Surfin' Network Resources Across the Web

Today's networks are composed of many interconnected heterogeneous resources. Network management protocols provide a basis for hiding differences between resources, along with a method of managing them in a consistent way. Frequently, network management tools are based on proprietary products and are often both complex to use and to install. The increasing popularity of the World Wide Web, with its established user interface and the ability to run on almost any platform offers a new way to provide wide access to complex software applications. This paper shows how the power of the web can be applied to reduce the complexity of network management: it describes the architecture and implementation of two new network management applications which are accessible through the web and are targeted to run on both powerful hosts and small mobile computers. The GDMO/ASN.1 Search Engine enables users to perform complex queries and to navigate OSI managemetn documents using the powerful web hypertext facilities. Liaison is a web-based browser for CMIP/SNMP agents equipped with powerful tools such as a directory service and metadata facility.