Network Management Systems

The growing complexity of networks and their geographical dispersion pose serious obstacles to effective network and system management. Network managers today must cope with issues such as Internet access, network security, client- server computing, the proliferation of distributed applications, ever-changing user demands, growing service costs and downsizing.

Meeting these challenges calls for an integrated network and system management solution that adheres to international standards and is interoperable in a multi-vendor environment. In this way, the network manager can supervise both small workgroups and large enterprises from a single management platform.

What do network managers really want?

Minimal setup, maximum uptime and optimum security are the goals of every network manager. To achieve these goals, network management systems must support various important functions:

(i) Fault management - correlates fault management data from all network devices, isolates faults and initiates recovery actions.

(ii) Configuration management - provides the ability to track changes and configure, install and distribute software across the network for all network devices.

(iii) Accounting management - provides the capability to collect and parse accounting data to generate network usage reports.

(iv) Performance management - offers a continuous source from which to monitor network performance (QoS, CoS) and resource allocation.

(v) Security management - provides the ability to control the access to network resources.

Additionally, topology management provides a graphic end-to-end view of the entire network (physical and logical), creating mechanisms to quickly and efficiently troubleshoot or provision services.

Service Center service data information

What are the available solutions?

At the element management layer (EML), SNMP has become an integral part of the telecom management environment and supports all types of datacom equipment. As such, the relevant standard is fairly well defined for the low level management of the network element layer (NEL), where as a member of the TCP/IP protocol suite, SNMP exchanges messages between manager clients and an SNMP agent embedded in the physical network element (NES).

SNMP provides three sets of capabilities:

1. Management operations
2. Definition of manageable objects
3. Data representation

The set of objects that each node supports is called the management information base (MIB), including the standard MIB and the enterprise specific MIB, which is defined by product manufacturers for management of their specific equipment. All of RAD's strategic products have embedded SNMP agents communicating with the RADview SNMP application software to provide powerful and efficient network element configuration and monitoring.

For higher layers of management such as the network management layer (NML), service management layer (SML) and business management layer (BML), common object request broker architecture (CORBA) was adopted by the telecommunications management network (TMN) framework. CORBA enables achieving interconnectivity and communication across heterogeneous operating systems and telecommunications networks. TMN was developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as an infrastructure to support management and deployment of dynamic telecommunications services.

In a multi-vendor environment, central management requires that network element (NE) vendors provide network management platforms featuring northbound CORBA interfaces for integration within a higher level management platform. CORBA effectively supplies a software interface defining data models to be used between various management layers. It supports multi-vendor distributed network management applications, providing the data interface between clients and servers.

RADview's Service Center enables efficient point-and-click service provisioning, supporting network management with RAD's network elements. It features a northbound CORBA interface for seamless integration with higher management platforms.

Integration within proprietary management platforms is also an option when no converging standards exist. For example, the SNMP-based management application of RAD's multiservice access platform (MAP) is integrated with the proprietary SDH management and provisioning application of Lightscape Networks (ECI Telecom), enabling seamless management of SDH and PDH infrastructures. Another good example of such implementations is the integration of management for selected RAD products within Alcatel's 5520/5620 NMS (previously known as Newbridge 45020/46020 NMS) through the use of Alcatel certified descriptors, effectively creating a management channel between the Alcatel platform and RAD's standard SNMP agent.

	BML – Business Management Level – manages the overall business, e.g., achieving return on investment, market share, employee satisfaction, community and governmental goals
	SML - Service Management Level – manages the services offered to customers, e.g., meeting customer service levels, service quality, cost and time-to-market objectives
	NML - Network Management Level – manages the network and system that deliver those services, e.g., capacity, diversity and congestion
	EML - Element Management Level – manages the elements comprising the networks and systems
	NEL - Network Elements Level – switches, transmission and distribution systems, etc.