ISO and ITU-T have developed the standard concept of the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN). This standard does not, however, specify interface implementation. The user requires an Application Programming Interface (API) that bridges user application and the TMN concept to construct a TMN-based application. This paper proposes an object oriented API (OOAPI) that is suitable for TMN-based operations system implementation. OOAPI is one interface of the Common Management Information Service Element (CMISE), and uses the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). OOAPI is composed of two C++ programming language constructs: Data Object and Interface object "M_User". The Data Object makes it easier for the user to access management information. The M_User provides a connection-less CMISE interface because the OOAPI handles CMIP association automatically. The M_User also provides MO location-transparency by using the OSI Directory Service. This paper compares the existing MO location-transparency schemes with the OOAPI method, and clarifies the advantages of OOAPI. This paper also indicates results from OOAPI trials, and confirms that OOAPI has sufficient performance to implement highly effective TMN operations system.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is an information transport technique that well supports Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN). One unsolved problem to the perfection of ATM networks is to provide a testing environment that conforms to some standardized network management scheme. From this point of view, remotely controlled virtual path testing is considered in this paper. Remotely controlled virtual path testing should be executed through the standardized Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model, which employs the OSI systems management concept as the basis of information exchange. Thus, this paper addresses the two issues that arise when OSI systems management standards are applied to virtual path testing. One issue is to define relevant information models. The other issue is to provide test resources with a concurrency control mechanism that guarantees a consistent test environment without causing deadlocks. To resolve these issues, technical requirements are clarified for the remote control of test resources. Next, alternatives to the concurrency control mechanism are shown and compared through computer simulations. A method of defining information models is then proposed. The proposed method ensures the easy storage and retrieval of intermediate test results as well as permitting the effective provision of concurrency control for test resources. An application scenario is also derived. The scenario shows that tests can be executed by using standardized communication services. These results confirm that virtual path testing can be successfully achieved in conformance with the OSI systems management standards.