HIGH-LEVEL PROTOCOL-ORIENTED NETWORK MONITORING

EXISTING LOCAL AREA NETWORK ANALYSIS EQUIPMENT IS GENERALLY ORIENTED TOWARDS LOW-LEVEL MONITORING, PRIMARILY FOR DATA INTEGRITY AND LOW-LEVEL OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AT THE PHYSICAL-LINK LEVEL. FURTHERMORE, A HARDWARE-ORIENTED DESIGN PHILOSOPHY IS EVIDENT IN MOST OFFERINGS, RESULTING INHIGH PER-UNIT COSTS. THIS EXPENSE, AND THE ARCANE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO INTERPRET THE LOW-LEVEL DATA STREAM DISCOURAGES THEIR ROUTINE USE IN LAN INSTALLATION ANDMAINTENANCE. WE PROPOSE TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF A SOFTWARE-AND PROTOCOL-ORIENTED HIGH-LEVEL LAN MONITORING APPROACH, BASED ON A COMMON MICROCOMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND COMMERCIAL LAN INTERFACE HARDWARE TO MINIMIZE PER-UNIT COSTS WHILE PROVIDING SIMPLE USER-EXTENSIBILITY. OUR INTENT IS TO ATTEMPT TO AID THE ANALYSIS AND MAINTENANCE OF HIGH-LEVEL PROTOCOLS, NETWORK ADDRESSING, GATEWAY BEHAVIOR AND ROUTING. OUR INITIAL EMPHASIS WILL BE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE'S TCP/IP PROTOCOL FAMILY, BUT THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE WILL BE EXTENSIBLE TO ANY PROTOCOLS USING STANDARD TRANSMISSION MEDIA AND ENCAPSULATION.