An extensible environment discovery and negotiation method for self-configuring networks

Recently, we have been faced the rise of several technologies that aim to communicate easier with the users. Solutions to support specific requirements, such as mobility and security, were designed. However, few works can be found regarding to automate the discovery of environment features, as well as to automate the network configuration to allow a better utilization of the network resources. This also includes the adaptation to changes in the network environment and adapting to new requirements from the users. In this paper, we propose XDNM, a method to discover network elements' capabilities in a network and negotiate configurations to be used by them and also the optimization of these configuration according to changes mentioned above. Some questions related with the implementation of this kind of solution are also discussed in the paper in order to give a more practical view of this method in current technologies.