Stephen Hayes

Telecommunications management network: vision vs. reality

Since the early 1980s, the standards bodies have been specifying the telecommunications management network (TMN) principles. Millions of dollars have been spent. The TMN principles aim at being applicable across telecommunications technologies. They recommend the use of independent management networks to manage telecommunications networks, elements in the telecommunications networks (managed networks), and managing systems (in managing networks), communicating via well defined, standardized interfaces. The standards bodies envisioned TMN as a possible solution to the complex problem of telecommunications networks and services operation, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM and P) in the open, multivendor environment. However, the vision stumbles against the reality. Various factors still hinder the implementation of TMN-based OAM and P systems. The present article provides a tutorial on TMN by contrasting the vision and the reality. >

Approaches for introducing TMN in legacy networks: a critical look

Introducing the telecommunications management network (TMN) into a legacy network is generally an uphill battle. This article provides a critical review of the two key approaches used in the industry for introducing TMN interfaces into legacy networks. Before the analysis, it is of prime importance to establish some ground rules. There is currently no common understanding of what introducing TMN into a legacy network means, as there is no common understanding of what introducing TMN into a network means. We start by analyzing what introducing TMN into a legacy network means, and then study, successively, the bottom-up and top-down approaches. Finally, a cost trade-off analysis is made.