Network Management Architecture
in the Macedonian Academic and
Research Network - MARNet
Goran Muratovski
gone@ukim.edu.mk
Contents
OVERVIEW
• MARNet – basic data
• Present topology of the networking infrastructure
• Network Monitoring tools
• Discussion on the demands
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
MARNet – the beginnings
MARNet was founded in 1993 as an organizational unit of
the Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje
– to respond to the growing needs of the academia for means for easier and
more efficient collaboration and to access the growing Internet
– as a dedicated and devoted endeavour of an aware experts from the
University who followed the model from the more developed western
NRENs
– the satellite link to ACOnet was established in 1995 with the full financial
support of the Soros foundation in Macedonia
– the supported user base was the teaching staff, the students and the
administration of most of the faculties of the Ss Cyril and Methodius
University
– the networking infrastructure was the already established computer
network of the Ss Cyril and Methodius University spread over 5 campuses
comprising nearly two dozen of faculties and research institutes
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
The geographical spread
The first regional links out of the capital – Skopje were
established in 1997
• to the St Clement of Ohrid
University in Bitola
• to the Faculty of Geology
and Mining in Stip (member
of UKiM)
Due to the high prices on the
telecomm. market and the
growing demands of the
regional institutions they start
providing their internet
connectivity through local ISPs
rather then through MARNet
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
Emergence of new potential clients
Starting from year 2002 within the legal system the
possibility was given for the private higher education
institutions to exist
- there are 5 public (state) universities in Skopje, Bitola, Stip, Tetovo and a
new university on information sciences in Ohrid
- there are more then 6 private universities most of them in Skopje – the
capital.
Despite the expansion of the potential user base the
expected spread of the networking infrastructure of
MARNet has not happened
- no stable Government funding
- high communication prices due to absence of deregulation of the market
and monopoly
- no established solid organizational model
- no elaborated cost sharing model for the private institutions
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
Current topology
TOPOLOGY MAP OF MARNet
SMT-1 155Mbps
I. of National
History MM fiber/
GEANT NEOTEL 1Gbps
SM fiber/1Gbps
I. of Macedonian
Literature SM fiber 100Mbps
wireless link 4Mbps
analog lease line
Several Ministries
F. of
of the Government Economy
F. of Law NOC &
Campus Social
Sciences SONET
ONnet
F. of
Campus Arch. Si Filology F. of Campus
Philosophy
And Civil Eng. Ps Natural
IS Sciences And
th
Si wi Mathematics
g
e ri n Building II
Pe Si
I. of Political &
Juridical Res. Building I
F. of
Pedagogy
Campus Technical Campus Biotech.
F. of Electrical Eng. and Sciences
Information Sciences F. of Agriculture
Si
Si
Campus National Broadcasting company
Si
Comm. Tower F. of Forestry
F. of Dramatic F. of Tech. Medicine F. of Veterinary
Arts F. of and Medicine
Mechanical Metallurgy
F. of
Eng. F. of Dentistry
Medicine
F. of I. of National &
Pharmacy Earthquake Univ.
Engineering Library
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
Network Monitoring Tools
Monitoring tools we use for our network administration and
management
– Tobi Oetikker’s MRTG (with web configuration frontend MRTGWebCfg v2.19)
– Tobi’s Smokeping
– WALKnet (ALVARION proprietary management and monitoring system for their
WALKAir 3000 point-to-multipoint radio system)
– Cflowd/Flowscan (deprecated)
– ICmyNET.Flow (courtesy of AMRES)
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
MRTG
MRTG is dominantly used for visualization of the bandwidth
utilization of MARNet’s links
• version mrtg-2.11.1 with
rrdtool
• MrtgWebCfg fronten
- managing MRTG config
via web
- plotting custom RRD
plots
- defining groups of plots
- having the same plot in
more than one group
- scalable, since the
configuration is held in
Postgresql database
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
Smokeping
Smokeping is used to depict the latency and to have visual
information on the quantity of lost packets on the links
• Interactive graph
explorer
• A lot of configurable
latency measurement
plugins
– Fping
– Curl
– DNS
– Radius
• configurable alerting
system (e-mail
notification)
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
WAKLnet
The wireless subsystem has its own proprietary
management system that has monitoring component too.
– Management of the base stations (frequency, sectors, interfaces)
– Introduction of clients
– IP SLAs (MIR, CIR, QoS)
– Monitoring (radio signal strength na S/N ratio in both directions)
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
ICmyNet.Flow
Courtesy of our colleagues from AMRES the network flow
monitoring tool has been deployed in MARNet
• We need the possibility of regular upates (we have a test version) to provide
for a stable operation
• We find the tool very useful for:
– Diagnosing network
problems (DoS attacks)
– Calculation of aggregation
traffic for some clients in
an optional period of time
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009
Future needs and plans …
• A tool for SLA management
– Service availability rate
– Mean time to restore
– Mean Packet Loss
• Monitoring of environmental parameters (temperature,
humidity, state of UPS autonomy)
Thank you for your attention!
Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4 Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009