A SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR MANAGEMENT INFORMATION MODEL DEFINITION, IMPLEMENTATION AND VALIDATION

This paper proposes software tools and techniques for the definition (together with static validation), implementation, and dynamic validation of systems management information models. Definition of information models can be done with the help of the ASN.1/GDMO editor, a software tool which provides dedicated edition and visualization support, document library management, and a whole range of static validation facilities, of prime importance due to the amount of information to manipulate and to the complexity of the syntactic and semantic rules to be enforced. Implementation can be done with the help of the ASN.1/GDMO translator, a software tool which automatically generates C++ source files from ASN.1/GDMO information model specifications, on the basis of a well-defined generic implementation model and of a library of C++ basic classes. Dynamic validation can be done with the help of a prototype-based architecture, which provides support for (a) customizing an implemented information model, (b) integrating it in a prototype agent/manager architecture, (c) creating a prototype management information base (MIB), (d) selecting prototype TMN management functions from a library, and finally (e) integrating and running the resulting prototype application. The dynamic validation architecture is flexible enough, so that its use in wider contexts can be envisaged.