This paper discusses a design and an implementation of a MIB tester, a conformance test tool of Management Information Base (MIB) for TMN. A remote test method is used as a practical test configuration. We classify test purposes into three; basic interconnection test, capability test and behaviour test. Test items for the capability test are defined according to Managed Object Conformance Statement (MOCS) and Managed Relationship Conformance Statement (MRCS). Test items for the behaviour test is defined according to GDMO BEHAVIOUR clause. The MIB tester automatically generates test scenarios for capability tests, which are also used as those for the basic interconnection test, and supports the scenario creation of the behaviour test in an user-friendly manner. We evaluate the implemented MIB tester through its application to the actual TMN agents.

Up to now, a lot of efforts have been made for the management of telecommunication networks and equipment, but less effort has been made for the realization of higher-layer service and business management. Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) provides the infrastructure for interoperability of various object-oriented management applications in a distributed environment, and being widely used to develop distributed systems in many areas of information processing technologies. There are recently worldwide growing interests for applying CORBA technology for the realization of higher layer Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) management functions. In this paper, we propose a platform architecture for the efficient integration of CORBA technology within TMN framework, where CORBA-based management functions as well as TMN-based management functions can be realized efficiently. GDMO/ASN. 1 to IDL translator has been designed and implemented for translating TMN management information into OMG CORBA IDL interface. The CORBA/CMIP gateway has also been designed for realization of the interaction translation specification of JIDM task force with some additional extensions. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the CORBA-based network management system, and analyze the code reusability for the construction of the CORBA-based management system, in order to show the efficiency of the architecture.

In OSI management, we utilize a scope parameter in Common Management Information Service (CMIS) that enables us to operate multiple Managed Objects (MOs) at one CMIS operation, so that we may reduce the number of communications between a manager and an agent. The more the number of MOs increases, the harder it is to find optimal combinations of scopes. In an existing approximation algorithm for finding optimal combinations of scopes, there are restrictions on the structure of a naming tree for the algorithm to work efficiently and the lower bound of its approximation ratio, n/4, grows in proportion to the number of MOs, n. This paper proposes a new approximation algorithm that removes the restriction on the structure of a naming tree and significantly improves the approximation ratio to (1 + ln n) in the upper bound, by keeping the same time complexity as the existing algorithm.

Private networks are becoming globalized and more complicated through LAN-WAN interconnection. While WANs are managed by CMIP, LANs are managed by SNMP. To achieve end-to-end management, the integration of CMIP-based and SNMP-based management is important. We have developed an MI (Management Integration) platform for CMIP-based and SNMP-based management. It provides OSI SMF (Systems Management Function)-based unified basic management services to upper level applications regardless of the differences between CMIP-based and SNMP-based management. It achieves this with two modules: a management information transfer integration module that mainly covers protocol and data format differences between them, and a basic management module that covers functional differences. The translation of management information in the former module can be changed flexibly because the translation is based on an external script file. The latter module has additional SMF-like functions for the management of SNMP agents in addition to SMF manager role functions, etc. Prototype evaluation has demonstrated the feasibility of the MI platform.