Web-Based Network Analysis and Design

Abstract

The gradual acceptance of high-performance networks as a fundamental component of today's computing environment has allowed applications to evolve from static entities located on specific hosts to dynamic, distributed entities that are resident on one or more hosts. In addition, vital components of software and data used by an application may be distributed across the local/wide area network. Given such a fluid and dynamic environment, the design and analysis of high-performance communication networks (using off-the-shelf components offered by third party manufacturers) has been further complicated by the diversity of the available components. To alleviate these problems and to address the verification and validation issues involved in engineering such complex networks, a web-based framework for the design and analysis of computer networks was developed. Using the framework, a designer can explore design alternatives by constructing and analyzing configurations of the design using components offered by different researchers and manufacturers. The framework provides a flexible and robust environment for selecting and verifying the optimal solution from a large and complex solution space. This paper presents issues involved in the design and development of the framework.