Transparent, Messaging-Free Management Model For Programmable, Intelligent Network Elements

This paper presents a direct network element (NE) configuration and status file transfer routine based model for managing programmable NEs, avoiding complexity and restrictions of intermediate messaging and transaction protocols of conventional network management systems (NMS). The routine of transferring binary network management data files between NMS and NEs enables logical decoupling of the NMS server side and the NE side network management actions, allowing the NMS server software applications, the NE programmable hardware functionality and the NMS communications network to be implemented without dependencies from each others, as well as flexibly changing any of these elements without impacting others. The presented generic NMS architecture thus is well suited for managing programmable NEs of arbitrary functionalities. Moreover, programmable hardware enables cost-effective implementation of NEs that can be designed to be fully self-operating at any given application (due to not having to be over-functionalized for a variety of applications, as in the case of hardwired logic), thus allowing dynamic network operation under static management configuration. Accordingly, a highly reliable, scalable and flexible network and management system architecture is produced with a core NMS routine that operates effectively without a need for exception handling.