SNMP
SNMP facilitates FCAPS support in the form of Management Information Bases (MIBs) and a simple messaging protocol. Messages are provided that allow retrieval and configuration of NE data as well as access to fault data. Fault (or informational) data is typically emitted autonomously by the NEs as and when problems occur. Accounting and performance data can also be derived from MIB objects. SNMPv3 provides strong security and authentication features. More information on SNMP can be found in [1], [3]. Many commercial packages provide SNMP APIs. One that I’ve used and written about is Sun Microsystems’ JDMK.