CORBA-based network operation system architecture

The scope of network management systems has been expanding rapidly, from simple network element management systems to integrated management systems that include network management and sec-vice management. Since the telecommunications world has become an open market, sales competition has intensified. Accordingly, a flexible, extendable, and reusable network management system is required. A distributed object-oriented environment meets these requirements, and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) [1] is a promising candidate as a distributed environment. An integrated management system should provide management capabilities that are independent from management protocols and from the location of Managed Objects (MOs) which represent managed resources. The system should also be able to execute multiple management operations (multiple management scenarios) concurrently. In this paper, we describe a technique of introducing an interface for each MO, called a Proxy MO, that encapsulates the management protocols and locations of the MOs and which are concurrently controlled in the CORBA environment. This technique provides a flexible, extendable, and reusable network management system.