Telecommunications Management Network Architecture Research Articles

Service-oriented technology for TMN-based network management services

We propose a basic innovation to current telecommunication management network (TMN) infrastructures. While management architectural principles and functional models continue to quote the industry-standard TMN didactic statements, no technological innovation promotes them in the real world. The fragmented view and hierarchical nature of the manager-agent paradigm and the lack of a dominant management interoperation technology bring on the issues of exchanging management knowledge between the vertical silos of management system interoperability. The proposed framework conceptually transforms a layered TMN architecture into a simply manageable, distributed 'flat network' while efficiently integrating TMN components and the functions that they perform. The introduction of technologies and standards commonly referred to as 'Web services' into the generalized TMN interface allows TMN management applications to provide complex TMN management services to users easily via user-friendly Web browsers. We further propose the introduction of the purposive agent technology in order to embrace an innovative strategy to manage agent-mediated grid services for a TMN application framework. This leads to a grid-like, cooperative, and purposeful management system with reduced management burden, simplified human intervention, and limited overall complexity. We finally present the prototype implementation of a multiple-agent TMN system. To strengthen the advantages, the grid technology innovation for TMN brings all the operational benefits of a distributed, full service-oriented TMN system, while reducing management expenditures, and time to market for network operators.

Bringing java to TMN

The Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) ITU, ISO, and NMF international standards define and support a network architecture for the management of public telecommunication networks. These standards address the TMN architecture, interoperability, services and protocols, general information modeling, a set of specific system management information functions and models, and recently a set of C++ interfaces to these components collectively called the NMF TMN C++ APIs. In addition, many vendor platforms and tools are available in support of these standards. Java is a programming language and virtual machine that has recently received significant attention and momentum. It is natural, therefore, to consider how best to use Java in a TMN. Although few of the contributions and promises of Java are new, Java has taken the best of breed programming language technologies to truly improve on issues of portability and productivity. This has been further enhanced by a concise and portable definition of Java's virtual machine. In this paper we suggest a pragmatic approach to apply Java in TMN. This approach uses Java to strengthen and enhance the TMN state-of-the-art. Java is applied to areas for which the state-of-the-art of TMN is lacking. In doing so, we emphasis Java's strengths while maintaining interoperability with already deployed technologies. Our approach is in contrast to more radical approaches which suggest widespread deployment of Java virtual machines throughout the core TMN infrastructure and telecommunications devices.

Implementing OSI agent/managers for TMN

The telecommunications management network (TMN) architecture defines a framework for the management of telecommunications networks and services. It is based on a set of TMN standards developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T), and is finding increased interest in the telecommunications industry, where rapid development of services and open architectures are in demand. Open systems interconnection (OSI) agent/managers as defined by the OSI systems management standards play a major role in the TMN architecture. However, the complexity of these standards, make the implementation of agent/managers and thus TMN systems a challenging task; methodologies and tools to ease the task of building agent/managers are needed. This article discusses the key difficulties in building OSI agent/managers and presents an architecture and a toolkit that can overcome them. The toolkit automates the generation of code that conforms to TMN and OSI standards, allowing the implementor to focus on the implementation of agent and manager specific components using the facilities provided by the toolkit.

A synchronous digital hierarchy network management system

The critical issues in multivendor environments and operation systems of telecommunication networks essential to speeding up the handling of service orders and service restoration after failures are discussed. To overcome these problems as the software backlog grows, the authors propose the application of a telecommunications management network (TMN) architecture together with an object-oriented network resource (ONR) model. The second phase of the synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network management system, which is based on the TMN architecture and ONR model, is examined.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Coordinated approach to telecommunications management

The RACE (research and development in advanced communications in Europe) program embraces all the issues surrounding the development and deployment of integrated broadband communications in Europe. In the RACE program, the domain of network management encompasses the concept of using a separate network to manage the telecommunications network itself. This separate network is called a telecommunications-management network (TMN). Guideline, a project created to coordinate all the TMN work done in RACE, develop a common approach to TMN architecture, and recommend which AIP techniques would be appropriate, is described. Guideline provides an interface to RACE projects outside the TMN area and to international standards organizations and other trade groups. It also provides an interface to the TMN specifications projects, Netman and Terrace.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Modeling the user interface

The application of an object-oriented approach to modeling the application and presentation layer of the human-machine interfaces in a telecommunications management network architecture is described. It is argued that a significant simplification in information interchange between human and machine occurs when the machine has a model of the user to which it can conform. Several aspects of user modeling are discussed. The development and implementation of new input devices are also discussed. >

ATD-specific network management functions and TMN architecture

The paper deals with the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) - specific functions of source policing and connection acceptance control and their relationship to network management. The aspects of ATM-specific network management are based on the results achieved by the RACE project R1022, ‘Technology for ATD’. It is shown how these functions can be implemented according to the TMN (telecommunications management network) architecture suggested by the RACE project GUIDELINE (R1003). The interaction between these functions and other network management functions is discussed and the interaction of these functions with the management layers is presented in a way which is not dependent on the specific algorithms used for source policing and connection acceptance control.

RACE telecommuncations management network architecture

An implementation architecture for a telecommunications management network (TMN) suitable for the management of integrated broadband communications in the CEC RACE programme is described. The architecture is intended to support the future implementation of TMN systems within Europe and elsewhere. Having outlined some of the motivations for the development of a TMN architecture, the paper introduces the various functions associated with a TMN. An overview is given of the functional and physical views of the TMN. One of the major components of any network management system is the management information base. This is described in some detail because of its central role in the architecture. Finally a list of some of the open issues still remaining concludes the paper.