Telecom Monitoring is changingagain

During the past few years the nature of telecommunications has changed dramatically. The recent aggressive growth of nation-wide paging networks and the introduction of advanced messaging technologies have resulted in dramatic changes in site management needs. Engineering personnel are finding that they must support greatly expanded coverage areas while technical staffing is held constant or even reduced. Simultaneously new technology is fre!uently demanding more rather than less attention during the early stages of implementation. This situation would seem to demand an increased reliance upon remote monitoring and control of site infrastructure and indeed a num"er of carriers are moving a degree of individual site performance monitoring to the same regional #etwork $perations %enters that monitors their network performance. &owever while some infrastructure manufacturers offer network access via proprietory methods much ancillary site e!uipment remains isolated from access "y data network. 'ndeed most monitoring firms historically serving the paging industry still rely upon the (u"lic Switched Telephone #etwork or )* link for communications with the site. + reevaluation of existing monitoring methodology is therefore in order.

'n the early days remote site control was generally accomplished "y current or voltage level signaling over dedicated lines. ,hile ade!uate for (TT or channel select functionality there was no a"ility to report unanticipated changes of operational parameters and control functionality was severely limited "y the restricted command set possi"le.

To remedy this situation a variety of tone control systems were introduced and remote control "y (ST# or radio link "ecame possi"le. )eporting from the site was still restricted however in that a condition could "e reported "ut a specific parameter could not. 'n other words you might know that a transmitter was keyed "ut you wouldn-t know that .S,) was excessive. The introduction of voice synthesi/ers eventually allowed a crude voice to give primitive prompts or responses for DTM* access "ut truly useful remote monitoring had to wait for the digital age.

'n fact it could "e argued that true remote site management was simply not availa"le until cost effective modem communications over the (u"lic Switched Telephone #etwork 0(ST#1 "ecame possi"le. 'n the mid to late 23s several companies released devices capa"le of reporting the status of discrete digital or analog inputs in a reasona"ly user-friendly format to a remote .DT printer and fre!uently pager. Most also allowed some degree of remote switching "y contact closure or relay driver. Such systems were faster friendlier and offered partial path redundancy since communication was no longer limited to dedicated connection to one control point. Such systems could call a variety of phone num"ers and communicate via modem voice synthesi/er or pager "ut still units relied upon a functioning ($TS line at the site. Even so such systems were a tremendous advantage at a time when communication from switch to transmitter site was primarily accomplished "y leased lines or )* link.

This monitoring approach is still ade!uate for many users "ut the emerging use of nationwide T%(4'( data networks "y paging carriers present new demands upon the telecommunications professional and new opportunities for remote monitoring e!uipment manufacturers. +s paging carriers have "egun to find data communications via wide area network technically desira"le there is an understanda"le desire for network communications with their site monitoring e!uipment. 5nfortunately a su"stantial "ase of site e!uipment currently offer no such capa"ility or offer it in an inflexi"le proprietary format. &owever since one of the greatest advantages offered "y the use of the 'nternet (rotocol is the existence of clearly defined and accepted protocols including the Simple #etwork Management (rotocol there is a renewed interest in S#M( as a valua"le tool for the paging community. 'ndeed the (aging Technical 6roup of Telocator 0now the (ersonal %ommunications 'ndustry +ssociation1 stated that 7the protocol and procedures while not mandatory are important tools that are applica"le to paging networks particularly larger networks. The use of the 'nternet network management features should "e advantageous to most paging networks.8 0(%'+ 6uidelines for T%(4'(91 The (aging %ommittee further specified that 7S#M( has emerged as the management agent of choice.8 The adoption of the S#M( protocol there"y assures that any network adhering to the guidelines will "e supported and allow monitoring and control of virtually any type of e!uipment for which there is a hardware network interface. E!uipment designed for '( network use will generally support S#M( control already and manufacturers of related e!uipment are adding such support

to allow easier integration within a networked environment. Still there remains a lot of legacy e!uipment that will remain effectively inaccessi"le "y network without a suita"le hardware interface "etween the legacy e!uipment and the '( network. +n S#M( proxy will allow centrali/ed monitoring of any such legacy e!uipment. )eductions in support increased ease of monitoring across multiple hardware and software platforms and improve usa"ility all will result.

,hile a num"er of proprietary network management methods have evolved over the years the need for a management standard was recogni/ed as a mandatory element of T%(4'( networks. S#M( was originally designed as an interim management techni!ue to "e used until 'nternational Standards $rgani/ation %ommunications Management ' (rotocol was fully implemented "ut sluggish implementation of the %M'( resulted in S#M( remaining the prominent approach to '( monitoring. 't is generally accepted that S#M( will remain a useful component of '( "ased monitoring for some years to come.

)atified "y the 'nternet Engineering Task *orce in +pril :;;3 in :;;3 S#M( is now the most common monitoring protocol on '( networks. The protocol is comprised of three "asic components< the agent the manager and the management information "ase. The agent software resides in a managed element of the network or its proxy. The agent collects data responds to commands from the S#M( manager and sends alerts 0called traps1 to a specified '( address. The manager software and present the resultant information to the technician in a user-friendly way. The information reported "y the management software is that reported "y the agent and stored in the agent-s Management 'nformation =ase. The M'= is a data"ase that resides within an agent and organi/es those parameters that are to "e monitored and4or controlled "y the S#M( manager. Support for a variety of e!uipment including emerging or currently non-existent devices can "e easily implemented "y the development of a M'= for that device. The agent and manager modules remain unaffected and will continue to function without modification. +cceptance of S#M( among infrastructure manufacturers is growing. Support is routinely availa"le for access servers routers 5(S switches and other network devices. The protocol offers platform and vender independence flexi"ility and can coexist with a variety of proprietary approaches such as #et"ios S#+ #etware etc. to allow centrali/ed consistent control of various dispersed disparate elements on a network.

+doption of '( "ased S#M( will also have the a"ility to access non-S#M( e!uipment using telnet services. 't is not uncommon for Telnet access to "e possi"le with most communications e!uipment. The most o"vious disadvantage of monitoring '( network devices over the network itself is that the monitoring uses what is essentially in-"and signaling. 'f the network segment goes down without an availa"le redundant alternative path the monitoring ceases to function. +s we shall shortly see there are ways around this shortcoming.

'n practice the management of a telecommunications site via '( network would perform as follows< + workstation at a centrali/ed #etwork $perations *acility runs the S#M( manager. Though the management software is can run on virtually any operating system 5nix or ,indows #T are most commonly encountered. The manager communicates via '( network with the agents running at the sites to "e monitored. The manager polls the agents at specified intervals displays the information at the management station. The information may "e distri"uted throughout the #$% on the >+#. 'nformation may also "e logged and made availa"le to a repair order generation and tracking software upon receipt of a trap. The agent generating the trap could "e any S#M( capa"le network device or a proxy such as the (roTek ?r@S#M( manufactured "y (ageTek. The (roTek ?r@S#M( would "e installed on one port of an access server located at the site. $ther network devices at the site would share the remaining ports. The (roTek ?r@S#M( can monitor discrete "i-state 0digital1 inputs such as contact closure or logic levels from intrusion fire power supplies (TT lines tower light controllers and the like. +nalog inputs monitor voltage levels from 3 to A3 .D% or "y use of appropriate sensors )* power current temperature and other linear inputs. The ?r@S#M( also allows control of the many transmitters controllers and +S%'' stream devices that offer a .DT ports for trou"leshooting control and programming. +dditionally the ?r@S#M( "y retaining full ($TS line capa"ility provides redundant communications capa"ility via on "oard modem to remote .DT printer or paging terminal. 'n the a"sence of a ($TS line cellular or )* modem communications are possi"le. This redundancy of communication allows the support staff to retain communications with the site even if a critical '( network segment goes down.

*or further information<

+ll technical aspects of the 'nternet protocol and S#M( are covered "y the )e!uest for %omment 0)*%s1 documents pu"lished "y the 'nternet Engineering Task *orce 0'ET*1. )*%s are availa"le for downloading at www.iis.edu however of particular interest to use are those dealing with S#M( 0)*%::BC1 The (aging Technical %ommittee of the (ersonal %ommunications 'ndustry of +merica 0(%'+1 has pu"lished guidelines for those involved in networking for telecommunications use. (ertinent documents include the T'( specification. The committee at the time of the standards pu"lication was comprised of +irtouch (aging +merican (aging +meritech Ericsson Messaging Systems 'nc. 6lenayre Technologies &ark Electronic Systems 'nc. Metro%all Mo"ile%omm Mo"ileMedia Motorola % D E 'nc. Motorola 6('D The #ational Dispatch %enter (ageMart 'nc. (age#et )eal Time Strategies Tek#ow 'nc. and T6+ Systems 'nc. *or further details regarding implementation contact Michael =all at (ageTek

,e are now entering the third age of monitoring "y viewing the monitoring system not as an isolated part of a )* site infrastructure "ut as a "ridge "etween the data and )* worlds.

'f a continuous '( connection is not availa"le S#M( monitoring via dialup networking to a site local '( service provider is still possi"le though at the cost of redundant communications channels.

(ossi"le Side"ar %ommunication "etween the agent and the manager uses five commands< 6et re!uest< the manager re!uests the value stored in a specific M'= 6et-#ext< + manager may use this command when re!uesting multiple se!uential fields of data so as to conserve "andwidth. Set re!uest< The manager re!uests that a value "e stored within the managed M'= i.e. a command is given. 6et-)esponse message< The agent responds to a manager re!uest Trap message< The agent sends a trap to the manager when a monitored parameter reached a trip point.