KR20020004556A - Web-based distributed network management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A web-based distributed NMS(Network Management System) is provided to present an NMS based on a CORBA(Common Object Request Broker Architecture). CONSTITUTION: A CORBA-based NMS comprises management facilities(222), a management object interface(224), and telecom management facilities(226). The management facilities(222), as applied and utilized when network equipment are managed through a CORBA and an ORB(Object Request Broker)(220), has a function to call the network equipment distributed dynamically and statically and a function to support local/remote transparency and polymorphism. The management object interface(224), a protocol conversion interface block for integrated management, includes a CIMP(Common Management Information Protocol) gateway(224-1) to manage a CIMP agent(231), an SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol) gateway(224-2) to manage an SNMP agent(232), and a dedicated gateway(224-3) to manage a dedicated agent(233).

Description

Web-based distributed network management system {WEB-BASED DISTRIBUTED NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a network management system (NMS), and more particularly to a web-based distributed network management system.

A distributed system is a system in which each computer system operating independently of each other is logically integrated through a network. The biggest feature of this system is that it can integrate geographically dispersed information, and make the processing request transparent to the user. In a distributed system, various system resources such as hardware or software distributed among several independent systems can be shared. It is also economical because it avoids duplication of installation costs due to the addition of features, and is not only easy to expand and reconfigure into new systems, but also portability, interoperability, scalability and reliability. ), And the price / performance ratio is very high.

Because of these advantages, not only companies but also banks, hospitals, government offices, and public institutions have been actively adopting the downsizing concept using client / server technology. As the transition from a single system to a distributed system is accelerated, distributed system management to solve problems occurring during the installation or operation of the distributed system or to improve the performance, stability, and reliability of the distributed system becomes an important issue. It is becoming.

Distributed system management is more diverse and complex than traditional single system management, so there are not enough tools available. There is also a growing interest in distributed systems management, with the introduction of several distributed systems management tools in recent years. In addition to the degree of standardization, research and development are relatively poor.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a CORBA NMS based on the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), which is emerging in the computing industry as a standard for distributed computing.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a block that can be applied and utilized as is when the user interface and management application in CORBA and web-based distributed network management system, the network equipment is managed through CORBA and ORB, Calling static and dynamically distributed network equipment, management facilities supporting local / remote transparency and polymorphism, and protocol conversion interface blocks for integrated management, CMIP gateway and SNMP agent for managing CMIP agents. And a management object interface including an SNMP gateway for management and a dedicated gateway for managing a dedicated agent.

1 is an exemplary diagram of a network management system structure;

2 is a structural diagram of a CORBA based network management system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a detailed structural diagram of a CORBA / SNMP gateway.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, specific details such as specific components are shown, which are provided to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and it is understood that these specific details may be changed or changed within the scope of the present invention. It is self-evident to those of ordinary knowledge in Esau.

The advantage of CORBA is that CORBA is not only middleware that enables more efficient and stable development than existing systems, but it is also designed to integrate existing systems and dynamically expand newly developed systems. Pure CORBA network management systems have problems in integrating existing network management systems, and upgrade existing network systems to CORBA clients and newly developed systems develop multi-agents to integrate with CORBA and other existing network management systems. There is a problem in actual development efficiency and equipment and resource efficiency. In this situation, the present invention uses a CORBA-based integrated network management system and proposes an architecture that provides an existing network and a gateway to integrate the existing network.

First, an example of the structure of a conventional network management system will be described with reference to FIG. 1. In a conventional network management system, a network device maintains its own state information, and a network management system searches for and converts the state information. Define and use the protocol between the equipment and the system.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) methods (get / set / trap) are simple and easy to implement and are widely deployed in network equipment. However, due to the limitations of such simplicity and the rapid development of technology in which equipment is developed before standardization, equipment supporting a standard MIB (Management Information Base) is difficult to find.

The Network Management Standards proposed by the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and the Network Forum have proposed a standard MIB based on the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) to integrate and manage these devices. . However, due to the slow progress of standardization and the difficulty of implementing CMIP, the industry provides a Q-Adapter (Q-Adapter), which provides a transformation that allows access to an internal proprietary MIB, rather than a CMIP agent, to a standard network management system based on CMIP. Adaptor is generally provided.

Figure 1 illustrates the diversity between network operators and network equipment requiring actual network management. In fact, since network operators cannot implement all the dedicated MIBs of all network nodes, a CMIP-based TMN (TMN) 100 or a standard MIB and SNMP-based integrated network management system 110 are constructed. Real equipment operators, on the other hand, prefer a dedicated agent 122. In order to integrate the agent with the network operator, the equipment provider must additionally develop and provide an SNMP proxy agent 114 and a Q-adapter 104. This provides access and protocol conversion for the standard MIB as shown in FIG.

However, network operators are having difficulty in developing systems that manage different systems with CMIP and SNMP. It takes a lot of manpower and time to develop it as an independent system, and the number and type of equipments to be managed increase exponentially, so it is constantly encountering difficulties in developing a network management system.

The CORBA Based Management System proposed by the present invention refers to a network management system implemented with CORBA. When building a network management system with CORBA, the network management system can meet the needs of various markets.

In CORBA-based network management system, it is important to integrate and manage SNMP, CMIP, and agents that are implemented exclusively. Gateways are a common way to manage agents that support these different protocols. By applying a gateway methodology that converts between different protocols, the CMIP / CORBA gateway, SNMP / CORBA gateway, and dedicated / CORBA gateway are used to manage different agents with CORBA.

Figure 2 defines the architecture of a gateway-based CORBA-based network management system. The user interface 200 and management application 210 are CORBA and web based network management systems.

The object request broker (ORB) 220 of FIG. 2 shows that the network management system and the network equipment managed by the network use the ORB. Basically, network devices that need to be managed are considered in CORBA as distributed network components between networks based on ORBs.

In FIG. 2, the areas of the management facilities 222, the managed object interface 224, and the communication management facilities 226 are distributed to CORBA-based network management systems. In this case, it introduces the characteristics of CORBA to categorize the parts that can be used.

The management facility 222 is a block related to the advantages that can be applied and utilized as it is when network equipment is managed through CORBA and ORB. These advantages are as follows. First, the ORB allows you to call statically and dynamically distributed network equipment. Second, since local / remote transparency is supported, calling and managing of components for managing network equipment are automatically supported. Third, it supports polymorphism so that the same component call can be polymorphized according to the equipment.

The management object interface 224 is a protocol conversion interface block for integrated management. The management object interface 224 includes a CMIP gateway (G / W) 224-1 for managing the CMIP agent 233, an SNMP gateway 224-2 for managing the SNMP agent 232, and a dedicated agent 233. Dedicated gateway (224-3) for managing the (8) is provided.

In FIG. 3, the CORBA gateway integrates the MIB into the Interface Definition Language (IDL). With this CORBA IDL, the SNMP MIB can be accessed using CORBA's "Naming" service, and the operation of SNMP can be implemented on a CORBA basis. For this function, the COVA IDL standard has been proposed in ITU-T, the network forum, and the like, and a tool for automatically generating an SNMP MIB 302 called a gateway (GW) compiler 300 as a CORBA IDL has been actively developed. The GW Repository provides access to the structure of the MIB, which can be controlled by the gateway, using CORBA's "Naming" service.

GW TrapHandler 318 and GW InterActor 316 map SNMP's methods from SNMP agent 320 to CORBA requests or events in CORBA management application 330. It is a block. The GW trap handler 318 is a block that converts a trap of SNMP into a CORBA event, and the GW Interactor 316 converts a CORBA request into an SNMP "Get / Set", and responds to the SNMP. This block converts a response into a CORBA response.

In effect, this transformation reduces CORBA's various capabilities to those of SNMP and CMIP. CORBA provides not only simple manipulation of management information, such as "Get / Set / Trap", but also a variety of functions that create, delete, and process a series of objects that perform such manipulation.

CORBA can dynamically manage its behavior by registering it with IDL, but SNMP and CMIP require additional design by real agent developers to manage their behavior.

Despite the limitations of SNMP and CMIP, CORBA gateways are used because of their ease of integration with existing network equipment. The architecture that best leverages all of CORBA's strengths is the pure CORBA architecture, but CORBA's gateways are used to integrate and manage existing network equipment.

By the above configuration, the network management system according to the features of the present invention can be configured. Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but by the claims and equivalents of the claims.

As described above, the present invention provides a network management method through CORBA through a gateway, and proposes an architecture and a component that can be most efficiently applied to network management.

Claims (1)

User interface and management applications are the key to CORBA and Web-based distributed network management systems. Blocks that can be applied and utilized as they are if they are managed through CORBA and ORB, include the ability to call static and dynamically distributed network equipment, management facilities that support local / remote transparency and polymorphism, A protocol conversion interface block for integrated management, comprising: a management object interface including a CMIP gateway for managing CMIP agents, an SNMP gateway for managing SNMP agents, and a dedicated gateway for managing dedicated agents Management system.