A development framework for efficient uniform control of heterogeneous communication networks

As new Internet networking technologies appear, there is a growing need for efficient control of Network Elements (NE) (i.e. routers, switches, etc.). However, today's NE control is largely a manual activity, therefore inefficient and unscalable, and the inherent heterogeneous nature of complex networks---that is, the fact that NEs are of different technologies and have different functionality and configuration-management interfaces---makes NE control even more difficult and challenging.; This thesis presents a solution that allows the development of automated, distributed web-based control of heterogeneous NEs through a common interface that hides the underlying NE-specific differences, allowing control of heterogeneous NEs in a transparent way. This solution consists in a software development framework oriented towards reliability---thus service availability---performance---hence scalability---and fast extensibility---hence easy integration and rapid adaptability to the ever-changing networking technologies---without neglecting security.; General design requirements are first discussed. Next, particular attention is given to CLI (Command Line Interface) protocols, where issues related to the automation of CLI interaction are extensively discussed. A real-time approach, using extended finite state machines, is proposed as a key element in this framework. Finally, a working and efficient implementation that supports CLI automation is presented, where emphasis is laid upon the short delays---typically a day---required to augment the application with a new set of NE control operations---Traffic Conditioning operation set for example.