37.2 TMN BUILDING BLOCKS

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37.2 TMN BUILDING BLOCKS

TMN consists of the following functional blocks (See Figure 37.4):

• Data communication network (DCN): The DCN within the TMN is used to manage the telecommunication network. It is based on OSI architecture representing layers 1 to 3.

• Operations systems (OS): Operations system carries out functions such as operations monitoring, and controlling network elements.

• Network element (NE): Every network element to be managed by the TMN contains manageable information that is monitored and controlled by an OS. An NE must have a standard TMN interface, otherwise it is managed through a QA. NE can take two possible roles: manager or agent. Manager and agent processes send and receive requests and notifications using CMIP.

• Q-adapter (QA): Q-adapter enables TMN to manage NEs that have non-TMN interfaces. QA provides the necessary translation. For example, SNMP QA translates between SNMP and CMIP.

• Mediation device (MD): A mediation device mediates between the local TMN interface and the OS information model. MD ensures that the information, scope and functionality are presented to the OS in the way they are expected.

• Work station (WS): A work station translates information between the TMN format and the format of a user-friendly interface. It provides a graphical user interface to give commands to obtain the management information from an NE. The command is sent using the CMIP protocol to the NE, and the information is obtained and presented to the user.

Figure 37.4: TMN building blocks.

For communication among these functional blocks, standard interfaces are defined. These are discussed in the next section.

The building blocks of TMN are data communication network, network elements, Q-adapters, mediation devices, and work stations.

Note 

The data communication network (DCN) of TMN is based on the first three layers of the OSI protocol architecture.

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