An object-oriented model of IPv4/IPv6 network management

Since the exhaustion of internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) address in the immediate future, internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) will be introduced and coexist with IPv4 for a long time. Besides extended address space, aggregative routes, automatic configuration, improved security, enhanced mobility and support for quality of service, IPv6 will also introduce much more complexity to current network caused by transition technologies. In this paper, an object-oriented model of IPv4/IPv6 network management is proposed. The model adopts hierarchical network management architecture and distributed object-oriented database. It's composed of three main components: Monitor, Collector and Object-Oriented Database. Through the prototype system the model has proved to be flexible, reliable and scalable in the complex IPv4/IPv6 network environments.