Application of HYDRA computer to collect status information for network quality of service

Users of telecommunication services are becoming more adamant about the quality of service offered by network service providers. Users are demanding performance levels which guarantee that user data will not suffer degradation (delay, lost, denied access, etc) in the network. Network service providers have to come up with schemes that guarantee network quality of service to the users. Network quality of service (QoS), guarantees an end-to-end delivery of users' data across the network by ensuring availability of network resources along the data path. Network QoS management requires availability of management information in order to determine network load under both natural and artificial conditions, supports the collection of performance information periodically in order to provide statistics and allow for network capacity planning activities. In the HYDRA computer system, agents are self-contained executable mobile processes that navigate a network of hosts using hosts' addresses, executing a task, and when the task terminates, sends the result to the user. The use of agents in the HYDRA computer to collect status information for network QoS applications was investigated, the results presented here show that the HYDRA computer can be used to collect network status information for network QoS applications.