T2.3 External Probe Interoperability

Lead: FHA

Leveraging legacy monitoring solutions and existing infrastructure is crucial in order to quickly grow the size and reach of mPlane. To do so, we rely on proxy probes. A proxy probe is a special module implemented for the mPlane platform which acts as a “translator” between the external system and mPlane: mPlane control commands are translated into specific configuration instructions (if the external systems permits re-configuration), and, more importantly, measurement data is read from the external system and translated into a format usable by mPlane. For example, a proxy module would allow the mPlane Supervisor to run RTT measurements from Planetlab nodes distributed across the world, or to retrieve RTT measurements already available from other projects, e.g., iPlane.

In short, this task main contribution is to enable mPlane to take advantage of existing measurement systems. In addition to the project implementing modules for a few selected legacy systems, this task will also provide a “developers’ kit” as defined in T1.4 so that engineers familiar with specific external monitoring systems can quickly and easily interface their systems with mPlane.