Network Management Architecture in the Macedonian Academic and

Research Network - MARNet

Goran Muratovskigone@ukim.edu.mk

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

Contents

OVERVIEW

• MARNet – basic data• Present topology of the networking infrastructure• Network Monitoring tools• Discussion on the demands

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

Current topology

Several Ministriesof the Government

National Broadcasting companyComm. Tower

GEANT

Campus Technical

SiSi

F. of Tech. and

MetallurgyF. of

Mechanical Eng.

F. of Electrical Eng. and Information Sciences

F. of Dramatic Arts

Campus Arch. And Civil Eng.

SiSi

Campus Biotech. Sciences

F. of Agriculture

F. of Forestry

SiSi

F. of Veterinary Medicine

I. of Earthquake Engineering

National & Univ.

Library

I. of National History

I. of Macedonian Literature

TOPOLOGY MAP OF MARNet

MM fiber/1Gbps

wireless link 4Mbps

analog lease line

SM fiber/1Gbps

SM fiber 100Mbps

Campus Natural

Sciences And Mathematics

Building II

SiSi

Building I

ONnet

NEOTEL

SONET

I. of Political &Juridical Res.

F. of Pedagogy

Campus Medicine

SiSi

F. of Medicine

F. of Dentistry

F. of Pharmacy

SiSi

NOC & Campus Social

Sciences

F. of Law

F. of Economy

F. of Filology F. of

Philosophy

SMT-1 155Mbps

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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)

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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)

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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)

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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

Belgrade, 20-21.10.2009

Network monitoring workshop for GN3/NA3/T4

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!