Telecom Leaders Deliver First Integrated Management Solution for Multi-Vendor, Multi-Technology Networks
Major Vendors Present Live Demonstration of Their Collaborative TeleManagement Forum Standard Interface Solution
CHICAGO, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Six companies working together to improve service providers' network management capabilities today demonstrated an integrated end-to-end global transport management solution that represents a bold step in providing multi-technology network management.
The companies -- Fujitsu Network Communications, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Siemens AG, Telcordia Technologies, and Tellabs -- regard today's achievement as a significant milestone in their collaborative initiatives. The demonstration, conducted by the six companies at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference at McCormick Place here, highlights management of both SONET (Synchronous Optical Network, the North American standard) and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, the global standard) equipment.
The demonstration focuses on the establishment of a connection across the various suppliers' element management systems (EMS) and network management systems (NMS) for functionalities such as end-to-end network provisioning and integrated fault management, as well as the identification of alarms triggered by simulated network problems, all from a single management workstation tied to the multi-vendor, multi-technology network.
One key feature of today's demonstration was a ``GUI cut-through,' in which a single user of a graphical user interface system can click on an icon representing one of the equipment suppliers, then that supplier's EMS is instantly displayed on the screen of the NMS. This is a capability that service providers are eagerly seeking, the six companies say.
``The live demonstration itself, the increased momentum behind the initiative, and the expansion of the group's membership are proof that this effort is delivering valuable solutions to service providers, ' said Jeffrey Schmitz, spokesperson for the group. ``The demonstration highlights the fact that these solutions are becoming more real, and are providing tangible options to service providers.'
More than a year ago, four of the companies launched their network management initiative, basing the management platform on the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) interface. Since then, the group has grown both in its membership and in the ability to integrate multiple suppliers' equipment.
The challenge that service providers face today is the ability to integrate and manage existing systems with emerging technologies, the companies point out. Their solution enables management of multi-technology networks, so that service providers can leverage their existing infrastructure by overlaying and integrating new technologies to provide innovative new services.
``Existing solutions have fallen short in achieving the full-featured, end- to-end network management goal,' said Kirk Shrewsbury, principal network management architect, MCI WorldCom. ``While previous solutions may have addressed the problem of managing our SONET-only or ATM-only portions of the ~etwork, these solutions do not apply to the need for vendor-independent interfaces on multi-technology network elements or hybrid network elements.'
The CORBA NML-EML (network management layer-element management layer) interface solution fills the need for an integrated management solution to commonly address SONET, SDH, dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. The solution, which was contributed by the six companies to the TeleManagement Forum, has gained increased momentum and has become a viable industry standard. A copy of the standard, TMF505, can be obtained through the TeleManagement Forum web site, at www.tmforum.org .
Various industry equipment suppliers, as well as software providers, have plans to implement the standard interface solution in their products. Additionally, service providers are planning field trials, followed by deployment, in the first quarter of the year 2000.
The live demonstration of the standard interface solution continues at NFOEC through Wednesday, September 29, in booth #100. A white paper co-authored by the companies, entitled ``Achieving Integrated Management for Multi-Vendor, Multi-Technology Transport Networks,' will be presented in NFOEC session E1 on Tuesday, September 28, from 8:00 to 9:45 a.m.
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SOURCE: Tellabs |
