Technologies for Telecommunications Management Systems

Technologies for TelecommunicationsManagement SystemsGeorge Pavlou - University College London, UKOver recent years, we have experienced a dramatic development in computer-based communications and networking. The combination of relatively cheap computing power and the increasing transmission capability of telecommunications infrastruc-tures have made possible to offer new advanced services. However, the complexity and sophistication of those services and of the underlying supporting infrastructure have posed new management requirements. The Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) [M3010] has been developed as the framework to support the intro-duction of sophisticated “open” management systems. The TMN supports network and service planning and deployment, end-to-end performance management, fault diagno-sis and recovery, static and dynamic (re-)configuration, accounting and security serv-ices.The TMN proposes an architecture to support the standardised exchange of informa-tion between management applications and the managed network and service ele-ments. This is achieved through standard reference points and interfaces which are transaction-based, involving both agreed protocols and relevant “exported” informa-tion models. The TMN applications “see” each other through object-oriented abstrac-tions of relevant resources across reference points; they are also likely to be structured internally in an object-oriented fashion. Despite that, in the standard ITU-T practice, only “on-the-wire” interactions are standardised. As such, the TMN is object-oriented only from an information viewpoint across reference points.As Open Distributed Processing (ODP) [X901] standardisation is reaching a level of maturity, a number of RACE projects and other important consortia in the manage-ment arena have been looking into the applicability of ODP methodologies and con-cepts to TMN, as TMN systems are usually highly distributed. In fact, the ODP Information, Computation and Engineering viewpoints have a definite relationship to the TMN Information, Functional and Physical architectures respectively. ODP though addresses also the internal structure of distributed applications from an object-oriented perspective. The third paper in this session looks at the engineering viewpoint for TMN systems and in particular, at the relationship of the computation and enterprise viewpoints and the relevant migration, ensuring consistency. This is particularly important as the ODP viewpoints are simply different ways to see a distributed system and a consistent view across all of them is necessary.A very important parallel standardisation activity relates to Intelligent Networks (IN) [Q1200], which provides a framework for the rapid introduction and operation of new telecommunication services. The relationship between IN and TMN is subtle, the former being concerned with the operation of services (control plane) while the latterwith the management of the network and services (management plane) [Pavlou]. While the TMN is object-oriented and distributed, the current IN is functional and cen-tralised. The TINA Consortium [TINA] is looking at a long-term architecture for the rapid introduction, operation and management of future sophisticated services. In fact, the TINA architecture recognises the need for a distributed, object-oriented IN infra-structure and tries to bring together IN, TMN and ODP concepts.The first paper in this session describes the applicability of the TINA architecture in its current stage to ATM Connection Management. The latter is a new management func-tional area introduced by TINA to complement the OSI/TMN ones and is necessary for future services with sophisticated session and connection requirements (e.g. multiparty multimedia conferencing etc.). Though it is referred to as management, it is mostly concerned with setting up and operating such services, so in our view it relates more to the operation/control rather than the management plane. Of course, the target of the TINA architecture is to integrate the two through uniform underlying mechanisms, but in doing so, it has to take into account current sophisticated “management plane” func-tionality [Pavlou].While the previous two papers look at future dimensions of management systems and technologies (the applicability of ODP and TINA respectively), the last paper in this session looks at an important current dimension: the simulation of ATM network tech-nology for the support of current TMN systems. Network and service simulation is extremely important as it allows to address issues of scaling, flexibility in operation and configuration e.g. artificial generation of faults, as well as providing support for comprehensive measurements, all of which are not possible in real environments. A particularly novel aspect of the described simulation is that while network and service control/operation aspects are simulated, management plane functionality may be exer-cised by a real TMN system. The latter may operate over the simulator in a totally transparent fashion i.e. exactly the same TMN system may also operate in a real envi-ronment. The provided flexibility for experimentation is obviously enormous. References[M3010]ITU-T M.3010, Principles for a Telecommunications Management Net-work[Q1200]ITU-T Q.1200 series, Intelligent Networks[X901]ITU-T X.900, Information Processing - Open Distributed Processing -Basic Reference Model of ODP - Part 1: Overview and guide to use [TINA]Mulder, H., J. Pavon, Telecommunications Information Networking Archi-tecture, Tutorial presented in the 4th IFIP/IEEE International Symposiumon Integrated Network Management, May 1995, Santa Barbara [Pavlou]Pavlou, G., D. Griffin, Issues in the Integration of IN and TMN, this vol-ume。