Network management framework for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Network Management is the process of managing, monitoring, and controlling the network. Conventional network management was based on wired network which is heavy and unsuitable for resource constrained WSNs. WSNs can have large scale network and it is impossible to manage each node individually. Also, polling mechanism of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) impose heavy management traffic overhead. Since management messages consume resources of WSNs, it can affect the performance of the network. Therefore, it is necessary for WSNs to perform energy efficient network management. In this paper, we will propose network management framework. We will introduce cluster-based network management architecture, and classify the Management Information Base (MIB) according to their characteristics. Then, we will define management messages and message exchange operation for each kind of MIB. The analysis result of the management overhead indicates that the proposed framework can reduce management traffic compared to polling mechanism.