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To: Ray Smith Jr who wrote (3874)	5/23/1999 1:38:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Hello Ray, Network monitoring and surveillance will likely depend on several approaches, both in channel and out of channel. These techniques are also known as in-band and out-of-band network management. While the claim by Corvis is that they are all optical, I'd take that to mean that their payload handling for the purposes of carrying bulk user data is contained within the optical streams which are made possible through their wares. These may or may not contain the actual network management information, however, that operators' personnel will come to depend on for surveillance. Some of this optical capacity native to the Corvis flows will undoubtedly be stripped off in the way of lower order tributaries at node points, and will allow the operator to have a window into network health and performance metrics. [[Start Sidebar: Another way of achieving this at the optical level is through a standards-based method that the ITU is working on these days (not sure if Corvis is so inclined to accept this, however), and that is through the use of optical overhead pointers similar to those used in SONET overhead packets already. Second thought, this would only be possible on those paths which are defined around SONET/SDH parameters and I/O specifications. For these, too, require o-to-e conversions. The ITU is still dwelling over such SONET/SDH optical improvements in this area, and I am not certain if they have yet had the time to digest the implications of DWDM and such protocols as POS and POW (packet over Sonet and wavelength, respectively), not just yet, in any event. To a great extent, ITU initiatives still take place over four year study group periods. In four years, two generations of optical platform improvements could come and go, rendering their "current" standards initiatives as anachronisms, in many respects. To some extent this is understandable, when you consider the global scope they have to contend with. Many parts of the world which are dependent on ITU initiatives are still looking for basic dial tone. End Sidebar]] Aside from this, and probably more importantly, they will in any event also use Simple Network Management Protocol, or SNMP, which is an Internet Protocol suite, which will in all likelihood be supported by feeds in their boxes via NICs which are linked to lower order routers on the greater Internet. Sometimes these are actually linked via dedicated, or "hard", facilities due to their critical nature, and brought back to their network operating centers, or NOCs, for the purpose of having a feed external to the actual paths which they support. The reason for this becomes obvious, if you think about it. If your main pipes go down, you don't want to find yourself dependent on those same pipes because they are no longer there. So, you design your monitoring capabilities to be dependent on external means. Or, out of band, as it were, either through the use of links which are a part of the greater Internet, or over dedicated facilities, like [forsooth!] circuit-switched T1s and ATM-derived PVCs from other providers. Regards, Frank Coluccio