Cybernetics and network management (viable system modeling)

Abstract

This paper presents a recursive modeling method which could be used to conceptualize, design, and develop complex network management structures. It would also enhance the scope for developing and enforcing standards. Today most network management systems concentrate on the alarm handling issues, failing to recognize that all data collected about a network are high valued, providing inputs to many levels of an organization. This becomes especially true where organizations are totally dependent on their Information Technology structures. There are no acceptable easy and cheap solutions to network management, and many of the major issues, such as how to handle the dynamics of networks, require extensive R&D. Network management is all about controlling the behavior of network and computer system resources, and therefore we need to adopt control theories and cybernetics. We need a robust network management building method to avoid chaos and to build the complex network structures required to serve the multinational and global organizations that future markets will require. The recursive modeling approach, proposed here, is just a start toward placing network management within a wider context.