Professional Documents
Culture Documents
C35-99 B32
by
J. Luque 1, F. Gonzalo 2, J. I. Escudero 1, A. Carrasco1
1
Universidad de Sevilla
2
Endesa Ingeniería de Telecomunicaciones (Enditel)
(Spain)
1. INTRODUCTION
The OSI (Open System Interconnection) model has been a successful framework for
protocol architecture in some environments. Academically oriented systems or high-end
communication networks had taken advantage of its wide goals and generous features. When
network management arose as a major problem, the natural “official” answer was to build the
Telecommunication Management Network (TMN), an architecture based on the existing OSI
model. TMN systems have the same aim of universality as OSI systems. Therefore, both of them
are complete but at the same time heavy, complex and expensive solutions. In addition, OSI and
TMN approaches have to be approved by international standardization bodies (ISO and ITU-T),
which implies time-consuming efforts -a drawback in today’s rapidly changing communications
world.
On the other hand, to cope with the OSI drawbacks, the TCP-IP and related protocols have
become a de facto standard for many applications. Most computer networks, both in academic or
industrial environments are based on TCP-IP. Internet is also a TCP-IP based network. This
model uses quite simple but useful protocols to communicate computers. It does not provide full
support for every possible feature but its lack of functionality is far overcome by its availability
and almost universal extent. According to this philosophy, in the Internet-like networks a much
easier and informal approach has been adopted. Its kernel is the SNMP (Simple Network
Management Protocol), which is widely supported and allows for the easy management of
multivendor networks.
* Dpt. Tecnología Electrónica. Facultad de Informática. Av. Reina Mercedes, s/n. 41018-Sevilla. Spain.
Fax: +34 95 4552764 e-mail: jluque@cica.es
This paper will address and compare the main characteristics of TMN and SNMP based
systems. We will try to discuss the reasons for choosing either of the two systems, considering not
just technical performance but also taking into account economic and commercial considerations.
Finally, in the much more specific area of telecommunication networks, the integrated
network management problem emerges as well. To cope with this situation, ITU-T approves the
TMN model [3] benefiting from most of the concepts and standards defined by the ISO model.
This results in a very powerful model, although it has the same heaviness and slowness of the ISO
model. In the next paragraphs, each model will be described.
3. OSI MODEL
The ISO network management model is based on three basic elements: the structure of
management information, the protocols and the functions. The structure of management information
[4] is based on an object-oriented model where every sort of device is modeled by means of an
object class including its associated attributes, notifications and actions. The objects are
organized according to a tree of hierarchical dependency while the object classes are arranged
following an inheritance tree. The set of managed objects makes up the MIB (Management
Information Base). A standard language, called GDMO (Guidelines for the Definition of Managed
Objects) [5] has also been defined, allowing a non-ambiguous definition of every object class
characteristic. The resulting information model has a great describing capacity and easily permits
to deal with every particular situation which can arise when managing actual networks.
4. TMN MODEL