Generic building blocks for the telecommunications management network

The TMN (telecommunications management network) is envisioned as an approach for interconnecting the network elements with the operations systems. The generic TMN is planned to be built with embedded operations channels now made available by the data links within ESF and SONET, SS7 signaling links, and dedicated channels. The concept of mediation is briefly reviewed. Three levels of mediation are defined: shelf/frame, office, and network node levels. A generic TMN node is described. It consists of transmission interfaces, a high-capacity message switch, and an open interface to computer elements. The latter is expected to be very important to the growth and performance of the TMN.<<ETX>>