ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Enterprise Management Systems (EM Systems) are Network Management Systems (NMSs) capable of managing devices, independent of vendors and protocols, in Internet Protocol (IP)-based enterprise networks.

Following is an overview of the network and software architecture of typical EM Systems from two perspectives:

1. Network Architecture—This perspective describes the physical network topology of the managers and agents.

2. Software Architecture—This perspective describes the software construction of the manager and agent components.

Network Architectures

The network architecture describes how the EM Systems is deployed. There are several models that can be employed to organize how the managers are organized. Models can be a single central manager, hierarchical managers, distributed peer managers, etc. Network architecture also includes the management protocols that are used to communicate information about the management resource between the managers and agents.

Software Architectures

The software architecture describes the EM Systems internal construction. This architecture includes the information model that is the software representation of the managed resources and the functional capabilities of the network management system, such as FCAPS functions.

EM Systems software architectures can be classified into the following categories:

1. Element Management Systems (EMSs)—This class of systems are developed by computer and network switch manufacturers, and are specialized to manage

only a particular device.

2. Management Platforms—This class of systems are actually development frameworks for NMSs. There are two development frameworks available, one for the agent side and the other for the management side.

3. Management Applications—This class of systems can implement one or more FCAPS functions and may implement these functions in both categories, depending on the scope of the managed resources.

4. Management Systems—This class of systems provides core services, which are

accessed via APIs, to the management applications.