Project P609

TMN Specification Support

Deliverable 2
TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations - Version 1

Suggested Readers:
Management system designers, specifiers and implementors, and more specifically, technical staff contributing to the realisation of TMN-based solutions to network and service management problems.

June 1997

The EURESCOM participants in P609 are:

BT France Tlcom Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation S.A. (OTE) Telefnica de Espaa S.A. Telecom Eireann

This document contains material which is the copyright of certain EURESCOM PARTICIPANTS, and may not be reproduced or copied without permission All PARTICIPANTS have agreed to full publication of this document The commercial use of any information contained in this document may require a license from the proprietor of that information. Neither the PARTICIPANTS nor EURESCOM warrant that the information contained in the report is capable of use, or that use of the information is free from risk, and accept no liability for loss or damage suffered by any person using this information. This document has been approved by EURESCOM Board of Governors for distribution to all EURESCOM Shareholders.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Preface

Preface
(prepared by the EURESCOM Permanent Staff Project P609, "TMN Specification Support" has a budget of 88 man-months for 5 Participants (BT, FT, OG, TI, TE), and is led by TE. The objectives this Project of are to complete, enhance and integrate the guidelines and support work started in Projects P223 and P414 in the area of TMN interface specification, system design and implementation. This is done by stabilising the E-MOL (EURESCOM Managed Object and Information Library) into a World-Wide-Web service for TMN designers, specifiers and implementors, which integrates both a library of available EURESCOM specifications and a repository of essential up-to-date guidelines for management interface specification and management system design and implementation. The Project also conducts TRS (Technical Review Sessions) on information models and accompanying Ensembles produced by other EURESCOM Projects, in order to provide a quality check on material to be included in the E-MOL. This document informs the reader about the status of the EURESCOM TMN Guidelines as they existed prior to November 1996. It assesses the applicability of guidelines resulting from previous similar Projects (P223 and P414), and introduces new guidelines judged to be an essential part of the current state-of-the-art, like the use of UML, an introduction to process modelling, etc. There are plans for a new organisation of the guidelines as a World-Wide-Web site combined with the E-MOL site. This new organisation and the final state of the TMN guidelines Web pages will be presented in D4.

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Preface

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and RecommendationsExecutive Summary

Executive Summary
This document informs its readers of the status of EURESCOM TMN Guidelines as they existed in November 1996. Its purpose is to enable and encourage TMN developers and other people concerned with TMN development to take benefit from analytic work and experiences of contributors to TMN Guidelines projects within the TMN Work Area of EURESCOM. It describes how the guidelines in question are organised and makes recommendations about how their content can be improved and augmented with additional guidelines. TMN Guidelines are intended to be complementary to the results of TMN standardisation groups and their associates such as NMF (Network Management Forum). The demand for guidelines arises from the generic nature of the standardisation bodies results which can be supported by more targeted advice on how such results can solve particular problems. The intended users of this document are the same as the intended users of the guidelines, i.e. technical staff contributing to the realisation of TMN-based solutions to network and service management problems. Such staff contribute to EURESCOM TMN Work Area projects (e.g. specifying particular X-interfaces) and/or contribute to internal PNO network management problems. Actions have been taken and plans put in place to improve the presentation, content, and access to the TMN Guidelines produced by the Projects (P223 and P414) which preceded P609 in the area of formulating guidelines to support TMN development. The major recent innovation in this regard is the creation of a Web space in a temporary location to allow easy access to the content of the Deliverable documents included the guidelines in question. This Web space has been organised to allow an intuitive approach to the search for guidelines. Section 2 of this document has reviewed the guidelines available and indicates that there is scope for improving the content of some of them. This review is not sufficient justification for the expenditure of substantial resources on an up-dating exercise because it is in the nature of an internal view of the guidelines rather than the views of the users of the guidelines. One of the conclusions from a survey of potential users of TMN guidelines is that the value of the contribution they make to the work of TMN specifiers is not possible to evaluate. This means that caution will be exercised in the planning of guideline revisions. Some additional guidelines are being prepared and will be made available in the TMN Guidelines Web space. The ideas for the production of these guidelines are based on an informal judgement of how to complement the existing guidelines. The topics addressed in the new guidelines are: the possible use of UML (Unified Modelling Language) proposed by the Rational Corporation; and the introduction of process modelling into TMN development activity. P609 and its possible follow-on Project will monitor usage of the Web space before deciding on how to spend resources in the future. It is essential that EURESCOM Projects which are the intended users of the guidelines actively contribute to the development of this TMN Guidelines Web space. The remaining work within P609 in the area of TMN Guidelines includes the movement of the Web space to the EURESCOM Information and Communications Service infrastructure. At that point we will add search facilities and then publicise the availability of the TMN Guidelines via the Web.

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Executive SummaryDeliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

To ensure quick and easy access to new guidelines, they will be placed in the TMN Guidelines as they are finalised and approved.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations List of Authors

List of Authors
Amador Martin Javier Escamilla Terry Turner Jim O Hara Mandy Martin Paul Papadakis Panagiotis Pastelakos Telefonica I+D Telefonica I+D Telecom Eireann Telecom Eireann Telecom Eireann OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation) OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation)

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Table of ContentsDeliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Table of Contents
Preface .............................................................................................................................i Executive Summary...................................................................................................... iii List of Authors................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ..........................................................................................................vi List of Abbreviations.................................................................................................. viii List of Definitions ..........................................................................................................x 1 2 Introduction.............................................................................................................1 Current Status of TMN Guidelines.........................................................................3 2.1 Information Modelling Guidelines ...............................................................3 2.1.1 General.............................................................................................3 2.1.2 TRS (Technical Review Sessions) Oriented ...................................4 2.2 Other Specification Related Guidelines .......................................................6 2.2.1 General.............................................................................................6 2.2.2 Requirements Specification.............................................................7 2.2.3 Protocols ..........................................................................................8 2.2.4 Security............................................................................................9 2.2.5 Ensembles ........................................................................................9 2.2.6 OO Analysis Guidelines ................................................................10 2.3 TMN Design Guidelines ............................................................................11 2.3.1 Design and Functional Allocation .................................................11 2.3.2 OO Design Guidelines...................................................................13 2.3.3 User Interfaces...............................................................................13 2.4 Implementation Related Guidelines ...........................................................14 2.4.1 Platforms........................................................................................14 2.4.2 OO Implementation Guidelines.....................................................16 Means of Accessing Guidelines ...........................................................................17 3.1 TMN Specification Support Services Web Site.........................................17 3.1.1 General information.......................................................................17 3.1.2 Accessing the information .............................................................17 3.1.3 Future plans ...................................................................................19 3.2 FTP Directories ..........................................................................................20 3.3 Deliverable Documents ..............................................................................20 3.3.1 P414 ...............................................................................................20 3.3.2 P223 ...............................................................................................23 3.4 Suggestions and Open Issues......................................................................26 3.4.1 FTP Archive of TMN-Related Documents ...................................26 Additional Guidelines...........................................................................................29 4.1 Requirements for Additional TMN Guidelines..........................................29 4.1.1 Report on joint meetings for getting feedback on TMN guidelines 4.2 Initial Guidelines from P609 ......................................................................30 4.2.1 Report on Unified Modelling Language........................................30 4.2.2 Process Modelling .........................................................................31 4.3 Plans for Additional Guidelines .................................................................32

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and RecommendationsTable of Contents

External Sources on TMN Guidelines ................................................................. 33 5.1 ETSI NA4................................................................................................... 33 5.2 Other Sources............................................................................................. 34 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 37

References.................................................................................................................... 38 Appendix 1: Table of Contents of ETSI Modelling Guidelines Document................. 39

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Abbreviations

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

List of Abbreviations
ASN.1 ATM ATS BAC CMIP CMIS CORBA DCE DCN E-MOL ECMA EDI EICS EPS ESE ETR ETSI ETSI NA4 EWOS FTP GDMO HPY HTML IDEF IDL ITU-T MF MFS MIB MO MOCS MS NE Abstract Syntax Notation.One Asynchronous Transfer Mode Abstract Test Suite Billing, Accounting, and Charging Common Management Information Protocol Common Management Information Service Common Object Request Broker Architecture Distributed Computing Environment Data Communications Network EURESCOM Management Information and Objects Library European Computer Manufacturers Association Electronic Data Interchange EURESCOM Information and Communications Services EURESCOM Permanent Staff EURESCOM Support Environment ETSI Technical Report European Telecommunication Standards Institute Network Aspects 4 (a study group in ETSI) European Workshop on Open Systems File Transfer Protocol Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects Helsinki Telephone Company Hypertext Markup Language Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing Definition Interface Definition Language International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Sector Management Function Management Function Set Management Information Base Managed Object Managed Object Conformance Statement Management Service Network Element

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Abbreviations

NM NMF ODP OEW OMG OMT OO OOAD OOSE OS OSF OSS PNO PTN RAMP SDH SDL SMF SMI SNMP STC TINA TINA-C TMN TR TRS TTCN UI UML URL WWW

Network Management Network Management Forum Open Distributed Processing Operations Engineering Workbook Object Management Group Object Modelling Technique Object Oriented, Object Orientation Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Object-Oriented Software Engineering Operations System Open Software Foundation Operations Support System Public Network Operator Private Telecommunications Network Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Performance Synchronous Digital Hierarchy Specification and Description Language System Management Function Systems Management Information Simple Network Management Protocol Sub-Technical Committee Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture TINA Consortium Telecommunication Management Network Technical Report Technical Review Session Tree Tabulae Combined Notation User Interface Unified Modelling Language Uniform Resource Locator World Wide Web

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Definitions

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

List of Definitions
Accounting The whole process of getting money, which includes usage metering, charging, and billing. Agent In OSI Systems Management terminology, the portion of an Open System that enables access to, operations on, and notifications from a collection of Managed Objects. Agent functions are accessible via a managed Interface. Allomorphism The ability of a Managed Object that is an instance of a given class to be managed as an instance of one or more other Managed Object classes (ITU-T Rec. X.720). Anonymous FTP Anonymous FTP is a facility that lets one connect to a remote host and download files without having to be registered as a user. The system manager sets up a special userid named anonymous that anyone, anywhere on the Internet, is allowed to use. Application A software entity with a well-defined functionality. Application Layer The Application layer comprises functionality to co-ordinate operations on MOs and put together information requested by a human user of the MA. The Application layer contains control objects. Attribute Information of a particular type concerning an object and visible to the exterior of the object. Billing, Accounting, and Charging (BAC) The BAC record can be viewed as a container, where the content of the container depends upon the telecommunication service type. The BAC record contains mandatory data fields together with a management extension field. Specific information for each telecommunication service can be specified, in the management extension field. Once complete for a specific service, it cannot be changed. Behaviour The set of activities taking place as a result of interactions or autonomously in a given entity. An example is the way in which Managed Objects, Name Bindings, Attributes, Notifications, and Actions interact with the actual Resources they model and with each other. Binding A communication session involving two or more Computational Objects.

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Definitions

Building Block A software entity that is composed of a collection of Computational Objects. It is a unit of release independence, of security, of systems management, and of placement. Note: The grouping of homogeneous objects is done according to a set of rules. These are not related to the Service Independent Building Blocks defined by the ITU. Building Blocks consist of Service Constituents, or a Group of Service constituents, combined as a unit. Building Blocks may contain parts of service constituents, for example, one object in a service constituent consisting of many co-operating objects. A Building Block is not the same as the Service Independent Building Block. Dialogue An interaction between a user and a system to achieve a particular goal. Domain A set of functions and data, objects, that are logically grouped together as they cooperate to provide some class of functionalities. Two Domains have been identified, Network Domain and Service Domain. Dynamic Model Those aspects of a system that are concerned with time and changes are the dynamic model. E-MOL A set of repositories of information relevant to TMN developers established and maintained by EURESCOM. It contains repositories dealing with Managed Object class definitions, management function definitions, glossaries or terms and abbreviations as well as other information deemed to be useful to E-MOL users. It is accessed by Web browsers via URL:www.eurescom.de/ E-MOL stands for EURESCOM Management information and Objects Library. Endorsement Procedure The Endorsement Procedure is composed of a series of stages which a proposed definition should pass in order to be considered endorsed. Ensemble An Ensemble is an OMNIPoint Network Management Forum (NMF) reusable implementation specification for a particular management problem (TMN Interfaces or other). It is made up of requirements, scenarios, and Managed Objects, along with references to standard information models and conformance statements. Ensemble: Second Definition An Ensemble is a complete set of specifications, including scenarios and information models, which solves a particular management problem. Thus, an ensemble is the complete description of the problem and the solution to that problem. Environment The encapsulation of one, or more, activity, or process.

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Definitions

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Event An instantaneous occurrence that changes the global status of an object. This status change may be persistent or temporary, allowing for surveillance, monitoring, and performance measurement of ability for inaction, etc. Events may or may not generate reports; they may be spontaneous or planned; they may trigger other Events or may be triggered by one or more other events. FTP File Transfer Protocol, the underlying set of specifications that support Internet file transfer. FTP is a service that allows one to copy a file from any Internet host to any other Internet host. Guidelines Series of generally stated recommendations for user interface software, with examples, added explanations, and other commentary, selected (and perhaps modified) for any particular system application, and adopted by agreement. http http refers to HyperText Transport Protocol, the protocol used by the Web to move data from place to place. Information Model The purpose of an Information model is to give structure to the management information conveyed externally by systems management protocols and to model management aspects of the related resources. The information model deals with Managed Objects (ITU-T Rec. X.720). Information Model: Second Definition Between two communicating entities there needs to exist a common understanding of the information about which communication can take place. This is abstracted in an information model as objects and their behaviour, characteristics and relationships. (ITU-T Rec.M.3100). Inheritance The conceptual mechanism by which Attributes, Notifications, Operations, and Behaviour are acquired by a subclass from its superclass. Interface The interface of an object describes what functionality a certain object supplies. The interface is also the outside view of a class or object which emphasises the objects abstraction while hiding its internal structure. Management The functions covering the areas of planning, installation, provisioning, operation, administration, and maintenance of telecommunications networks and services. Management Function The smallest part of the TMN Management Service as perceived by the User of that service. In reality it will generally consist of a sequence of actions on a defined Managed Object or objects. See also: Management Application Function, Management Function Set.

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Definitions

Managed Object Representation in an object-oriented way, of any Resource (abstract or concrete, simple or complex) visible to the TMN and subject to Management by the TMN, through the use of OSI (Management) Protocols. Managed Object Class Instances of Managed Objects that share the same Management Operations, Attributes, and Notifications are said to be in the same Managed Object Class. Specification of the characteristics (Attributes, Notifications, Operations, Behaviour) which a Managed Object of that class shall have when instantiated. Management Application A (TMN) application supporting a Management Service over a TMN interface. Management Interface An Operational Interface of a Computational Object that provides capabilities for managing some functionalities provided by the object. Interface by which an object can be controlled and supervised. Management Service An area of Management activity which provides support for Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) of the network being managed. It addresses, as a reference, the relevant information on the management of a certain telecommunication area serving a specific management goal. It is always described from the user perception of the management requirements. It is mainly a requirement level concept. Corresponds to a specific user management perspective. Manager In OSI Systems Management terminology, the portion of an Open System that invokes operations on and receives notifications from Managed Objects via a Management Interface, interacting with an Agent . Mediation Mediation is a process within the TMN which acts on information passing between Network Elements Functions (NEF), or Q Adaptor Functions (QAF), and Operations Systems Functions (OSF) and provides local management functionality to the NE(s). Mediation uses standard interfaces and can be realised in a separate Mediation Device or be shared among NE(s). Mediation Device The MD is the stand-alone device which performs mediation functions (MFs). MDs can be implemented as hierarchies of cascaded devices. Model A description of a set of entities or phenomena, capturing those aspects of the entities/phenomena that are deemed to be relevant for the purpose of the model. Other terms can be added to specify additional features of the model (e.g. Information Model), the purpose of the model (e.g. Management Information Model) or the kind of entities/phenomena modelled (e.g. Network Resource Information Model). Multiple Inheritance

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Definitions

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

A conceptual mechanism that allows a subclass to acquire attributes, notifications, operations, and behaviour from more than one superclass. Network A set of nodes and links that provides connections between two or more defined points to facilitate telecommunication between them. Network Element The NE is comprised of telecommunication equipment (or Groups/parts of telecommunication equipment) and support equipment that performs Network Element Functions (NEFs) and has one or more standard Q-type interface. ITU-T has three distinct definitions of Network Element, as follows: ITU-T Rec. Q.9: "An entity in the telecommunications network." Recs. Z.337, Z.341: "Telecommunication equipment which may perform signalling, switching, and transmission functions." Recs. M.30, M.60: "The NE is comprised of telecommunication equipment (or Groups/parts of telecommunication equipment) and support equipment that performs Network Element Functions (NEFs) and has one or more Q-type Interfaces. The NEF function in the context of this latter definition has to do with the communication between the TMN and the network. Object A combination of a state and a set of methods that explicitly embodies an abstraction characterised by the behaviour of relevant requests. An object is an instance of a class. An object models a real world entity and is implemented as a computational entity that encapsulates state and operations internally implemented as data methods and responds to request services. Object Model An object model captures the static structure of a system by showing the objects in the system, relationships between the objects, and the attributes and operations that characterise each class of objects. Object Modelling Technique (OMT) OMT is a complete object-oriented development method which covers all phases from analysis to implementation [RUM91]. It has its central point and its main advantages in the analysis phase. The object model and the dynamic model are very mature. Open System A telecommunications system that employs standardised communications procedures and methods for interaction with other systems. Operation An operation on a Managed Object to effect systems Management. Messages are sent to the Public Network Operator by the User of the Management Service. They may lead to PNO performing actions and/or sending replies.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Definitions

Operation System The system which performs Operations System Functions, that is the processing of information related to telecommunications management for the purpose of monitoring/co-ordinating and/or controlling telecommunication functions including Management Functions (i.e., the TMN itself). Protocol A set of rules and formats (semantic and syntactic) which determine the communication behaviour of peer entities. Reference Point A RP is a conceptual point of information exchange between two non-overlapping management function blocks. RPs define service boundaries between two Management Function blocks (i.e. Operations System, Network Element, workstation, Mediation, and Q Adapter function blocks). The purpose of Reference Points is to identify the information passing between Function Blocks. It is always indicated by lower case, e.g. q3, x, f. q-RPs are defined between function blocks within a TMN and x-RPs between Function Blocks belonging to different TMNs. Runtime Platform The set of hardware and software providing support to the on-line applications (usually comprising the computer and Interfaces, the Operating System, Inter Application communications, Database access, etc.). Scenario A scenario describes a specific branch of a use case. Service A set of functions offered to a user by an organisation. A service represents a set of network capabilities available for Customer usage. A service is a stand-alone commercial offering characterised by one or more core Service Features, and can be optionally enhanced by other services features: 1) A set of capabilities provided by a Computational Object that can be used by other objects; it is accessed via an Operational Interface. 2) A set of capabilities provided to an Actor (e.g. an end user), or a set of capabilities offered by an object for use by other objects. 3) In Information Networking, Service refers to a packaged set of capabilities that is perceived by a human user when interacting with a Telecommunications network or a Service Provider and for which separate billing can be arranged. Security Service A set of operation(s) designed to support some aspect of security in a distributed system. Telecommunication Service That which is offered by an Administration to its Customers in order to satisfy a specific Telecommunications requirement. Note: Bearer Service and teleservice are types of Telecommunication Service. Other types of Telecommunication Service may be identified in the future.

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Definitions

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Use Case A use case is a sequence of transactions in a system whose task is to yield a result of measurable value to an individual actor (player in P414) of the system. This concept has been taken from the Objectory methodology [JAC92]. User Network Interface The interface between the terminal equipment and a network termination at which interface the access protocols apply. Example: In B-ISDN terminology this is the Interface between the broad band network terminating equipment (B-NT1), and the users equipment. The UNI is the Interface at the TB Reference Point. Virtual Private Network A Telecommunication Service offered by a Service Provider which provides its subscribers with a private communication network by using Resources from public network(s). X-Interface The purpose of an X-Interface will be to interconnect two management systems or TMNs. It will be used to interconnect the TMNs of two separate Administrations or an Administrations TMN to an external Service Providers TMN.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Introduction

Introduction
This document informs its readers of the status of EURESCOM TMN Guidelines as they existed in November 1996. Its purpose is to enable and encourage TMN developers and other people concerned with TMN development to take benefit from analytic work and experiences of contributors to TMN Guidelines Projects within the TMN Work Area of EURESCOM. It describes how the guidelines in question are organised and makes recommendations about how their content can be improved and augmented with additional guidelines. TMN Guidelines are intended to be complementary to the results of TMN standardisation groups and their associates such as NMF (Network Management Forum). The demand for guidelines arises from the generic nature of the standardisation bodies results which can be supported by more targeted advice on how such results can solve particular problems. The intended users of this document are the same as the intended users of the guidelines, i.e. technical staff contributing to the realisation of TMN-based solutions to network and service management problems. Such staff contribute to EURESCOM TMN Work Area Projects (e.g. specifying particular X-interfaces) and/or contribute to internal PNO network management problems. This document reports on the use of Web technology to make the TMN guidelines more easily accessible than has been the case up to now. The document is structured into six sections; Section 1 is the introduction. Section 2 describes the current status of the TMN Guidelines produced by the two EURESCOM Projects which preceded this one. Section 3 describes how the guidelines can be accessed via WWW, FTP, and Deliverable documents. Section 4 describes the work this Project is doing to add to the store of TMN guidelines and the rationale for such additions. Section 5 provides information on TMN guidelines which can be accessed from sources external to EURESCOM. Section 6 draws some conclusions about the status of TMN Guidelines.

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Introduction

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Current Status

Current Status of TMN Guidelines

The purpose of this section is to describe the state of existing TMN guidelines in EURESCOM, specifically those developed by Projects P223 and P414. This section has been organised according to four major groups: Information Modelling, other specification related guidelines, design, and implementation. For each subsection of the groups, a summary is provided. Also comments are given about the usefulness of some documents and possible improvements to them.

2.1
2.1.1

Information Modelling Guidelines

General
P223 Deliverable 3, Sections 6 and 7 Summary Section 6 contains a set of concepts, activities, and principles for TMN Information Modelling. It is quite aligned with FORUM TR 102 Modelling Principles for Managed Objects Technical Report, and contains guidelines for the definition of each of the GDMO template types. Section 7 deals with reuse and taxonomies of reuse. It collects some considerations concerning reuse as a concept and as a practice to be used in the production of management information models and management service modelling. Comments This material is presented in a quite synthetic way, which makes it suitable for inclusion in the Guidelines WWW Site. P414 Deliverable 3, Annex F: Study of GDMO: Relationship modelling Summary This document addresses the representation of relationships in Information Models. First it describes how relationships are modelled in a GDMO context. The shortcomings of this method are then highlighted in section 3, and in section 4 some recommendations are given on how relationships should be represented. Finally, in section 5 some other approaches to relationship modelling are discussed, and (some of) the relationships in the Information Model of the Xcoop Interface for ATM, using an OMT notation, are presented as a case study. Comments This document points out how relationships are typically defined in GDMO application. The document mainly suggests the use of OMT for graphical notation for relationships, because OMT is general purpose and can easily be learned. The document does not contain references to GDMO graphical notation (ITU-T Recommendation Z.360, still in draft). At the time of writing this text, Z.360 had not emerged yet.

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Current Status

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

ITU-T recommendation for Generic Relationship Modelling (GRM), X.725 is now fully approved as of 07/95. A revision of this EURESCOM guideline would usefully include a brief summary of this recommendation and additional references (Section 4, point 1; section 5), so that possibilities of GRM for specifying relationships are presented and promoted. According to X.725, relationships may be represented by the following methods based on constructs defined in the Management Information Model (ITU-T Rec. X.720): naming participants pointers relationship objects system management operations

In this document, the first three methods are detailed (including also the inheritance and behaviour as additional means of expressing relationships). However, operations are not included and it is suggested that they be included as well. Apart from the complexity inherent to X.725, it would be desirable to explore other reasons which explain the low adoption of this standard. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex G: Study of GDMO: Behaviour Modelling Summary This document addresses the specification of behaviour in Information Models (for MO classes, attributes, name bindings...). It starts with a short overview on how behaviour is modelled in GDMO templates. The drawbacks of this method are given in section 3, and in section 4 it gives some recommendations on how better behaviour descriptions can be obtained. In section 5 some other approaches to behaviour modelling are discussed. Finally, a case-study is presented in which the behaviour of a single managed object is represented using the ITU-T Specification and Description Language (SDL). Comments This document proposes some useful guidelines about how to improve the specification of behaviour in GDMO, taking into account the difficulties inherent in behaviour modelling from an implementation and testing point of view. The rationale for using specific SDL constructs, like signals, process variables, processes, etc. is hardly found through the text. It is suggested that the description of use of diagrams could be more specific ( Section 5.2, point 5). For example, are they state transition diagrams or event trace diagrams?

2.1.2

TRS (Technical Review Sessions) Oriented

P223 Deliverable 4, Volume II: Definition of the EURESCOM Endorsement Procedure Summary This Deliverable contains a detailed description of the Endorsement Procedure, the mechanism through which various EURESCOM Projects and member companies can

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Current Status

have proposed TMN specifications evaluated and included in the EURESCOM EMOL Library. The main criteria is that definitions can be used (e.g. implemented) or re-used (e.g. specialised) by other Projects, and that they should solve the management problem they were intended for. This document contains a detailed description of the validation of information models developed by the working teams from EURESCOM. Procedures cover mainly material submission and technical review. Comments The content of this document has been refined and superseded in some points by P414 Deliverable 1: E-MOL Handbook. Conclusion: It is suggested that this material should not be used but that the more upto-date material from P414 Deliverable 1 should be used instead. P414 Deliverable 1. Annex A: TRS guidelines Summary In this document a set of criteria to be applied during a Technical Review Session are presented. It contains pre-requisites, preparations, skills required, proceedings, and output from a TRS. It defines quality-oriented criteria that shall be applied during the Technical Review (Appendix 1) and the proposed steps in a so-called TRS process (Appendix 2). Although the criteria presented in this document assist in the technical review of an information model, they may also be applicable for the construction of an information model in GDMO. Comments This document is clear and useful. It may be amended later on in Project P609. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex B: Modelling Guidelines Proposals: Model Evaluation Summary The aim of this paper is to present proposals for modelling guidelines, specifically guidelines on evaluating the quality of information models. These proposals are based on EURESCOM P414 participants experience of model evaluation. The guidelines aim to improve the quality of information models prior to coding and testing of software which implements a distributed management application acting in the Agent role. The testing of run-time software is outside the scope of this paper. Comments This paper provides additional guidelines to the ones included in the P414 Deliverable 1 guidelines which are to be taken into account when running TRSs. In some respects, it is in line with business criteria developed by the NMF. It is suggested that Information Model semantic evaluation is conducted before the syntactic evaluation. In practice, this means that there must be two syntax evaluations (before and after the technical review). It is proposed to add also ITU-T Rec.s X.208 and X.680 (as there are criteria which have to do with ASN.1), to the list of relevant documents.

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Current Status

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Quality metrics reflected in section 2.1.3 can be slightly touched up. Additional quality metrics and systematic procedures to collect and process IM metrics are both worthy of further study. Now that an amendment to ITU-T Rec. X.722 is in force (11/95), it should also be referenced in the documents. It seems that for the sake of clarity, all the TRS material should be clearly specified in one document. The information is currently rather scattered. For instance, it could specify: - Phases: pre-TRS, TRS, post-TRS. - For each phase: necessary material and skills (input); process; output. - Hints about time scheduling. - Relation to E-MOL population process.

2.2
2.2.1

Other Specification Related Guidelines

General
P223 Deliverable 3, Section 2: Interfaces Specification: General Overview Summary This aims to give a high-level view of TMN interface specification concepts and methods as they stood at the time the Deliverable was written (Autumn 1993). Comments It could serve as an introduction, but in some respects, it seems to be out of date . It is proposed to keep subchapters 2.1 through 2.3. P223 Deliverable 3, Section 3: MS Definition Process Summary This gives an overview of the MS definition process as it was described in 1993. Comments It references some outdated concepts such as MSCs. The MS Definition Process is better covered by ITU-T Rec. M.3020 so the need for this guideline is questionable. Some work is needed to replace the parts of this which try to show how ITU-T and NMF concepts in the area of conceptual modelling of the TMN can be complementary to each other. P223 Deliverable 3, Section 5: Specification Level Guidelines Summary This provides guidelines (by the way of hints, templates...) for specification of MFs, MFSs, MOs, Scenarios, and Conformance Requirements, taking NMF 025 The ensemble concept and format as an overall framework [NMF25].

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Comments This material is reasonably informative for newcomers but likely to be well-known at this stage to many of the EURESCOM Project contributors.

2.2.2

Requirements Specification
P223 Deliverable. 3, Section 4. 1: Functional Requirements Summary This provides some ideas on how to identify and organise management requirements as well as a template to describe requirements. Comments It is rather light weight but it does support specifiers to identify and define functional requirements. This is not an area in which people have a lot of problems. P223 Deliverable. 2, Section 11: Requirements on TMN Platform Summary This defines a set of requirements which are likely to be relevant when specifying and evaluating TMN-OS platforms. Comments Although addressing TMN platform requirements, the non-functional requirements categories seem to be generic enough to be used in application development (speed, size, ease of use, reliability, robustness, portability...). P414 Deliverable 2. Section 3.3: Experiences and Guidelines Associated with Requirements Capture Summary This contains experiences and guidelines associated with requirements capture, taking into account the use case concept. Comment It provides valuable insights for developers who wish to follow OO related methods. General comment on requirements guidelines Guidelines on how to capture and structure requirements are scattered. It would be beneficial for the EURESCOM TMN community to have them in a single piece of documentation with a clear mapping of how they integrate with the Ensemble concept.

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2.2.3

Protocols
P223 Deliverable 2, Section 10.3: Protocol-part (X interface) Summary This provides a classification of TMN communications in terms of the nature of the communicating systems (NEs and OSs), description of candidate protocols for lower and upper layers, functional and non-functional criteria for protocol and network service selection, and considerations regarding the data networks for X-interface implementation. Comments This section contains material on management protocols and DCN (Data Communications Network) technologies which is still relevant but most of these concepts and ideas are either very well-known at this stage or have been abandoned. P223 Deliverable 3, Section 8: Protocol for X-interface Family Summary This discusses communication layers in line with ITU-T Rec.s Q.811 and Q.812. Some considerations on alternative communication mechanisms such as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) are presented. Comments This section lacks any reference to the use of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) as a networking solution. An update to include these protocols could be beneficial. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex H: Guidelines on Support of Delayed Operation Results Summary This document first explains what is meant by a delayed operation result and provides an example of such a situation. It then explains the kinds of functionality that might be adopted within an information model to meet such requirements. No attempt is made to define MO classes for this functionality. Although it should be possible to define a set of generic MO classes, a more thorough analysis of requirements is necessary to have confidence in the definition of such a set of MO classes. Although CMIP is the only protocol identified and discussed in this paper, the ideas expressed are equally applicable to other protocols adopted for management purposes. CMIP is identified because the GDMO notation used to specify MO Classes was developed for CMIP. The paper concludes with a set of guidelines on support for delayed operation results in MO Class specifications, based on the preceding discussion. Comments This document contains relevant material for inclusion into the WWW guidelines site. It addresses a topic which supports TMN manager/agent development.

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2.2.4

Security
P223 Deliverable 3, Section 9: Guidelines for Securing X-interface Summary This section focuses mainly on access control mechanisms, in line with ITU-T Rec. X.741. Comment It provides insights into the means for following a recommended approach to achieving access control to Managed Objects and their constituent parts P408 Deliverable 8 Summary This report concerns secure interaction policies within a trans-national multi-TMN environment. Security specifications for the TMN applications running on the PETlab (Pan-European TMN laboratory) were also produced. It is particularly worth reading the information included regarding the TMN security experiences which were developed and recorded during the period 1995-1996 (national security front-ends, cryptographic services, CMIP security aspects, etc.). Comment This Deliverable is currently (1996) the main authority on TMN security within EURESCOM.

2.2.5

Ensembles
P414 Deliverable 3. Annex C: EURESCOM application of the NM Forum Ensemble concept Summary The purpose of this document is to describe how the NM Forum Ensemble concept has been applied in EURESCOM Projects for the specification of TMN interfaces. The description is based on experiences from the use of Ensembles for the specification of an SDH X-interface within the EURESCOM Project P408. It provides rich examples on the look of high-quality ensembles. Comments The clarity of this document is good. It serves as a good example as to how to build an ensemble. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex D: Towards Better Ensembles Summary The purpose of this document is to identify areas for potential improvement in the Ensemble approach, and to suggest where the use of OMT could lead to quality improvements. The aim of the work upon which this document is based is to promote a situation where the specification phase of TMN development is performed in a

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uniform manner regardless of whether the target is a TMN application or a TMN interface. The OMT is seen as a potential specification method from which both applications and Ensembles can be derived. The OMT was chosen because of its widespread use in the industry and because of its use within EURESCOM Projects. This document assumes familiarity with both the Ensemble concept and the OMT. However, brief descriptions of both can be found in the appendices. Comments In spite of the provision of some correspondences between ensemble items and OMT outputs, it is not so easy to find the main ideas or conclusions in the document. It is suggested to extract the major conclusions from the main body. Appendix C is a good example on how to move from OMT object models to GDMO models. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex E: Ensemble Creation from TMN Design Case-study Results Summary Having had some experiences of modelling the Cost and Charging Management Service applying a mix of object-oriented methodologies, a step further is to relate the results with the standard emerging way of describing management problems, that is the Ensemble. The approach that is followed deals with a mapping between the Case-study material and the main issues that are part of the Ensemble Template. In particular, this is done for the material directly related with the analysis objects that have public interfaces (these are interfaces available from outside the management system). Comments This document does not contain guidelines in a strict sense of the term. It is an example of how to make an ensemble from OMT models. It is hard to judge if it should be included with other material on a TMN Guidelines Web site.

2.2.6

OO Analysis Guidelines
P414 Deliverable 2: TMN Design Case-study Report Summary Main body: Section 3 (subsection 3.4 devoted to Analysis) This presents a number of experiences and guidelines associated with the Analysis phase of TMN application development. Case-study annexes Examples can be found on the steps followed in the analysis process, for a Virtual Private Network management case study. Comments It may be useful to have this material (mainly the conclusions) for guidance on how to integrate OO methodologies with TMN applications development.

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P414 Deliverable 3. Annex I: Tutorial in OO for TMN developers Summary Section 3.3: Object-Oriented Analysis This section is devoted to OO Analysis. It provides a brief introduction to the Object Model, Use Cases, and the Dynamic Model used in OO analysis. Comment It is suggested to keep this material as general background for TMN developers.

2.3
2.3.1

TMN Design Guidelines

Design and Functional Allocation
P223 Deliverable 5. TMN Design and Functional Allocation Guidelines: Sections 5 and 6. Examples of the guidelines can be found in Annexes. Summary This Deliverable has mainly two parts: - A definition of a TMN development life-cycle model - Guidelines on design and functional allocation To illustrate the life-cycle process and derive input to the guidelines, a case study on SDH management was performed. TMN development life-cycle model The aim is to present a model for TMN development. TMN development can have a very wide scope. At one end of the spectrum one can find the development of a set of TMNs, partially in parallel and partially in series. At the other end of the spectrum, one can imagine the minor modification of a mediation device. A middle position could be the development of an Operations System (OS) for a particular TMN application such as the management of SDH networks. A list of roles to be enacted throughout the development life cycle is given. A list of activities applicable to TMN system development is also provided.: Guidelines on design and functional allocation Guidelines are given on: - Design of Management Architecture - Functional and Information Allocation - TMN Evaluation These areas for guidelines represent three different steps within the development of a TMN. The Guidelines for Design of Management Architecture give advice on design activities that in the life cycle constitute part of the activities on Specification level

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and Implementation level. This section lists a number of factors that have to be taken into account when designing a TMN architecture: Hierarchy of OSs, OS internal architecture and layering of the OS applications, Communications and responsibility model among OSs, DCN design, Mediation Devices design, Physical allocation to Network Management Centres. The Guidelines for Functional and Information Allocation give advice on how to structure and perform allocation of functions and information into logical and physical TMN architectures in such a way that requirements on the TMN are likely to be met in an optimal way. The Guidelines are separated into three different steps: 1. Collection and Classification of management functionality and information related to different viewpoints, e.g. network element viewpoint and network viewpoint. 2. Logical Allocation of management functions and information into a TMN Functional architecture. 3. Physical allocation of management functions and information into a physical architecture.
Logical allocation
Business

Service

Network Location n Network element Fault Con figur ation Per form ance Acc oun ting Secu rity

Location 1

Physical allocation

Collection and Classification of functionality and information

The Guidelines for TMN Evaluation give advice on approaches to the technical assessment of a TMN. The evaluation activities are considered to take place after the design activities. They do not set out to be a comprehensive TMN quality control procedure, rather they provide guidelines which can be applied during the TMN development process for the purpose of increasing the likelihood of achieving a highquality TMN solution. Comments The material concerning TMN Design is not likely to be of much importance to the types of TMN Project in EURESCOM. Internal PNO Projects may get more benefit from it. The material on evaluation is very general as it has been taken from general IT R&D without addressing specific actual TMN development problems.

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2.3.2

OO Design Guidelines
P414 Deliverable 2 : TMN Design Case Study Report Summary Main body: Sections 3.5 and 3.6 A number of experiences and guidelines associated with Application/System Design and Detailed Object Design are presented. Annexes containing TMN design case study reports They contain examples of the steps to be followed in the design process for Virtual Private Network Management Services. Comment It may be useful to have this material (mainly the conclusions) for guidance on how to integrate OO methodologies with TMN. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex I: Tutorial in OO for TMN developers Section 3.4. (Object Oriented Design) and section 4 (Distribution) Summary Section 3.4. deals with system design and object design. In section 4, it is discussed briefly how to develop a Distributed System with object-oriented techniques, what a distributed object is and how distributed objects can communicate with each other. A short introduction to CORBA is also given. Comment It is suggested to keep this material as general background for TMN developers.

2.3.3

User Interfaces
P414 Deliverable 3. Annex A: Guidelines for User Interfaces for TMN Applications Summary This document presents user interface guidelines particularly relevant for the development of user interfaces for interactive TMN management applications, and is intended for use by PNOs and other EURESCOM Projects. The purpose of the document is to assist designers of interactive TMN applications in producing user interfaces that are easy to learn and remember, and efficient and effective to use. It builds on work carried out within EURESCOM Project P408, Pan-European TMN Experiments and Field Trial Support and presented in Deliverable 4. A general context of use for TMN applications is presented in section 2, including brief descriptions of typical users, tasks, and tools. The third section positions the user interface in the TMN framework, and relates user interface design to the specification and design frameworks commonly used for TMN applications, the Ensemble concept, and object-oriented techniques.

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A brief survey of current standards and style guides relating to user interface design is presented in section 4. Section 5 covers dialogue techniques - menus, form-filling, and direct manipulation - and the kind of tasks for which each technique is most appropriate. In subsequent sections aspects of information presentation, user guidance, and the importance of user testing are discussed. A number of guidelines concerning the design of user interfaces for TMN applications are extrapolated and presented in section 9 of the document. The guidelines are not requirements, and should be seen as recommendations or suggestions for user interface design. Comments This document provides a comprehensive set of useful recommendations and references to bear in mind when dealing with user interfaces. This is a matter which has not received a lot of attention in the standards up to now, and therefore this document provides substantial added value. On the subject of how to integrate user interface specification into ensembles: it is not clear if the ensemble approach is consistent with the specification of user interfaces, specially when dealing with objects. Perhaps, more detail should be given on the mapping between objects at the UI and other objects in applications and interfaces to other systems (OS and NE).

2.4
2.4.1

Implementation Related Guidelines

Platforms
P414 Deliverable 3. Annex K: Main Document: Migration Towards P208 TMNOS Platforms Summary The work of this part of Project P414 has provided additional information for the specification of reusable platform components for realising TMN-based management systems. It has, thereby, made it possible to gain economic and interoperability advantages, including increases in the potential for inter PNO working across Europe. In particular, attention has been given to the process of migrating towards the types of TMN Operational System Platforms envisaged by EURESCOM Project 208. The recommendations given will help developers and specifiers to increase the quality and effectiveness of TMN developments, by being better informed about available products and current approaches to the provision of management platforms. The paper also gives recommendations on how best to interact with the supply industry to assist them to more closely meet the needs of PNOs. The technical approach found most suitable for this piece of work was to refine, enhance, and update the work of the TMN Operations System Platform Project, P208, with great emphasis being placed on examining and referring to other appropriate work being done by EURESCOM and industry bodies such as NMF, OSF, OMG, and TINA-C. From this approach it has been possible to deduce some results, recommendations, and requirements for additional work. There are three annexes of this document: 1. TMN-OS Platform Requirements. This appendix contains a summary of TMN-OS Platform requirements produced by previous EURESCOM Projects.

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2. RAMP Categories. This appendix contains a list of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Performance, RAMP, and other non-functional criteria which might be important when procuring TMN-OS platforms. 3. Products for TMN-OS Platforms. This Appendix lists some of the potential suppliers of TMN platform components. Included are some of the major computer vendors and more specialist suppliers providing specific telecomms products or products associated with the OO approach suggested by EURESCOM Project P208. The aim in producing this Appendix has been to provide information which is as upto-date and relevant as possible. Comments The information contained in this document and its annexes is a comprehensive summary of material on platforms, including some outputs from P208. It seems a good candidate to be included as a guideline. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex L: OS Platform Guidelines Summary This document contains an evaluation of the P208 TMN-OS platform from the perspective of P414s case study - Task 3. Special attention has been placed on the TMN-OS platform of the type recommended by P208 during the study of the design phases. The P208 platform components have been analysed and reused in the design of the two services studied in the case study. The report presented here focuses on the platform components considered for use and lists the advantages/disadvantages of their integration in the development of TMN applications. In the second part of the report, the platform components are analysed in detail to identify some weaknesses or missing functionalities, in which case enhancements are proposed. Some new components may also be created to support new functionalities in the TMN-specific Building Block category of components. Comments It is rather questionable if this material should be presented as guidelines. However, it usefully demonstrates the need for high-quality platform component descriptions to make re-use of components a feasible proposition. P414 Deliverable 3. Annex M: DCE Experiments at Helsinki Telephone Co. (HPY) Summary The objective of this document is to give some information about the experience of an ongoing DCE case study in Helsinki Telephone Company (HPY), a member of Finnet Group, Finland. By DCE we mean an implementation of the OSF (Open Software Foundation)- DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) specification. The paper addresses readers who are or will be involved in choosing alternatives for managing distributed TMN-OS runtime platform.

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Comments These experiments must not be presented as guidelines, strictly speaking. The report on the experiments, while of some interest, is not substantial enough to be included as TMN guideline material. P208 Deliverable 4. Volume 2: Requirements for a TMN-OS Development Platform Summary This lists requirements for methods and tools to be used in the development and general life-cycle support of TMN applications based on the TMN-OS platform. The scope of the document is the whole life cycle of TMN applications covering aspects such as planning, configuration, analysis, detailed design, and coding. Tools to create and maintain the underlying TMN run-time platform are however not covered. Comment This document continues to be a useful reference.

2.4.2

OO Implementation Guidelines
P414 Deliverable 3. Annex I. Tutorial in OO for TMN developers. Section 5 (Development support) Summary This presents a number of object-oriented methodologies, languages, tools, and databases. Comment It is suggested to keep this material as general background for TMN developers.

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3
3.1
3.1.1

Means of Accessing Guidelines

TMN Specification Support Services Web Site
General information
This is a specially designed web site for EURESCOM that will provide a comprehensive, coherent set of guidelines and supporting mechanisms related to TMN development. Much work has been done on TMN development within EURESCOM, but the results have not been easily accessible to intended users. This site aims to provide information and techniques that can be used to enhance the performance of EURESCOMs TMN-related Projects, as well as the performance of TMN developments within PNOs. By providing such information, it is hoped to promote interoperability between the PNOs operations support systems (OSS) that are used in the management of panEuropean telecommunication services as well as increase the productivity and reliability of TMN developments. Relevant information has been gathered from various Projects, most notably P223, P414, and P609, and presented here in a format that is intended to be easy to navigate. Specific areas covered include: Implementation guidelines - contains documents from P208 and P414 relating to TMN-OS Platform information. Specification guidelines - contains information relating to ensembles and information modelling produced by P223 and P414. Design guidelines - particularly for User Interfaces, OO methods and TMN Design and Functional Allocations. Tools for GDMO - includes some available tools and supplier details. E-MOL (EURESCOM Management information and Object Library) - contains information on Managed Object Classes, Management Functions, Ensembles, and a TMN Glossary. Other information - miscellaneous TMN-related information. There is also a mailing list archive that has been set up to allow you to receive/request information from others working in similar environments.

3.1.2

Accessing the information

The site is currently being created and changed in response to new ideas and critical feedback. The temporary URL for this site is http://www.broadcom.ie/eurescom/

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At the moment, the home page introduces the following icons to the reader:

These icons are duplicated at the top of each page in a tool bar, along with the EURESCOM logo . This is achieved using frames, which are explained in the Netscape site which can be reached through a link in the first list item in the text at the top of the home page. By clicking on the icons on the home page, or those in the toolbar, you will be taken to the various sites currently available. To navigate about the site, it is possible to use the browser Back and Forward buttons when using Netscape versions 3 and upwards. With versions prior to these, the browser buttons will move you directly to the site homepage, due to the use of frames - in this case, to return to the page within the site that you previously accessed, simply click on the right mouse button and select Back - this will take you back to the previous page rather than the homepage. Here follows a brief description of what is, or will soon be, available: contains Platforms, from P208 and P414. currently leads you to various basic and advanced TMN guidelines presented in table format .Both tables (entitled Basic Guidelines and Advanced Guidelines) allow you to access a HTMLised version of the information along with a brief abstract describing the document contents. A direct link to the NM Forum site is also provided by clicking on the NMF logo below the tables. leads you to detailed information on User Interfaces, OO Methods, and TMN Design and Functional Allocation. These include information from Deliverables P414 D3, P414 D2, and P223 D5 - all of which have been carefully chosen and presented to achieve an easy-to-access reference source. information on TMN-OS

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The above guidelines sections contain HTMLised versions of the documents along with a brief abstract and a .ZIP version of the information to download. presents a catalogue of GDMO support tools currently available in the market and some supplier details. A general description of evaluation and selection of tools is also given, and there is some further miscellaneous information. takes you directly to the EURESCOM Management information and Object Library in the EURESCOM site. leads to a variety of information including an overview of the initial TMN guidelines, a tutorial on object orientation, an overview of UML, Process Modelling, ETSI guidelines and TMN OS Platform Requirements. Some of these links provide a good introduction to the Project information and can be used as would an abstract or summary. A possible addition to this section of the site is some kind of comprehensive index defining precisely which Deliverable has been used in which sections of the site. are intended to be used as a forum for those with questions or queries about TMN-related topics. If, after looking around the site, the reader cannot find the required information, it is possible that someone has faced a similar problem in the past, which may have been answered by a fellow researcher this will be an archive of such correspondence. leads to a mailing address where any comments, suggestions, or questions can be posted to the staff at Broadcom (in the future, EICS staff will be contacted via this icon). will provide a comprehensive search engine of the entire site. returns you to the first page of this site.

3.1.3

Future plans
The following plans are current in January 1997. They may have been implemented or changed by the time this document is fully circulated. An FTP site will be created to facilitate the download of the various documents. Minor editing changes will be made to allow easier navigation through the documents currently in the site (for example, introduction of clickable figures/pictures which can be presented on request to the user). More information will be added to populate the currently under construction sites. The search facility will be introduced, including some form of glossary/acronym search. Some kind of Deliverable directory/index will be introduced. Once all the extra facilities have been introduced, an extra explanatory layer will be introduced to explain what each contained and how it could be accessed. This would

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make it easier for a first-time user to analyse the type of information and the methods of access available. The Deliverables themselves could be available in their entirety, should the reader need to access the whole document instead of the edited versions that are currently available. A general topics contents list could be included that displays the different areas of the site that will provide information on a particular topic. In this way, the reader might look up a topic on the contents list and find the various Deliverables, tools, guidelines areas that make special reference to that topic. Perhaps direct links could eventually be installed. (This could be included as part of the search engine, or could be separate to it). Also a reference search would be useful, in addition to, or instead of, the individual reference files to be found at the end of some of the documents within the site. This way, any reference that was queried could be entered into the search engine and full details of the reference, along with links to its occurrences within the site, could be retrieved.

3.2

FTP Directories
There are no facilities to download TMN guidelines from the EURESCOM server by FTP except for those inherent in the Web browsers. Section 3.3 gives EURESCOM server paths that can be used to downloading the Deliverables listed in the next section using FTP.

3.3

Deliverable Documents
In this section, Deliverable documents containing the TMN guidelines are described, extending the discussion of such material as is reviewed in section 2 of this document. This is done for the Deliverables from Projects P414 and P223 in turn. The documents listed are typically available in technical libraries within PNO organisations. They can also be downloaded by authorised users of the EICS. Indications are given here of the paths to these documents.

3.3.1

P414
The Project P414 TMN Guidelines was set up in order to continue the harmonisation of EURESCOM TMN area work in selected important aspects: management information models for TMN interfaces; recommendations related to TMN-OS Platforms; TMN system implementation guidelines.

The Deliverables produced were the following: D1 E-MOL Handbook D2 TMN Design Case Study Report (issued in July 1996)

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with Annexes: A Detailed Description of the TMN Design Case Study Experiences B Application of the P414 Methodology to TMN Management Services

D3 Guidelines for TMN Development with 13 Annexes, see titles below in the abstract for D3. Abstracts for these Deliverables are as follows: D1 E-MOL Handbook Issue date: February 1996 Confidentiality: EURESCOM Confidential Format: 1 volume (71 pages) Overview: This document described the contents of E-MOL (EURESCOM Management Information and Objects Library) and provides guidance on how the EMOL should be managed and administered. It also provides information on the approach to be taken to the quality control of the material to be included in E-MOL. Applicability: This Deliverable is important input for EURESCOM Projects charged with maintenance and development of E-MOL. It is also of interest to PNOs who may wish to set up a facility similar to the E-MOL. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p400-series/ p414/d1/d1.doc Current assessment: This Deliverable contains mainly up-to-date material. Some of the details about individual repositories may be no longer valid as the E-MOL was updated during the final quarter of 1996. D2 TMN Design Case Study Report Issue date: July 1996 Confidentiality: Public Format: 2 volumes Vol. 1: Overview (17 pages) Vol. 2: Annexes (102) pages) Overview: In an attempt to generate guidelines for TMN system implementers (as opposed to specifiers) and to provide information which complemented the work of P208 (TMN-OS Platforms), a TMN Design Case Study was conducted. This focused on application design rather than interface design. The case study explored popular object-oriented analysis and design techniques by designing two TMN-OS applications. Staff members of six separate PNOs comprised the design teams. Reflecting on the experiences of this work, the design team formulated a set of recommendations about object orientation as a way of designing TMN applications. Volume 1 presents the main findings. Volume 2 contains the analysis and design results as well as providing more elaborate descriptions of the design teams experiences. Applicability: This report is useful to EURESCOM TMN Project participants who are engaged in the application of object technology within their work. PNO system development staff who are new to object orientation and who wish to study and/or

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apply such techniques in their internal Projects are likely to benefit from reading this material and retaining it as a reference. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p400-series/p414/d2/volX.doc Current assessment: The material in this Deliverable is quite in line with current thinking. The main experiences and guidelines are accessible as described in section 3.1 above. D3 Guidelines for TMN Development Issue date: August 1996 Confidentiality: Public Format: 14 volumes Vol. 1: Guidelines for TMN Development (13 pages) Vol. 2 - 14 Annexes A-M A: Guidelines for User Interfaces for TMN Applications B: Modelling Guidelines Proposals - Model Evaluation C: EURESCOM application of the NM Forum Ensemble concept D: Towards Better Ensembles E: Ensemble Creation from OO Analysis (TMN Design Case-study Results) F: Study of GDMO: Relationship Modelling G: Study of GDMO: Behaviour Modelling H: Guidelines on Support of Delayed Operation Results I: Tutorial in OO for TMN developers J: P414 Contributions to ETSI NA4 K: Migration Towards P208 TMN-OS Platforms L: OS Platform Guidelines M: DCE Implementation at Helsinki Telephone Company (A member of the Finnet Group). Overview: This Deliverable D3, Guidelines for TMN development addresses the development of application software and its links to interface specification. This partly fulfils objectives handed down from P208. The main document is a short presentation of the results of the final part of the work in the P414 Project which addressed the extension and enhancement of the guidelines from P223 and earlier parts of P414. The detailed results of this work take the form of thirteen annexes. Applicability: These documents are intended for people specifying, implementing or testing management interfaces according to TMN principles. It provides the basis of future work in follow-on Project P609, where EURESCOM TMN Guidelines are being organised in a more structured manner, reviewed, and extended. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p400-series/p414/d3/volX.doc Current assessment: The volumes in D3 contain material which will interest the TMN development community. Some sections are in need of refinement as described in section 2 of this document.

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3.3.2

P223
The Project P223 "TMN Guidelines and Information model" was set up in order to provide basic guidelines to be used for TMN specification and implementation covering structural, functional, information communication, usage, and security aspects. The principles for the TMN functional modularisation and allocation were provided. The Project also set up and administered first versions of E-MOL running on a proprietary, librarian-oriented PC software package distributed by diskette. Deliverable 1 of the Project "Methods and Tools for the specification of Joint/Cooperative TMN" was issued in December 1993, and then distributed to all EURESCOM Shareholders/Parties and has been used by the TMN application Projects Deliverable 2 was issued in February 1994 and distributed to the EURESCOM S/Ps in March 1994. This Deliverable is composed of two volumes: Vol. 1 - TMN implementation architecture for joint/co-operative scenarios (D2) Vol. 2 - Billing, accounting, and charging of joint/co-operative services (D7) The Deliverable 3 TMN Interfaces Specification guidelines (D3) provides an updated and revised version of D1 as far as the Interface Specification methodology is concerned. It is intended to completely supersede D1 Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and sections 6.2 and 6.3. The purpose of Deliverable 3 is to provide a model for the definition of TMN Interfaces and to suggest a way to describe them, specifying the information that must be provided to get a high-quality description. The guidelines are intended to promote reusability of specifications and to allow a library of specifications of TMN interfaces to be set up. Deliverable 3 will be used by several EURESCOM Projects for the specification and development of TMN interfaces. The result has a wide acceptance among all EURESCOM S/Ps. Deliverable 4, TMN specification Support procedures (D4) consists of two volumes: Vol. 1 - Definition of EURESCOM Support Environment Vol. 2 - Definition of the EURESCOM Endorsement Procedures Volume 1 defines services that are called EURESCOM Support Environment (ESE). The users of ESE are PNOs, EPS, and EURESCOM Projects. The document is intended to help the planning of this environment especially in the long term. A shortterm solution has been set up for the ESE in order to help the EURESCOM Projects to use it. Volume 2 contains a detailed description of the Endorsement Procedure, which provides a mechanism through which various EURESCOM Projects and member companies can evaluate and agree on the content of proposed management specifications/standards, which ultimately will be included in the E-MOL. Deliverable 5, Guidelines for TMN Design and Functional allocation, describes an overall life-cycle process for TMN development and a set of guidelines for TMN Design and functional allocation. It illustrates the life-cycle process and derives input to the guidelines by means of a Case Study on SDH management. This document is targeted at PNO experts involved in planning, specifying, and designing management systems that adhere to the TMN architecture principles.

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Means of Access Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Abstracts for each of these Deliverables are provided as follows: D1 Models, Methods, and Tools Issue date: December 1993 Confidentiality: EURESCOM confidential Format: 2 volumes Vol. 1: Models, Methods, and Tools(131 pages) Vol. 2: Annex (129 pages) Overview: Volume 1 contains the guidelines for defining Reference Points (RP) and interfaces as well as the rules and procedures to be applied when submitting and retrieving the specifications in the EURESCOM Library. Volume 2 contains the background described in volume 1 together with the basic concepts upon which the guidelines described in volume 1 are based. Applicability: This document is an interim result collecting useful background information. Refinements of this material are contained in the other Deliverables of this Project and of the follow-on Project P414. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p200-s/p223/d1/volx.doc Current assessment: The contents of this Deliverable have been superseded by developments in TMN specification techniques and have to be viewed as out of date. No parts of this document are available in the TMN Guidelines Web site. D2 Intermediate Results Issue date: February 1994 Confidentiality: EURESCOM confidential Format: 2 volumes + Annex Vol. 1: TMN implementation architecture for Joint/Co-operative Scenarios (105 pages) Annexes (37 pages) Vol. 2: Billing, Accounting, and Charging of Joint/Co-operative services (55 pages) Overview: The first volume contains a number of interesting guidelines on how to organise management applications and databases spread over multiple TMN systems and domains. The second volume contains specification of the most important generic TMN objects needed for inter-PNO Billing, Accounting, and Charging (BAC). Applicability: Volume 1 is useful for developers of TMN systems and management platforms. Volume 2 provides the basis for specifying BAC objects for specific telecommunication services (e.g. Premium Charge, Freephone, etc.). Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p200-s/p223/d2/volx.doc Current assessment: The contents of this Deliverable have been superseded by developments in TMN specification techniques and a later Project dealing with BAC, namely P407. Both volumes have to be viewed as out of date. Some small parts of Volume 1 are used in the TMN Guidelines Web site.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations Means of Access

D3 TMN Interfaces Specification Guidelines Issue date: December 1994 Confidentiality: EURESCOM confidential Format: 1 volume (91 pages) Overview: This document provides an updated and revised version of the Interface Specification methodology from D1. The purpose is to provide a model for the definition of TMN Interfaces and to suggest a way to describe them, specifying the information that must be provided to get a high-quality description. The guidelines are intended to promote reusability of specifications and to enable a library of specifications of TMN interfaces to be set up. Applicability: The document has been used by EURESCOM Projects for the specification and development of TMN interfaces. It was expected that the results will also be used by EURESCOM PNOs. Parts of this Deliverable are available on the TMN Guidelines Web site. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p200-s/p223/d3/d3.doc D4 TMN Specification Support Procedures Issue date: December 1994 Confidentiality: EURESCOM confidential Format: 2 volumes Vol. 1: Definition of the EURESCOM Support Environment (ESE) (138 pages) Vol. 2: Definition of the EURESCOM Endorsement Procedure (49 pages) Overview: Volume 1 defines services that are called EURESCOM Support Environment (ESE). The users of ESE are PNOs, and EURESCOM Projects. The document is intended to help the planning of this environment especially in the long term. A short-term solution has been set up for the ESE in order to help the EURESCOM Projects to use it. Volume 2 contains a detailed description of the Endorsement Procedure, a mechanism through which various EURESCOM Projects and member companies can evaluate and agree on the information models (MO classes, attributes, and name bindings) contents of proposed management specifications/standards, which ultimately will be included in the EURESCOM Managed Objects Library. Applicability: Volume 1 presented a definition of requirements and a vision of what EURESCOM could provide prior to the establishment of the EICS. Much of this material has been overtaken by events and technology advances. The document was used by EURESCOM Projects for the specification and development of TMN. The follow-on Project P414 provided an updated version of the key contents of these documents. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p200-s/p223/d4/volx.doc D5 Guidelines for TMN Design and Functional Allocation Issue date: December 1994 Confidentiality: EURESCOM confidential

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Means of Access Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Format: 1 volume (159 pages) Overview: This document describes an overall life-cycle process for TMN development and derives guidelines for TMN design and functional allocation by means of a case study on SDH management. Applicability: This document is targeted at PNO experts involved in planning, specifying, and designing management systems that adhere to the TMN architecture principles. Parts of this document are available on the TMN Guidelines Web site. Archive: /eurescom/Deliverables/document/p200-s/p223/d5/d5.doc

3.4
3.4.1

Suggestions and Open Issues

FTP Archive of TMN-Related Documents
This section concerns the proposal to set-up an FTP Document Archive on the EURESCOM FTP Server. The Site will be used to archive all TMN related documents, such as specifications and guidelines, which would otherwise reside on the Web Server. This would enable researchers to FTP the various documents via hypertext links on relevant Web pages and therefore reduce the overhead on the Web Server. The Web Archive At present, the TMN Guidelines Web Site, resides on the Broadcom Web Server, and can be found at the following URL: http://www.broadcom.ie/eurescom/. The site provides facilities for viewing and downloading a selection of EURESCOM documents relating to TMN specifications and guidelines which are stored in various archives on the Server. For example, the Design Guidelines pages house the Web Archives of documents relating to TMN Design Guidelines. The Directory structure for this is: http://www.broadcom.ie/eurescom/ Design UI OO DFA

index.html

DFA.ZIP UI.ZIP

OO.ZIP

Specification Implementation Tools The index.html file contains the HTML code for this page. For each document there are relative links to a HTMLised abstract, a full HTMLised version, and a downloadable *.ZIP version. The compressed document can be downloaded by

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations Means of Access

clicking on the relevant link. As an example, the relative link for the TMN Design and Functional Allocation document, i.e. DFA.ZIP, would be: <A HREF=DFA.ZIP>DFA</A> Using this technique, files are transferred via HTTP to a location specified by the user. The EURESCOM FTP Service The EURESCOM FTP Service, whose host name is ftp.eurescom.de, has been in operation since 1994. As part of the service, a directory has been created for each EURESCOM Project. The path is FTP/eurescom/projectsworkspace/PY00-series/Pxxx/ where PY indicates the set of projects (e.g. P600-series) and Pxxx is the Project name (e.g. P609). The service provides Project participants with a centralised working directory that can be used to store (put) and download (get) documents, reports, PIRs and final Deliverables. These files are then available to all Project participants and, if warranted, to other EURESCOM shareholder staff.. Proposed FTP Archive: Scenario 1 The initial proposal is to use the P609 Project directory for the creation of a centralised archive for downloading the TMN related documents. For consistency and administrative purposes, the proposed archive will be set-up using the same directory structure and naming conventions as the Web Site. Taking the Design Guidelines page as an example, the new directory structure and relevant files on the FTP Server would be: ftp://ftp.eurescom.de/FTP/eurescom/.../P609/TMN_Glines/ INDEX.TXT Design INDEX.TXT DFA.ZIP UI.ZIP Specification Implementation Tools As these documents are now located on a separate server the links to these downloadable documents will use absolute path names. In addition, a user name and password must also be assigned to the URL. As an example, the new link to the DFA.ZIP document would be: <AHREF=ftp://user:[email protected]/FTP/eurescom/ .../P609/TMN_Glines/Design/DFA.ZIP>DFA</A> The drawback to using the EURESCOM Project directory is that an authorised user name and password must be assigned to the URL. As it is the intention to provide this service to people outside EURESCOM, a type of anonymous user with read only access to files below the TMN_Glines directory must be used. Proposed FTP Archive: Scenario 2 OO.ZIP

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Means of Access Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

A more desirable solution would be to use the public domain on the FTP Server, i.e. FTP/pub/, as information stored in this directory can only be accessed and downloaded via Anonymous FTP. The proposed directory structure for this would be: ftp://ftp.eurescom.de/FTP/pub/TMN_Glines/ Design INDEX.TXT DFA.ZIP UI.ZIP Specification Implementation Tools The link to the DFA.ZIP document would then be: <A HREF=ftp://[email protected]/FTP/pub/ TMN_Glines/Design/DFA.ZIP>DFA</A> Summary In both scenarios, the creation of an FTP Document Archive would be a feasible option. The only additional overhead would be to set up the directory structure and to transfer documents into these archives. The EURESCOM FTP Service also provides additional information about the documents and files currently residing on the Server. Each top-level directory has a file called INDEX.TXT which contains information about the files and the subdirectories. The FTP Site is not intended as an alternative service, but one which will complement the existing facilities offered by the Web Site. It will basically provide researchers with the facility to download (FTP) documents anonymously via the Web Site. OO.ZIP

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and RecommendationsAdditional Guidelines

Additional Guidelines
This section deals with the generation of new, additional guidelines by the P609 contractors. It does so under three headings: Requirements for Additional Guidelines, Initial TMN Guidelines from P609, and Plans for TMN Guidelines from this Project.

4.1

Requirements for Additional TMN Guidelines

There has not been spontaneous requests from the EURESCOM TMN Community for additional guidelines to help in their work. It appears as if the current Projects have reached a stage in which the specification work has become a routine and that such work does not present much of a challenge. Modest efforts have been made to prompt two projects to articulate requirements in this area. These are reported below.

4.1.1

Report on joint meetings for getting feedback on TMN guidelines

P609 representatives: Amador Martn, Antonio Fernndez, Javier Escamilla Meetings were convened by Telefonica I&D to collect information on the requirements for additional guidelines. This is a limited form of intelligence gathering but is all that was done. Two meetings took place. Meeting with EURESCOM P408 representatives. During the meeting, mainly the following points were addressed: 1. EURESCOM PNOs participating in P408 are perceiving Business Processing Modelling as a high-interest topic in the management context. They favour any works addressing some sort of formalisation for the Requirement Capture Phase of TMN applications. 2. P408, as an implementation Project, has noticed the importance of a deeper degree of formalisation for GDMO behaviour templates, for example by using languages such as SDL. In this respect some more guidelines may be needed in order to avoid application programmers following their own interpretation of behaviour semantics. There may be some more room to refine the findings documented in P414 Deliverable D3 Annex G. Nevertheless it is not very clear how to continue this work. 3. P408 has specified a number of Abstract Test Suites (using TTCN notation with some little constraints) for testing purposes. P408 requested P609 to assess the feasibility of building an E-MOL repository containing Abstract Test Suites (ATS), and collecting guidelines for ATS. Test case files are usually in PostScript format. Meeting with EURESCOM Project P610 Representatives During the meeting, a number of issues related to the scope of P609 were addressed: 1. Some general terms are subject to discussion within P610 such as framework, methodology, and architecture. P610 is likely to produce a specific terminology vocabulary inside task T2 enabling the whole Project to get a common understanding of the playground. This issue basically impacts on P609 PIR 1.3 and PIR 4.3. 2. For the time being, P610 has not made any decision regarding which viewpoints (in ODP sense) the Project will be focused on. For instance it is not sure whether the Project is going to specify a GDMO information model covering Multimedia Services management aspects. P610 has not made any statement regarding the use of the

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Additional GuidelinesDeliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Ensemble approach for producing management solutions yet either. They are still looking at the fundamentals of several methods, e.g. ODP, TINA, OMT, and so on. 3. Up to now, EURESCOM guidelines are focused mainly on X-interface specification (Ensemble definition, description of Information Models by means of code GDMO/ASN.1, etc.). P610 pointed out the necessity of having more guidelines on TMN application specification available. P609 referred to the last P414 results and explained the short-term guidelines plans targeted by Task T3. The information on P609 existing activities covering UML and Business Process Modelling was well received by P610. 4. Some questionnaires were filled in by P610 participants. As to the opinion on new guidelines collected, this is the ranking of preferences: - GDMO/SNMP/IDL translation rules - MO behaviour formalisation - Business Process Modelling - Production of multi-technology ensembles - Internet SMI modelling specification guidelines - Use cases notations At the time P610 was in the Project initiation phase and hence the feedback collected was rather scarce. Further joint meetings to P610 may be needed when this Project has progressed its activities to a stage when it knows clearly what could be beneficial to it.

4.2

Initial Guidelines from P609

This section provides abstracts of work on new guidelines provided during 1996 in Project P609.

4.2.1

Report on Unified Modelling Language

The Unified Modelling Language (UML) is a method for specifying, visualising, and documenting the artefacts of an object-oriented system under development. It represents the unification of the Booch, OOSE (commonly known as Objectory), and OMT methodologies, and also incorporates ideas from a number of other methodologists. The method has not been completely defined yet (on 27 September 1996, version 0.91 was released) but it is already in a rather stable phase. This report presents the results of the study carried out over the UML, in keeping with the interest this notation has raised within the OOAD (object-oriented analysis and design) community. Another reason to develop this document in the EURESCOM framework is to update the guidelines contained in EURESCOM P414 Deliverable 3 Annex D. That annex provides some recommendations on how to elaborate better Ensembles, suggesting the usage of OMT in certain parts where it can lead to quality improvements. Since OMT is going to evolve towards UML (as it has been stated by the OMT founder, J. Rumbaugh, one of the UML co-founders), this contribution intends to update the recommendations provided in P414 Del. 3 Annex D taking into account all the features of the new language.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and RecommendationsAdditional Guidelines

The first section (RATIONALE) describes the motivation for preparing this document. The second section (INTRODUCTION TO UML) explains the origin of UML and the circumstances that led to elaborate this methodology. The third section (METHOD DESCRIPTION) contains an overview of the UML language, describing the main diagrams, concepts and notation artefacts that take part in it. The fourth section (USEFULNESS OF UML FOR TMN SPECIFICATION) provides some hints on how to take advantage of UML capabilities when developing TMN specifications. Finally, in section five (CONCLUSIONS) a series of strengths and weaknesses of the methodology, regarding both technical issues and expected success, are presented. This report is available at the following URL: http://www.broadcom.ie/eurescom/OtherInfo/

4.2.2

Process Modelling
Business level requirements more and more often are starting to be described via more systematic and formal techniques. If these techniques (especially their semantics and notations) could be directly linked to the methodologies that analysts and designers use, this would lead to a better understanding of the requirements themselves with the following consequences: 1. 2. 3. time reduction in the development process of new products and services. more reliable requirements capture, alleviating unnecessary refinement of requirements due to misunderstandings or ambiguities. ease of cooperation, especially if recursive work with several iterations and feedback is needed.

One of the formal techniques more commonly used in the business level is process modelling. Therefore, the study of process modelling has the potential to be a valuable tool for these companies to realise the ideas stated above. This work intends to explain the advantages of process modelling. and its relation to other techniques. Section 2 contains an introduction to Process Modelling, explaining some basic concepts. Section 3 describes some widely spread notations for Process Modelling - OEW (Operations Engineering Workbook), developed by AT&T, and IDEF (Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing Definition), developed by the United States Air Force - together with guidelines suggesting how to use them. Section 4 explains some of the benefits associated with the use of Process Modelling. Section 5 deals with business process modelling, an interesting approach promoted by Ivar Jacobson (creator of the Objectory methodology [JAC92]) based on the application of use cases and object models to business processes. Section 6 intends to apply concepts of process modelling to ODP requirements capture. The final section contains a summary with the main conclusions obtained from this study. This document is available in full at the following URL: http://www.broadcom.ie/eurescom/OtherInfo/

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4.3

Plans for Additional Guidelines

It is our belief that PIR 3.4 should address some important topics within the scope of P609 for the next year. At least the following should be included: Contribution to ETSI efforts on the production of Information Modelling guidelines Recommendation on the convenience or not of introducing some graphical notation for GDMO expressed models Slight extensions to existing quality metrics for GDMO Information Models (section 2.1.3 of P414 Deliverable 3)

Depending on demand, we may continue to explore the relevance of UML in a EURESCOM TMN context. Regarding Process Modelling (See 4.2.2), D2 offers a first view to the EURESCOM TMN community. It contains the Process Modelling basis and its connection with development of Information Systems, this way TMN people can benefit from a straightforward mapping from business requirements to systems analysis and design. The tutorial guidelines that have been included on this subject will most probably be useful, but perhaps it is not enough. Therefore, a more in-depth approach might be undertaken in 1997.

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Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations External Sources

5
5.1

External Sources on TMN Guidelines

ETSI NA4
In the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Work Item No: DTR/NA43315 is addressing Telecommunications Management Network Managed Object Modelling Guidelines. This work is the responsibility of the group called NA (Network Aspects) 4, with the sub-technical committee GOM (Generic Object Model) taking on the task of developing and reviewing the guidelines. Availability: Version: 0.1e, Date: 5th July 1996 is the draft currently under discussion at the time of writing. Status of the ETSI Modelling Guidelines The aim is to seek approval at the March 1997 meeting of NA4. The current version builds on the NMF document Forum TR102, Modelling Principles for Managed Objects Technical Report, January 1991[NMF91]. This gives some cause for concern as the ETSI work does not appear to be based on the experiences of the ETSI contributors to the Managed Objects modelling tasks within the ETSI work programme. This may not be a valid conclusion but it is difficult to imagine that some of the NMF work from 5 years ago would not benefit from being revised. See below for comments on Forum TR102. The following extracts (indented italics) from DTP/NA43315 are provided to give the readers an idea of what the document addresses and contains. Scope of the ETSI Modelling Guidelines This ETSI Technical Report (ETR) provides guidelines for the definition of additional Managed Object Classes, the use of existing Managed Object Class definitions and the inclusion of these objects in existing inheritance and containment hierarchies. This report: Provides general rules for defining Managed Objects, Provides general rules for defining Generic Object Classes, Provides additional Guidelines on the use of GDMO, Identifies relevant standards containing modelling guidelines, and identifies which sections are recommended for use in ETSI models (e.g. where options exist). This report does not: Imply any specific system implementation, Include testing the Information model. Purpose and Structure of ETSI NA4 Modelling Guidelines The objective of this report is to provide guidance to those ETSI STCs producing TMN Management Information Models (MIM).

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External Sources Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

It aims to: enable models developed by different groups to co-exist, assist in producing consistency across models developed by different groups. The use of the guidelines is intended to produce Managed Object (MO) models that are implementable and reusable. It is therefore important to reuse the work of others and develop models in such a way that they can themselves be reused. It is intended that these modelling guidelines should be Methodology Neutral. These guidelines assume that whenever possible and appropriate, the ITU-T X.700 Systems Management or ODMA Recommendations will be used as a basis of TMN managed object modelling. An overview of the relevant X.700 recommendations can be found in ETR 230 TMN Standardisation Overview [??]. The guidelines start by considering methods for requirements capture, they go on to consider Information and Dynamic Aspects of information modelling. The use of the NMF ensemble approach [??] for documenting information models is considered, together with the use of Class libraries. This is followed by a consideration of principles for GDMO implementation. Consideration of other protocols to be used in the evolving TMN is for further study. Testing the information model is considered to be outside the scope of these guidelines. The Table of Contents of this ETSI report is available as Annex 1.

5.2

Other Sources
Many organisations are issuing reports and other documents which may be helpful to TMN specifiers. The following list mentions some important documents and books. After this list, a few selected comments are made on key sources. 1.1 ITU-T Recommendations X.700: "Management Framework for OSI for ITU-T Applications". X.701: "Systems Management Overview". X.720: "Management Information Model". X.722: "Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects". X.732: "Attributes for Representing Relationships". X.747: "General Relations Function". X.750: "Management Knowledge management function". 1.2 EWOS Technical Reports EWOS: "Guidelines for Managed Object Taxonomy and Profiles". EWOS: "Framework for Conformance and testing of OSI Management Profiles". EWOS: "Guidelines for Scope and Content of Ensembles".

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1.3 NMF Technical Reports NM Forum TR102 (1991): "Modelling Principles for Managed Objects". 1.4 ECMA Technical Reports ECMA: "Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Object Classes used in PTNs". 1.5 Technical Books Rumbaugh et al., "Object-oriented Modelling and Design", Prentice-Hall 1991. Stallings W., SNMP, SNMP V2, and CMIP: the practical guide to network management standards, Addison Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Mass. USA, 1993. Hebrawi, Baha, GDMO, Object Modelling and Definition for Network Management, Technology Appraisals, UK, 1995. 1.6 FTP site IBMs Quarterly CMIP Run!: Anonymous access to postscript files of back issues at ftp.raleigh.ibm.com in the directory pub/protocols/mgmt/cmip/cmip_run 1.7 Web site http://www.itu.int/TMN/ is the address for Web pages created by the ITU to promote TMN-related recommendations. Comments on some of these sources are provided as follows: ITU-T Web site for TMN This site is intended to be a gateway to standards information on Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) for application developers, standards people, and others who have an interest in TMN. The information contained in these pages is organised in a number of different ways, based on the assumed needs of potential users. As new information/ideas are received the home page will be updated and evolved. The site does not give access to the recommendations but allows the reader to get a very good idea of the completed ITU-T TMN work. CMIP-Run! The following text (indented and in italics) is copied from the IBM FTP site CMIP Run! is a newsletter dedicated to popularising and explaining the various network and systems management technologies. This directory contains all the issues of CMIP Run! Note that we have stopped publishing regular issues of CMIP Run!, with Volume 4, Number 4. All of the issues that we did publish are available in this directory. In the future, we may publish a special issue (if we have something to say!). Subscriptions To subscribe to any issues of CMIP Run! we might publish in the future, send a note to [email protected]

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External Sources Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

Please explicitly include your e-mail address in the text of the note. Also, please indicate which of our subscription lists you would like to be placed on: List 1: Well send a short note informing you that a new issue of CMIP Run! is available from our FTP site. List 2: Well send you a long note containing the PostScript for the new issue. Directory Contents README crun_X_Y.ps index.ps A postscript file of the CMIP Run! volume X number Y issue. An index of all the articles and Q&As published in CMIP Run!

Contact Information Any questions, comments, or contributions to CMIP Run! can be sent to the CMIP Run! editorial team via any of the following vehicles: e-mail: [email protected] The Stallings and Hebrawi Books Both these books are very useful to TMN developers. The Stallings book is a larger, wider scoped book which covers SNMP as well as CMIS. It is particularly good in its explanation of system management functions (SMFs). It has sub-sections on fourteen SMFs, those that have been published for a while now. The Hebrawi book is shorter but gives a very well-presented introduction to the ITUT X.700 series of recommendations (Systems Management Overview, Management Information Models, and particularly GDMO, Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects). NMF Modelling Principles (Forum TR102) This report was issued in 1991 and has not been updated since. It is a very comprehensive work which contains fifty two modelling principles covering general object design considerations, inheritance, allomorphism, managed object relationships, structuring, and optionality. It was written before GDMO were finalised. This results in some terminology, and some emphasis in the modelling principles, being potentially at variance with GDMO depending on interpretation. It has been used by both ETSI and EURESCOM P223 as a base for their own guidelines but more by way of copying text rather than critical analysis.

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Conclusions

Conclusions
Actions have been taken and plans put in place to improve the presentation and content of the TMN Guidelines produced by the Projects (P223 and P414) which preceded P609 in the area of formulating guidelines to support TMN development. The major recent innovation in this regard is the creation of a Web space in a temporary location to allow easy access to the content of the Deliverable documents which included the guidelines in question. This Web space has been organised to allow an intuitive approach to the search for guidelines. Section 2 of this document has reviewed the guidelines available and indicates that there is scope for improving the content of the guidelines. This review is not sufficient justification for the expenditure of substantial resources on an updating exercise because it is in the nature of an internal view of the guidelines rather than the views of the users of the guidelines. One of the conclusions from a survey of potential users of TMN guidelines is that the value of the contribution they make to the work of TMN specifiers is not possible to evaluate. This means that caution will be exercised in the planning of guideline revisions. Some additional guidelines are being prepared and will be made available in the TMN Guidelines Web space. The ideas for the production of these guidelines are based on an informal judgement of how to complement the existing guidelines. P609 and its possible follow-on Project will monitor usage of the Web space before deciding on how to spend resources in the future. It is essential that EURESCOM Projects which are the intended users of the guidelines actively contribute to the development of this TMN Guidelines Web space. The remaining work within P609 in the area of TMN Guidelines includes the movement of the Web space to the EURESCOM Information and Communications Service infrastructure. At that point search facilities will be added and then the availability of the TMN Guidelines will be publicised via the Web.

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References

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

References
There are many EURESCOM reports and documents mentioned throughout this document. The same is true about ITU-T recommendations. It was decided not to include a full list of references to such documents but to list the URLs for the Web sites at which full references to such documents can be found. EURESCOM documents can be found at:http://www.eurescom.de/secure/delivera/delili.htm Note this page is password protected. Alternatively write to EURESCOM Schloss Wolfsbrunnenweg 35 69118 Heidelberg, Germany ITU-T recommendations can be found at:http://www.itu.ch/ITU-Databases/ITUTWORK/ You can browse and order ITU-T recommendations at http://www.itu.ch/rec.html Other References [NMF25] [NMF91] [RUM91] [JAC92] Forum 025 The Ensemble Concepts and Format, Issue 1.0, Morristown, NMF, August 1992. Forum TR102, Modelling Principles for Managed Objects Technical Report, Morristown, NMF, January 1991. Rumbaugh et al., Object-Oriented Modelling and Design, Prentice-Hall, 1991. Jacobson, Object-Oriented Addison-Wesley, 1992. Software Engineering,

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1: Table of Contents of ETSI Modelling Guidelines Document

1. SCOPE 2. REFERENCES 3. DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS 3.1 Definitions 3.2 Abbreviations 4. PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE OF MODELLING GUIDELINES 5. REQUIREMENTS CAPTURE 6. INFORMATION Aspects 6.1 Describing the Object Model using E/R Diagrams 6.2 Describing the Object Model using OMT Diagrams 6.3 Describing the Object Model using Semi-Formal Techniques 6.4 Describing Attributes 6.5 Representing Relationships 6.5.1 Requirements 6.5.2 Use of Graphical Techniques for Representing Relationships 6.6 Representing Structure 6.7 Describing Behaviour 7. DYNAMIC ASPECTS 7.1 Describing the Dynamic Model 7.2 Describing the Functional Model 7.3 Behaviour 7.3.1 Preconditions 7.3.2 Postconditions 8. USE OF ENSEMBLES AND CLASS LIBRARIES 9. PRINCIPLES FOR GDMO IMPLEMENTATION 9.1 General Guidelines 9.2 Use of Attributes 9.2.1 Value Set Specification for Attributes 9.2.2 Specifying Required, Permitted and Supported Values 9.2.3 Guidelines for Attribute-Value Set Selection 9.2.4 General Attribute Guidelines 9.3 Use of Inheritance

1997 EURESCOM Participants in project P609

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Appendix 1

Deliverable 2: TMN Guidelines Organisation and Recommendations

9.3.1 General Inheritance Guidelines 9.3.2 Principles and Guidelines for Instantiable Classes 9.3.3 Principles and Guidelines for Uninstantiable Classes 9.4 Use of Multiple Inheritance 9.4.1 Multiple Inheritance Rules and Guidelines 9.4.2 Multiple Inheritance 9.5 Use of Allomorphism 9.6 Use of Relationships 9.6.1 General Rules and Guidelines 9.6.2 Modelling Relations with Attributes 9.6.3 Modelling Relations with Managed Object Classe 9.6.4 Modelling Relations with Name Bindings 9.7 Use of Structuring 9.8 Use of Optionality 9.9 Behaviour Specification 9.9.1 Guidelines and Principles for Class Invariants 9.9.2 Behavioural Preconditions and Postconditions 9.10 Use of Packages 9.10.1 Mandatory Packages 9.10.2 Conditional Packages (X.720 Para 5.1.5) ANNEX A: BIBLIOGRAPHY .1 ITU-T Recommendations .2 EWOS Technical Reports .3 NMF Technical Reports .4 ECMA Technical Reports .5 Technical Books ANNEX B: CATALOGUE OF MANAGED OBJECT MODELS .1 Generic Models .2 Q3 Interface Models .3 Technology Specific Models HISTORY

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1997 EURESCOM Participants in project P609