Heterogeneous, multi-vendor local networks are the norm in the population of universities, colleges and business joining the NSFNET and other national research networks. Little attention has been paid to resource accounting on these local networks. While this problem is reasonably well-defined (and solved) in telephony and batch-computing, in the case of local networks there are more complex technical and economic issues. This project aims to develop a practical solution for local network resource accounting. The principal investigator is investigating a distributed, programmable traffic/resource accounting monitor for the IEEE 802 family of local networks. It differs from current work in that: 1) it decodes packets at a higher level in the ISO model (level-4 and above); 2) the design is geared to multi-protocol networks; 3) the architecture is extensible to high-speed, fiber-based networks; and 4) the system accommodates differing administrative/accounting goals of diverse organizations. The research objectives are concerned with the detailed modelling of tasks and subsequent design of a low-cost platform for network accounting.***
