The TINA network resource model

TINA, the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture, is a software architecture for services provided on public and private networks. TINA NRIM adds on the existing concepts and supports a host of new multimedia services that can not be supported by the existing information models. It is expected that network information models will be aligned with those defined by ATM Forum and ITU-T SG15. The authors show a generic information model of network resources, which can be applied to different network technologies. The model contains a number of abstraction levels of network resources. The highest level of abstraction, which is offered at the interface between the network resources and services levels, is defined in terms of a connection graph. The connection graph is an abstract representation of resources describing the connectivity between stream interfaces (media flows). This graph can be used to specify end-to-end connectivity that spans through several layer networks. Thus, a line in the connection graph can be supported by a sequence of trails. The trail, in its turn, consists of subnetwork connections and/or tandem connections. The generic information model with appertained abstraction levels is very well suited to the TINA connection management architecture.