In this paper, the authors discuss two frameworks for mobile agent-based network and system management schemes: the visibility domain protection scheme, and the Visa-based authentication scheme. They demonstrate the efficiency of these schemes, and compare them with simple network management protocol (SNMP) v3.

These methods employ the “latest cryptographic standards for providing [the] highest strength of encryption,” along with the option of maintaining information in different domains for security. The approach is novel in the sense that, compared to SNMP v3, “management entities are able to communicate with each other directly with encrypted messages.” Coming from the network security area, I prefer agentless monitoring solutions.

The authors use an excessive amount of jargon, and it may sometimes be difficult for readers to keep up. I would suggest reading the authors’ previous integrated framework research for guidance on the design of mobile agent-based network management schemes.