.

Chapter 1
Data Communications
and
NM Overview
2
"Network management includes the deployment,
integration and coordination of the hardware,
software, and human elements to monitor,
test, poll, configure, analyze, evaluate, and
control the network and element resources
to meet the real-time, operational
performance, and Quality of Service
requirements at a reasonable cost."
*
T.Saydam, T. Magendaz From Networks and Network Management into
Service and Service Management Journal of Networks and System
Management, Vol.4, No.4, Dec. 1996
What is Network Management?
*
More recent Definition
Network Management refers to the activities,
methods, procedures and tools pertaining to
the operation, administration, maintenance
and provisioning of networked systems
Alex Clemm: Network Management
Fundamentals, Cisco Press, 2006
3
NETWORK MANAGEMENT
Properties
Availability
Reliability it almost always provides service of communication
that we expect of it.
Performance
Stability
Security
Simplicity in accounting
Quality of service
4
NETWORK MENAGEMENT
NETWORK MENAGEMENT : Goals, Organization, And Function.
NETWORK MENAGEMENT can be defined as a operations , and
Maintenance Provisioning (OAMP) of network and services.
The Operations group is concerned with daily operations in providing
network services.
The network administration is concerned with establishing and
administering overall goals, policies, and procedures of network
management.
The installation and Maintenance group handsels functions that include
both installation and repairs of facilities and equipment.
Provisioning involves network planning and circuit provisioning.
Goal of network Management
Goal of network management.
The goal of network management is to ensure that the users of network
are provided IT services will a quality of service that they expect.
Towards meeting this goal, the management should establish policy to
either formally or informally.
Network management involves strategic and tactical planning of
engineering, operations, and maintenance of network services for
current and future needs at minimum overall cost.
Network management Functions
1) Network and service provisioning.
2) Network and service operations.
3) Network I&M.
NM Functional Groupings
.
Network Management
Network
provisioning
Network
Operations
Network
Maintenance
Planning
Design
Fault Management /Service Restoration
Configuration Management
Performance/Traffic Management
Security Management
Accounting Management
Reports Management
Inventory Management
Data Gathering Analysis
Fault Management
Trouble ticket
administration
Network Installation
Network Repairs
Facilities Installation
and Maintenance
Routine Network
Tests
Network Provisioning
Network provisioning consists of network planning and design and is
the responsibility of engineering groups.
The engineering groups keeps track of new technologies and
introduces them as needed.
What is needed and when is needed are determine from analysis of
traffic.
Network management tools are helpful to the engineering groups in
gathering statistics and studying trends in traffic patterns for planning
purposes.
Automated operations system help in design of circuits and
performance tune-up.
Network Operations and NOC
The function of network operations are administered by the NOC.
Five network operation are fault configuration, performance , security,
and account management.
They are also responsible for gathering statistics and generating reports
for management system support and users.
Fault Management/Service Restoration:
Whenever there is a service failure , it is NOCs recusing the failure,
and restoration of service.
This involves detection and isolation of problem causing the failure,
and restoration of service.
In several failure situations, the network will do this automatically.
This network feature is called self-healing.
In other situation NMS can detect failure of the components and
indicate with appropriate alarms.
Trouble Ticket Administration
Trouble ticket administration is the administrative part of fault
management and used to track the problems in network.
All problems , including non problems, are to be tracked untill
resolved.
Periodic analysis of the data, which are maintained in a database, is
done to establish patterns of the problems for follow-up action.
Configuration management
There are three sets of configuration of the network.
Static configuration
Current configuration
Planned configuration
Cont.
Static configuration and is the permanent configuration of
the network.
However, it is likely that the current running configuration,
which is the second, could be different from that of the
permanent configuration.
Static configuration is one that the network would bring up
if it is started from an idle status.
The third configuration is planned configuration of the
future when the configuration data will change as the
network is changed.
Performance management
Data need to gathered by NOC and kept updated in a timely fashion in
order to perform some of the above functions, as well as tune the
network for optimum performance.
Network statistics include data on traffic, network availability , and
network delay.
Traffic data can be capture based on volume of traffic , network
availability and network delay.
Security Management
Security Management can cover a very broad range of security.
It involves physically securing the network, as well as access to
network by users.
Access privilege to application software is not the responsibility of
NOC unless the application is either owned or maintained by NOC
A security database is established and maintained by NOC for access
to the network and network information.
There are other aspects of security management such as firewall and
cryptography.
Accounting management
Accounting management administers cost allocation of the usage of
network.
Metrics are established to mesure the usage of resources and services
provided.
Network consist of components manufactured by multiple vendors.
Some of the data acquisition has to be manual but most data can be
acquired in an automated mode. The SNMP is the most popular
protocol to acquire data automatically using protocol- and performance
analyzing tools.
Network installation and maintenance
The network I&M group takes care of all
activities of installation and maintenance of
equipment and transmission facilities.
Challenges of IT Managers
Rapid advance of technology
Problem analysis
Anticipate customer demands->fulfil
Diagnose problems or outages in non disrupting manner
Maintain reliability, that is , make changes, upgrades, etc.
without disrupting the network.
NETWORK MANAGEMENT MODEL
ORGANIZATION MODEL
INFORMATION MODEL
COMMUNICATION MODEL
FUNCTIONAL MODEL
Network
Mangement
Information
Model
Organization
Model
Functional
Model
Communication
Model
Figure 3.1 OSl Network Management Model
.
Organized model describes the component
of the network management system, their
functions, and infrastructure.
Organization model
Network management components
object, agent, and manager
Functions of components
Relationships
Information model
Deals with the structure and the organization of
management information.
Structure of management information (SMI)
Syntax and semantics
Describes how the management information is
structured
Management information base (MIB)
Organization of management information
Describes the relationship and storage of
management information.
.
Communication model
Transfer syntax with bi-directional messages
Three component to this
Management application process (that function in
application layer)
Layer management(between layers)
And layer operation (which is within the layer)
Functional model User oriented requirements of NM
Application function
Configuration fault performance security and
accounting
ORGANIZATION MODEL
THE ORGANIZATION MODEL DESCRIBES THE
COMPONENTS OF NATWORK MANAGEMENT AND
THEIR RELATIONSHIPS.
Network object consist of network elements
such as hosts, hubs, bridges, routers etc.
They can be classified into managed or
unmanaged objects or elements
OBJECTS
Managed Objects:- Management process
running in them called an agent.
Unmanaged Objects:-
.
Manager
Manages the managed elements
Sends requests to agents, retrieves management information &
stores it in MDB
Monitors alarms .
Agent
Gathers information from objects
Configures parameters of objects
Responds to managers requests
Generates alarms and sends them to managers
Managed object
Network element that is managed, e.g., hubs, bridges, etc..
All objects are either not managed or manageable (more
expensive)
.
Agent built into network element
Example: Managed hub, managed router
A manager can manage multiple elements
Example: Switched hub, ATMswitch
MDB is a physical database
Unmanaged objects are network elements
that are not managed - both physical (unmanaged
hub) and logical (passive elements)
MANAGERS
The manager manages the managed element(Agent).
There are database in the manager but not in the agent.
The manager queries and received management data from
agent, processes them and store them into the database.
Manager
Managed objects
Unmanaged objects
Figure 3.2 Two-Tier Network Mangement Organization Model
Agent process
MDB
MDB Management Database
Three tier configuration
The intermediate layer acts as both agent and manager.
As manager it collects data from the network elements,
process them, store the results in its database.
As agent, it transmits information to the top level manager.
For example an intermediate system is used for making
statistical measurements on a network and passes the
information as needed to the top level manager.
An intermediate NMS could be a local site of a network
and the information is passed on to the remote site.
Three Tier configuration
Middle layer plays the dual role
Agent to the top-level manager
Manager to the managed objects - e.g., collects data
Example of middle level: Remote monitoring agent (RMON)
Examples:
Statistical measurement on a network
Local site passes information to a remote site
Agent / Manager
Managed objects
Agent process
Manager
Figure 3.3 Three-Tier Network Mangement Organization Model
MDB
MDB
MDB Management Database
Manager of Managers
Network domains can managed locally; and global view of
the networks can be monitored by a manager of
managers(MoM).
MoM
Agent
Agent NMS
Manager
Managed objects
Managed objects
Figure 3.4 Network Mangement Organization Model with MoM
Agent process
MDB
MDB MDB
MoM Manager of Managers
MDB Management Database
Agent
Manager
Agent NMS
Agent
Agent NMS
Manager
.
Agent NMS manages the domain.
MoMpresents integrated view of domains
Domain may be geographical (cities),
administrative (departments), vendor-
specific products (Cisco), etc.
Peer NMSs
In such situation two network service
providers needing to exchange management
information between them.
Manager NMS
Agent NMS
Agent NMS
Manager NMS
Figure 3.5 Dual Role of Management Process
Interoperability
NMS
Vendor A
Network
Agent
Network
Agent
Network
Objects
Network
Objects
NMS
Vendor B
Network
Agent
Network
Agent
Network
Objects
Network
Objects
Messages
Services & Protocols
Vendor A
(b) Services and Protocols
Application
Services
Management
Protocol
Transport
Protocols
Objects
Objects
Vendor B
Objects
Objects
Figure 1.23 Network Management Dumbbell Architecture
Information Model
Concern with the structure and storage of the
information.
The representation of objects information that are
relevant to their management forms the
management information model.
Information on network components is passed
between the agent and management process.
The information model specifies the information
base to describe managed objects and relationship
between managed objects .
.
The structure defining the syntax of
management information is specified by
structure of management information(SMI).
The information base is called the
management information base(MIB).
The MIB is used by both agent and
management process to store and exchange
management information.
The MIB associated with an agent is called
agent MIB and MIB associated with
manager is called manager MIB.
.
Manager
Managed objects
MDB MIB
Agent process
MDB Management Database
MIB Management Information Base
Figure 3.6 Network Configuration with Data and Information Base
. The manager MIB consist of information on
all the network components that it manages.
Whereas the MIB associated with an agent
process needs to know only its local
information.
.
So, manager has two database.
MDB
MIB
The MDB is the real database and contains
the measured or administratively configured
value of the elements of the network.
MIB is virtual database and contains the
information necessary for processes to
exchange information among themselves.
.
The MIB that contains data on managed objects need not
be limited to just physical elements.
In network management information extends information
beyond the description of network element or objects.
Managed objects can be
Network elements (hardware, system)
hubs, bridges, routers, transmission facilities
Software (non-physical)
programs, algorithms
Administrative information
contact person, name of group of objects
(IP group)
In fact, any type of info that can be included in the MIB can be
managed.
Management Information Tree
Root
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Figure 3.7 Generic Representation of Management Information Tree
Cont.
The managed objects are uniquely defined by tree structure
specified by the OSI model and are used in the internet
model.
Generic representation of tree defined by the MIT.
There is a root node and well defined nods underneath
each node at different levels, designated at level 1, level 2,
level 3, etc.
OSI MIT
The root nod does not have an explicit designation.
The root has three nodes in the layer beneath it iso ,itu,
iso itu
The number in each circle identifies the designation of
object in each layer.
Ths iso is designated as 1, org as 1.3, dod as 1.3.6 , internet
as1.3.6.1.
All the internet managed objects will be that number
followed by more dots and numbers.
The names of the nodes are all in lowercase letters
OSI Management Information Tree
iso-itu
2
itu
0
iso
1
org
3
dod
6
internet
1
Figure 3.8 OSI Management Information Tree
iso International Standards Organization
itu International Telecommunications Union
dod Department of Defense
Designation:
iso 1
org1.3
dod 1.3.6
internet 1.3.6.1 all internet managed objects will start with this
Functional model
Communication Model
Information Model deals with how information content is
defined (SMI) and stored (MIB).
Communication Model deals with how information is
exchanged between systems.
Management data are communicated between agent and
manager processes, as well as between manager processes.
Three aspects need to be addressed in communication of
information between two entities: transport medium of
message exchange(transport protocol), message format of
communication (application protocol), and actual
message(command and responses).
Abstract syntax notation one: ASN.1
It is important for communication among systems
that a formalized set of rules is agreed upon on the
structure and meaning of the language of the
communication , namely syntax and semantics of
the language.