Telecom Leaders Develop Global Solution for Management of Multi-Vendor SONET, SDH Networks

Fujitsu Network Communications (Richardson, TX), Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ), Nortel Networks (Brampton, ON), Siemens AG (Munich, Germany), Tellabs Inc. (Lisle, IL), and Telcordia Technologies (Morristown, NJ) have agreed on a specification for a software interface that will enable end-to-end management of multi-vendor SONET and SDH networks. The parties have made the specification freely available to the public and are contributing the specification to various industry standards bodies and forums. A copy of the specification can be obtained at http://www.atis.org, contribution number SIF-GN-9802-011 R3.

The joint solution specified by the vendors is a Corba-based interface between network management systems (NMSs) and element management systems (EMSs). The interface provides a scaleable, non-proprietary solution that will enable multi-vendor management systems to interoperate in an open architecture environment. As a result, service providers can select best in class SONET and SDH equipment from various vendors, deploy it internationally, and still be able to manage their network from a single integrated management system. The interface solution will allow service providers to provision their networks, activate services, collect faults, and manage their network from a single integrated network management platform.

The collaborative work will be used within the TeleManagement Forum, an internationally recognized open forum. TM Forum's SONET/SDH Information Modeling and Implementation Teams comprised of service provider, equipment, and software vendor members will evaluate the contribution and adopt it in its ongoing work to specify a standard NMS-EMS Interface as well as implementing and validating the interface. The team is scheduled to publish a standard specification by September 1999.