Broadband management after permanent connections

There is now general agreement about the management of ATM cross-connects and permanent virtual circuits. This is a significant achievement of international collaboration and cooperation, and its benefits will be felt increasingly strongly as we enter the new millennium. However, there are three further issues for the management of ATM networks which need to be resolved before the work of this millennium can be considered to be complete. These are the management of switched virtual circuits, the coordination of management between different operators, and the different management protocols and their evolution. These issues are discussed in this article, and new international standards which relate to them are introduced.