team might include wireless
fault management use tools on a daily basis. Some examples communications, satellite communications, dial-up remote
of tools discussed in class include: access, “voice over IP, ” and/or virtual private networks
(VPNs) with external vendors, clients, or partners.
• Bit Error Rate Testing
They must select the technologies used for local area
• UNIX Status monitoring (ifconfig, ping, nslookup, dig)
networks (e.g. 10M 100M and/or 1000M Ethernet) and for a
• Route Monitoring (netstat, traceroute) wide area network (e.g. ATM, Frame Relay). The network
• SNMP MIB browsers protocol stack of choice is TCP/IP since it is an open
• Protocol analyzers and network sniffers. standard and supported by many vendors and computer
Network Management Architecture platforms. TCP/IP is the practical choice when one looks
ahead and sees that their managment solution will be SNMP-
Starting with SNMPv1 protocol, the expected based.
architecture of a Network Management System (NMS) is The local sites must have several hundred users (clients)
one manager and many agents. The manager is the and/or servers (files, applications, database) such that the
centralized point of monitoring and control. The agents are internal LAN design would require switches or internal

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routers. Each local site would maintain connections with
their external divisions (remote locations) via a wide area
network service or dedicated leased lines and satellite
connections. The students are encouraged to specify the flow
of data (data, voice, multimedia, etc) within the divisions,
division to division, and with external global customers,
vendors, or partners. When students assert the flow and
throughput of data on their hypothetical enterprise network
then each team is more likely to design a more realistic
network. In addition, each team must give some thought to
scalability, we suggest that the company might “buy up” a
small company and asked to integrate additional users and
their subnets, file servers, applications, etc.
Division A Division B
Private WAN Internet
Division C Division D
FIGURE. 1
T OP - LEVEL T OPOLOGY OF AN ENTERPRISE NETWORK
Define the Extent and Size
Each team submits their network topology design for
review and evaluation at the end of the second week of the
semester. We look at each design and assess whether the
proposed topology can be easily managed using the SNMP
protocols, standard MIBs and RMON. That is, we wish to
avoid proposing a relatively obscure technology, or a very
new technology with a limited customer base. We want to be
sure that the team will likely find management resource
definitions in the text, in the Internet standards, at vendor
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Session T3D
sites (e.g. Cisco) or by searching the web. The topology
should not be trivial, rather it should be reasonably
challenging and in need of a comprehensive network
management solution. That is, the proposed network design
must be extensive, both local and wide, and utilize at least
three different physical layer technologies. Yet, not so
complicated that it would require many different tools,
extensive databases, and many MIBs.
Hypothetical Management Consulting Company
Here is where the project group takes on the role of a
consulting company. Project teams of 2 to 4 students assume
that the network they have defined and designed needs to be
effectively managed. Students are asked to prepare a
comprehensive proposal for Network Management Systems
and Services ( i.e. "managing") for a hypothetical company
which has medium-to-large size LAN and WAN network.
What is expected is a total network management
solution. Focusing on tasks to be performed from the five
functional areas, hardware systems, tools and software
applications rather than the cost of the proposed solution.
That is, I do not believe that many project teams, certainly
not every team, would be able to get enough costing
information to put a bottom line cost figure on the proposal.
I have seen students try to contact vendors with hopes of
getting pricing information, but once the “real-world”
vendor realizes they are talking to a student and that there is
no hope of a s ale – silence follows and the phone goes dead.
SCOPE OF THE PROPOSAL
The project teams are presented with a topical outline for
their Network Management Systems and Services Proposal.
The benefits are twofold. First, the students are given a clear
idea, setting the expectations, of the basic structure of the
proposal. Students are encouraged to add more subheadings
and expand the Appendices as needed. Secondly, the outline
structure provides a checklist for grading the ultimate project
report.
As stated ealier, students are asked to form 2, 3, or 4
person teams. We strive for the ideal combination of talents
and experience. That is, there is diversity in prerequisite
knowledge, some students have taken the advanced graduate
course on LANs while others have taken the course on
Broadband Networks. Some have taken the course on
Network Security and others have taken the Network
Analysis and Design course.
Division of Responsibilities
If the project team is a 2-person team then the following
division of labor or responsibilities are suggested:
• Students A and B hold joint responsibility for the
network design, topology, technology selection, and
Configuration Management
• Student A is the responsible lead for Fault and Security
Management
• Student B is the responsible lead for Performance and
Accounting Management
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A 2-person team has the most obvious advantage that
they cannot meet and leave another team member out of the
conversation or decisions. If this course is offered by
distance education, then a two person team is easily set up
and if necessary, a single student working alone can
complete a little more than half of the proposal, as Student A
or B, and be graded accordingly.
If the project team is a 4-person team then the following
division of labor or responsibilities are suggested:
• All team members hold joint responsibility for the
network design, topology, technology selection, and
Configuration Management and Appendices/Examples.
• Student A is responsible for Fault Management
• Student B is responsible for Security Management
• Student C is responsible for Performance Management
• Student D is responsible for Accounting Management
Network Management System and Services Outline
• Introduction and Company Overview
• Configuration Management
o Network Topology
o System Architecture
§ Location of NM Managers
§ Location of Agents
o Configuration Databases
o Standard vs. private MIBs
o Distributed and/or Centralized
o Data storage requirements. What is stored? Frequency
of updates? Histories?
o NM Application Software and GUI Displays
o Staffing requirements and organizational structure
• Fault Management
o Monitoring Policy, e.g. Traps vs. Polling
o Required MIBs for Fault Management
o Use of RMON for Fault Prediction, Detection and/or
Event Notification.
o Alarm filtering and correlation techniques.
o Trouble-ticket systems/software
o Staffing requirements and organizational structure
• Security Management
o Securing Network Access Points & Security Policies
o Client/server authentication
o Manager/agent authentication and confidentiality
Using SNMPv3
§ Context and Access control.
§ MIB views: Read and/or Read/Write Access
o Required MIBs for Security Management
o Key and password management
o Staffing requirements and organizational structure
• Performance Management
o RMON Stations and Probes
o MIBs implemented.for Performance Management
o Baseline monitoring and trend analysis
o Network Availability and Usage.
o Alarms and exception reporting
o Planning for growth: Capacity, utilization, trends, etc.
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o Estimate percent bandwidth requirements just for
network management traffic.
o Staffing requirements and organizational structure
• Accounting Management
o Traffic Monitoring and capacity analysis
o Hardware vs. software implementations
o RMON Stations
o MIBs implemented for Accounting
o Service level agreements and monitoring and
Reporting
o Staffing requirements and organizational structure
• Appendices
o Standard MIBs installed at network management
stations and at typical agents
o Vendor MIBs installed at various agents/stations
• Examples
o MIB Table management (e.g. Adding/deleting rows)
o Data collection of both scalars and tables using, GET,
Get-Next, and the Get-Bulk commands.
o Typical PDU field assignemnts and transfer syntax
BER
EVALUATION AND INTROSPECTION
When we examine the Network Management course, as
offered at Rensselaer At Hartford, we truly see a capstone
course. Clearly students who attempt the course without the
prerequisite knowledge are ill-prepared to contribute to the
project and we would expect that their fellow team members
are dissapointed with that student’s ability to discuss wisely
the design and management of a significant network
infrastructure. The catalog description merely states that the
basic course in computer network communications is a
prerequisite. However, word of mouth (i.e the students
agree) and faculty advisors know that at least one additional
advanced graduate elective in the field of networking is
strongly desired.
In addition, Network Management is listed as the last
course to be taken in the Graduate Certificate in Computer
Network Communications [2]. A Graduate Certificate is a
12-credit focused studies program.
Things Done Well
There are many things that are done well in this course
on network management as indicated from course
evaluations and dicussions with students who have
completed the network certificate program. Included in the
list of things done well are:
• An appreciation and respect for the SNMP
protocols. Although simple, they are sold on the
strength of the SNMPv3 archtitecture and protocols.
• ASN.1 language. Students have working knowledge of
ASN.1 as it is used to define the many managed objects
and MIB modules.
• A distributed network management system
architecture. Students appreciate the inter-relationships
of managers, agents, and RMON probes.
November 6 - 9, 2002, Boston, MA

• A better appreciation of the business side of network
management. Rather than just lust learning and
evaluating the fastest or newest network technologies,
the student is now more aware of the needs of the user
(service oriented goals) and needs of the business to
have efficient or effective netweork (utilization and
availability goals).
• Newly found sources of information about their
world of networking. Students, while researching and
compiling information for their proposal, have come in
contact with more of the scholarly literature, more of the
trade and commercial literature, and sources of
standards.
• Use of the standards within commercial network
management products.
• Network management is put into a positive light.
Students preparing a proposal must focus on the positive
advantages of their network management solution. I
think many students complete the course with a positive
outlook on management.
• Opens new job opportunities. Several students have
made use of their resulting project proposal as an
“engineer or scientists” portfolio. They have carried a
copy of their report with them to a job interview and
have used it successfully as a topic of discussion with
their potential new employer.
Things That Need More Attention
If the class is dominated by younger students without
the real-world work experience, then most project teams
struggle with the scope of a network management
“proposal.” They ask, what do we put into a proposal?
Although the propsal outline is given, putting the meat on
the project remains a challenge.
To make the project experience more efficient, the
course web page should grow to include links to newly
discovered resources of network management information.
For example, vendor specific MIBs, network management
applications software, graphical user interface information,
data presentation techniques should be added to the list of
hot links.
If the course should make use of WebCT [11] then
more guidance should be given to its navigation, use of chat
rooms, and team interaction.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
By asking the students to role-play as network management
consultants and prepare a comprehensive management
proposal for a sizeable enterprise network, their reading
outside of class has become more focused and beneficial.
Students now read with a goal in mind; the project gives
purpose to their reading. Since the students are really in
control of the content of the proposal they can selectively
read to fill their assignments. Compare this to the general
notion of “Here read all of this and I (the teacher) will ask
exam questions based on those readings.”
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Session T3D
The primary focus on an SNMP-based network with
RMON has been successful. Students are able to get to the
standards information since it is readily available on the
Internet and integrate the standard protocols with the five
functional area of operational management.
In previous years, the broader approach, covering both
the Internet-centric networks and the telecommunication
networks has proven to be difficult. Neither the students nor
the instructor have been able to give both a balanced
treatment. And there is natural leaning towards SNMP since
more resources are available for their studies and for the
project assignment.
As an area for further course development, the concepts
of case-based learning should be explored. Case studies may
not replace the successful project/proposal, rather we could
consider more intereaction during class time to discuss real-
world examples. We could gain experience through the lives
of others in the field of network management.
REFERENCES
[1] Black, U., Network Management Standards: SNMP, CMIP, TMN,
MIBs and Object Libraries, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, (1995).
[2] Brown, R.H., “A Graduate Certificate in Computer Network
Communications,” 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education
Conference, Kansas City, MO, October 2000.
[3] Feit, S., SNMP: A Guide to Network Management. New York:
McGraw-Hill, (1995).
[4] Hegering, H.-G., S. Abeck, and B. Neumair, Integrated Management
of Networked Systems. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann,
(1999).
[5] Leinwand, A. and K. Fang Conroy, Network Management: A
Practical Perspective, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
(1996).
[6] Miller, M. A., Managing Internetworks with SNMP, 2nd ed. New
York: M&T Books, (1997).
[7] Rose, M. T., The Simple Book: An Introduction to Management of
TCP/IP Based Internets, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
(1994).
[8] Stallings, W., SNMP, SNMPv2, SNMPv3 and RMON 1 and 2, 3rd ed.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, (1999).
[9] Subramanian, M., Network Management: Principles and Practice.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, (2000).
[10] Terplan, K., Communications Network Management, 2nd ed.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, (1992).
[11] ______, “WebCT: e-Learning Solutions,” www.webct.com, 2002
November 6 - 9, 2002, Boston, MA