WO2008019998A2

WO2008019998A2 - Referencing of sub-attributes for network management

Info

Publication number: WO2008019998A2
Application number: PCT/EP2007/058325
Authority: WO
Inventors: Olaf Pollakowski
Original assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks Gmbh & Co. Kg
Priority date: 2006-08-16
Filing date: 2007-08-10
Publication date: 2008-02-21
Also published as: DE102006038143A1; WO2008019998A3

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a management system encompassing at least one manager (MANAGER) and an agent (AGENT). In said method, an object model in which attributes are assigned to classes of objects is used for communicating between the manager (MANAGER) and the agent (AGENT), at least one attribute being used for describing a plurality of variables. A message (OP, NOTIF) which is sent by the manager (MANAGER) or the agent (AGENT) and relates to a subset of the variables, contains referencing data for each variable of the subset in order to refer to the respective variable. The invention further relates to a manager (MANAGER) and an agent (AGENT) for carrying out said method.

Description

description

Referencing Subattributes for Network Management

The invention relates to a management system comprising at least one manager and one agent for operating an object model for communication between the manager and the agent.

According to the principles of a management network, also referred to in the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) as TMN, there are several management layers for managing a system - such as a mobile radio communication system - with each layer except the top and bottom layers being duplicated Function, namely a manager and an agent function has. In the managing system, each level except the bottom one performs a manager function for the level below. In the managed system, each layer except the topmost one gets an agent function for the next higher layer.

Managers start network monitoring and control operations by sending so-called "requests" that are executed by agents, and receive corresponding responses from the agents. Elements of the managed network, also referred to as resources, which perform the role of an agent in the hierarchy, recognize relevant events, so-called "events", such as alarms, generate corresponding notifications, and transmit them in the form of event messages, so-called "event reports" to managers to enable efficient network management.

Among other things, network management may include fault management and / or configuration management and / or the security management (security management) and / or the accounting management (accounting management) and / or the performance management (performance management) include. Network management should provide appropriate information distribution and management mechanisms so that, when needed, a comprehensive picture of network status is available and the network's individual resources can be efficiently monitored and configured.

The manager-agent communication takes place via so-called

Management interfaces or manager-agent interfaces operating in an object-oriented environment through a communication protocol, such as e.g. Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) according to ITU-T X.711 or Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), and by a

Object model are marked. Object models are used to model resources of the telecommunications network, these resources being divided into object classes during modeling.

Such interfaces exist between, on the one hand, the Network Element Management Level and, on the other hand, the Network Element Level. An example of network facilities of this manager-agent interface is the Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC) on the side of the

Network element management level, as well as on the side of the network element level facilities such as base stations of the base station system (BSS: Base Station System) of a GSM mobile network, or base stations of other communication networks, such as NodeB ^x s of a UMTS mobile network (UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) , or radio access points of a WLAN system (WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network), for example, according to one of the IEEE 802.11 standards. Management interfaces or manager-agent interfaces also exist on the one hand between the network management level and on the other hand the network element management level. An example of network devices to this manager-agent interface are the Network Management Center (NMC: Network Management Center) and the Network Management Element (OMC) operation and maintenance center in said GSM or another mobile or telecommunications network.

The invention has for its object to provide an efficient method for operating a management system and devices for performing the method.

This object is achieved by a method having the features of claim 1, and by devices having features of independent claims. Advantageous embodiments and further developments are the subject of dependent claims.

In the method according to the invention for operating a management system comprising at least one manager and one agent, an object model is used for communication between the manager and the agent, with which object classes attributes are assigned. At least one attribute is used to describe a plurality of sizes. In a message sent by the manager or agent concerning a subset of the sizes, referencing information for each size of the subset is included for reference to the respective size.

Usually, object models are used in network management. According to these object models, object classes exist, wherein an object class may have one or more attributes. Attributes become description eg of properties, capabilities or functionalities of the respective object instances of the object class. The current value of an attribute thus indicates the current state of the respective object instance.

According to the invention, at least one attribute is used to describe a plurality of sizes. The sizes of the attribute can in this case be designed such that they could be used as their own attributes. Such an attribute may, for example, describe the two quantities "number of hardware units used" and "current performance". An example of an attribute, which typically describes multiple sizes, is the vendor specific data (VSData) attribute of a UMTS mobile communication system.

A message is sent from the manager to the agent or from the agent to the manager regarding a subset of the plurality of sizes. This message thus relates to one or more of those described by the attribute

Sizes, but not every one of these sizes. This case is relevant in practice because often an operation or notification should not be made in relation to all quantities described by the attribute. This is especially true for attributes that describe a variety of sizes.

The message contains referencing information for each of the subset sizes; For example, if the message concerns two sizes of the attribute, it will contain two referencing information. A referencing

Information here serves the reference to the respective size. The referencing information is necessary when referring to a particular size, because due to the majority of the sizes described by the attribute, the mention of the attribute is not sufficient for this. The receiver can thus clearly deduce the referencing information to which size the referencing information belongs. Is thus in the Message a specific indication in connection with a specific referencing information, so the receiver can clearly identify the size of the attribute refers to the specific information.

In a development of the invention, the message is an operation sent by the manager to the agent for reading out the sizes of the subset. Such a read operation requests read-out and feedback of the respective requested information from the agent.

Preferably, upon receiving the message, the agent sends a response message to the manager, the response message including at least one value for each size of the subset. These values of the response message correspond to those which the agent has previously read, e.g. from a memory that he can access.

In a development of the invention, the message is an operation for setting values sent by the manager to the agent, wherein the message contains at least one value to be set for each size of the subset. The request to set values is in this case directed to a change of values for the sizes of the subset, or to the generation of such values for the sizes of the subset.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the message may be a message sent by the agent to the manager, the message being a change of at least one value of each size

Subset applies. Such a message may cause the values of the attributes of the attribute present to the manager and the agent to be the same.

It is particularly advantageous if at least one or each of the plurality of variables is a variable that can be assigned a respective variable value. For example, a value of a size may be a number, a Word or any combination of characters. There may exist a certain number of discrete values which one size may occupy. An example of a variable that can be assigned with a single variable value is the size "transmission power" of a radio station, which can be assigned a numerical value Preferably, at least one or each of the plurality of variables is name-value pairs Name fixed while the value is changeable.

According to one embodiment of the invention, at least one or each of the plurality of sizes is a variable describing a plurality of sizes. In this case, the data structure of the attribute is multi-layered, because the attribute describes multiple sizes, and one or more of these sizes again describe multiple sizes. Different sizes of the first layer may in this case describe different numbers of further sizes of the second layer. It is possible for one or more sizes of the attribute to represent variables that can be assigned a single variable value while one or more other sizes of the attribute describe a plurality of sizes.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the referencing information is created using a language used by the manager and / or the agent for filtering. During filtering, it is checked on the basis of specific filter criteria whether the entity entered into the filter, for example a message, passes the filter. The language of the referencing information can be used here to access components of the entity to be filtered, which are to be subjected to a review on the basis of the filter criteria. Preferably, the language with which the referencing information is created is the Extended Trader Constraint Language specified by the OMG (Object Management Group). In general, it is advantageous if the referencing information is created using one of the Manager and / or agent used for a purpose other than the creation of referencing information.

Particularly advantageous is the application of the invention in a mobile radio communication system, wherein the manager may be a network management center and the agent may be an operations and maintenance center.

The inventive manager comprises means for communicating with an agent using an object model in which object classes attributes are assigned using at least one attribute to describe a plurality of sizes, and means for sending and / or receiving a message containing a subset of the And in which for each of the sizes of the subset a referencing information for reference to the respective size is included.

The inventive agent comprises means for communicating with a manager using an object model in which object classes attributes are assigned using at least one attribute to describe a plurality of sizes, and means for sending and / or receiving a message containing a subset of the And in which for each of the sizes of the subset a referencing information for reference to the respective size is included.

The manager according to the invention and the agent according to the invention are suitable in particular for carrying out the method according to the invention, and this can also apply to the refinements and developments. For this purpose, they may include other suitable means, such as means for creating the message before sending and means for processing the message after the reception. In the following the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment. Showing:

Figure 1: a section of a management system.

The detail of a management system shown in FIG. 1 comprises the manager MANAGER and the agent AGENT connected to it. The agent AGENT acts as a manager over the network elements NE1, NE2 and NE3 (NE: Network Element). The invention is applicable to various management systems. In the following - without limiting the invention to this application - a management system of a UMTS mobile communication system is considered. Accordingly, the manager MANAGER is a NMC (Network Management Center) and the agent AGENT is an OMC (Operation and Maintenance Center). The interface between a NMC and an OMC is standardized in UMTS and is referred to as an Itf-N interface.

The network resources of the mobile radio communication system, e.g. the network elements NE1, NE2, NE3 are divided into object classes as part of the network management. 3GPP has defined an object model or information model for the communication over the Itf-N interface, which e.g. includes the object classes ManagedElement and ManagedFunction, which are base object classes. Further object classes are e.g. gsmCell, utranCell, btsSiteManager, bssFunction, mscServerFunction, rncFunction, hlrFunction, vlrFunction, sgsnFunction and ggsnFunction. Since object classes can contain other object classes, the

Object classes can be represented in a so-called containment tree.

An object class is defined over certain operations, i. via commands to network resources of this

Object class can be sent by a higher-level manager, as well as certain attributes, ie properties that are assigned to this object class and by one Managers can be queried and edited, and certain messages that can be sent by network resources of the respective object class in the context of network management, as well as the description of the meaning and the behavior of the object class and its components.

The object model used or the defined object classes are predominantly generic in order to be used by management facilities of different manufacturers. Modeling of manufacturer-specific properties and functionalities can be done using the attribute vDData (vendor specific Data). A description of this attribute can be found e.g. in the standard specification 3GPP TS 32.622 (3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Telecommunication management; Configuration Management (CM); Generic network resources Integration Reference Point (IRP); Network Resource Model (NRM) (Release 6)) , The advantage of the vsData attribute is that some of the managerial tasks, such as the configuration management, depending on the specific hardware and software design and thus manufacturer-dependent. The vsData attribute is typically one of several attributes that has an object class. For example, the RncFunction object class has the attributes rncFuncationld, mcc, mnc, and rncld by default. If necessary, the attributes vsData can be added to these mandatory attributes according to the standard.

The content of the vsData attribute, i. the size or sizes described by the vsData attribute is not required by the standard. This can therefore depend on the operator of the management system depending on his

Be determined needs. The structure of the vsData attribute has also not been standardized so far. Usually the attribute vsData is used in such a way that it has several Data elements and thus contains a complex data structure. This data structure consists of a plurality of individual components, which are referred to below as sub-attributes. In this case, a sub-attribute can represent a single variable, which can be assigned specific values, or else a variable that forms its own data structure.

The manager MANAGER can send to the agent AGENT an operation OP which causes the setting or reading of sub-attributes of the attribute vsData. A setting effecting

Operation OP specifies values for sub-attributes so that the agent AGENT can make the relevant changes after receiving the operation. A read operation OP causes the agent AGENT to send a response to the manager MANAGER with the values of the requested sub-attributes. On the other hand, when changing a value of a subattribute, the agent AGENT can send a value change notification NOTIF (value change notification) to the manager MANAGER, with which he informs the manager MANAGER of the change made. Read operations and set operations are presented e.g. in 3GPP TS 32.602 and 3GPP TS 32.603. Value change notifications are presented e.g. in 3GPP TS 32.662 and 3GPP TS 32.663.

For attributes which describe only one size and thus contain no subattributes, the information in question can be easily specified in such an operation OP or notification NOTIF. For example, if an attribute named channelAPower, whose value indicates which power is used for a particular radio channel, is subject to a NOTIF value change notification, it is sufficient to change from 10 to 5 in the value change Notification NOTIF of the agent AGENT to specify the name of the attribute in conjunction with the new value. The same applies to one

Set and read operation OP of the manager MANAGER. If an attribute describes only one size, it is because of the reference to the name of the attribute for the Recipient of a message can be seen, which described size is affected.

For an attribute that describes multiple sizes and thus has sub-attributes, such as however, the above explained attribute vsData complicates the situation. Changes, e.g. the value of a subattribute, while the values of the other subattributes are unchanged, the agent AGENT usually specifies the values of all subattributes in its value change notification NOTIF. The manager MANAGER then evaluates the received value change notification NOTIF by comparing the received value with the value stored by it for each sub-attribute in order to determine which sub-attribute is affected by the change. As a result, both the transmission capacity on the interface between manager MANAGER and agent AGENT and the processing capacity of the MANAGER manager are heavily used. This adverse effect increases with the number of sub-attributes of an attribute, i. with the

Complexity of the data structure. The same applies to a set operation and a read operation OP of the manager MANAGER.

To avoid the disadvantages mentioned, is in the

Messages OP and NOTIF used a referencing of sub-attributes explained in more detail below. Because of the referencing contained in a message, the recipient knows which subattribute is affected by the message. With a set operation OP, the manager MANAGER uses this referencing, so that the agent AGENT recognizes from the referencing that the value of which subattribute is to be set. Likewise, the manager MANAGER uses referencing for a read operation OP, so that the agent AGENT recognizes which sub-attribute is to be read out and thus reports the current value of this sub-attribute to the manager MANAGER. For a value change notification NOTIF, the agent AGENT uses the referencing so that Manager MANAGER uses referencing to identify which sub-attribute is affected by the change in value.

In order to be able to use referencing, an agreement must be made between the manager MANAGER and the agent AGENT about the syntax and semantics of the referencing. For this purpose, it is advantageous to use an existing language. It is therefore proposed for a management system based on CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) to use the "Extended Trader Constraint Language." This language is described in particular in chapters 2.4.2 and 2.4.8 of the OMG (Object Management Group). Specification "Notification Service Specification" (available at http://www.omg.org/).

The Extended Trader Constraint Language is commonly used in CORBA-based management systems as part of filtering, e.g. if, after receiving a message using certain filter criteria, it is necessary to check whether the message passes a filter and is therefore to be forwarded.

The following is a first concrete example of

Referencing of subattributes of the attribute vsData under

Using the Extended Trader Constraint Language. In this case, the attribute vsData contains a list or sequence of subattributes, each subattribute consisting of a name value pair. The name is of type String, the value is a variable of type any. For formal description, IDL (Interface Definition Language), a declarative formal language with a language syntax for describing interfaces, is used.

The IDL type definition for the name (in the following: NameType) and the value (in the following: ValueType), which, as already mentioned, are of the type string or any, which is subattributes typedef string NameType; typedef any ValueType;

The IDL structure definition of the name-value pair is (hereafter: NameValuePairType)

struct NameValuePairType {nameType name; ValueType value; };

The IDL type definition of the name-value pairs sequence (hereafter: NameValuePairListType) is

typedef sequence <NameValuePairType> NameValuePairListType;

The IDL type definition of the vsData attribute (hereafter: VsDataType) is

typedef NameValuePairListType VsDataType;

The length of the sequence is 2, i. the attribute vsData contains two sub-attributes. These have the names "abcMin" and "abcMax" and are each of type short. The IDL name and type definitions of these two sub-attributes is

const string abcMin = "abcMin" const string abcMax = "abcMax"

typedef short abcMinType; typedef short abcMaxType;

The referencing of the sub-attribute abcMin by the Extended Trader Constraint Language is

vsData (abcMin) that of the sub-attribute abcMax is based on the Extended Trader Constraint Language

vsData (abcMax)

According to the rules of the language used, in the case of constructing the attribute from a sequence of name-value pairs in the referencing, the name of the top-level attribute, that is, the name of the attribute, is first written. of the attribute vsData, in the parenthesis is the name of the subattribute.

The following is a second concrete example of

Referencing of subattributes of the attribute vsData under

Using the Extended Trader Constraint Language explained. In the first example, the data structure of the

Attributes vsData in two layers, where the upper layer contains the top-level attribute vsData, and on the second layer below the sequence of name-value pairs. In the second example, the data structure of the vsData attribute is tri-level, with the top one being

Layer the top-level attribute vsData stands, on the second underlying layer a sequence of data envelopes, and on the lowest third layer the contents of the data envelopes. The data envelopes each contain the specification of what kind of data (in the following: VsDataEnvelopeKindType) of type string, as well as the actual data (in the following: VsDataEnvelopeDataType). Again, these actual data are lists of name-value pairs of the type discussed in relation to the first example.

The IDL name and type definitions for this second example are

typedef string VsDataEnvelopeKindType;

typedef string NameType; typedef any ValueType; typedef NameValuePairType {nameType name; ValueType value; };

typedef sequence <NameValuePairType> NameValuePairListType; typedef NameValuePairListType vsDataEnvelopeType;

struct VsDataEnvelope {

VsDataEnvelopeKindType vsDataEnvelopeKind; VsDataEnvelopeDataType vsKindEnvelopeKind; };

typedef sequence <VsDataEnvelopeType> VsDataEnvelopeListType;

typedef VsDataEnvelopeListType VsDataType;

The length of the sequence of data envelopes is 3, i. the attribute vsData consists of three data envelopes, and further let the length of the sequence of the name-value be pairs within the first data envelope 2, i. Within the first data envelope there are two sub-attributes with the names "abcMin" and "abcMax", each of the type Short. The IDL name and type definitions of these two sub-attributes are the same as in the first example

const string abcMin = "abcMin" const string abcMax = "abcMax"

typedef Short abcMinType; typedef Short abcMaxType;

Referencing the subattribute abcMin of the first data envelope using the Extended Trader Constraint Language is

vsData .vsDataEnvelope [0]. vsDataEnvelopeData (abcMin) that is the sub-attribute abcMax of the first data envelope based on the Extended Trader Constraint Language

vsData. vsDataEnvelope [0]. vsDataEnvelopeData (abcMax)

In the data structures of the two examples, i. the list of name-value pairs directly under the vsData attribute and the list of data envelopes, each containing a list of name-value pairs, directly under the vsData attribute, are examples only. The Extended Trader Constraint Language allows referencing of arbitrary data structures. The recipient of a message containing the explained referencing can clearly see from the referencing which part or parts of a complex data structure are affected by the message.

While the invention has been illustrated by the vsData attribute, it is not limited to this attribute. Rather, the procedure according to the invention is also suitable for other attributes which have sub-attributes.

Claims

claims

A method of operating an at least one manager

(MANAGER) and an agent (AGENT) comprehensive management system in which for communication between the manager (MANAGER) and the agent (AGENT) an object model is used in which object classes attributes are assigned, wherein at least one attribute for describing a plurality of sizes is used, characterized in that in a sent by the manager (MANAGER) or the agent (AGENT) message (OP, NOTIF), which relates to a subset of the sizes, for each size of the subset of referencing information to refer to the respective size is included.

The method of claim 1, wherein the message (OP) is an operation sent by the manager (MANAGER) to the agent (AGENT) for reading the sizes of the subset.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the agent (AGENT) after receiving the message (OP) sends a response message to the manager (MANAGER), which includes at least one value for each size of the subset.

The method of claim 1, wherein the message (OP) is one of the manager

(MANAGER) is to send values to the agent (AGENT), the message (OP) including at least one value to set for each size of the subset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message (NOTIF) is a message sent by the agent (AGENT) to the manager (MANAGER) is concerned with a change of at least one value of each size of the subset.

A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein at least one or each of the plurality of sizes are sizes each assignable to a single variable value.

The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at least one or each of the plurality of sizes is name-value pairs.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one or each of the plurality of sizes is a size describing each of a plurality of sizes.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the referencing information is created using a language used by the manager (MANAGER) and / or the agent (AGENT) for filtering.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the referencing information is created using the Extended Trader Constraint Language.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the manager (MANAGER) to a

Network Management Center and the agent (AGENT) is a service and maintenance center of a mobile communication system.

12. Manager (MANAGER) for at least the manager (MANAGER) and an agent (AGENT) comprehensive management system, with

Means for communicating with the agent (AGENT) using an object model in which object classes are associated with attributes, wherein at least one attribute is used to describe a plurality of sizes, characterized by

Means for sending and / or receiving a message (OP, NOTIF), which relates to a subset of the quantities and in which for each size of the subset a referencing information for reference to the respective size is included.

13. Agent (AGENT) for at least one manager (MANAGER) and the agent (AGENT) comprehensive management system, with means for communicating with the manager (MANAGER) using an object model in which object classes are assigned attributes, wherein at least one attribute to Description of a plurality of sizes is used, characterized by

Means for sending and / or receiving a message (OP, NOTIF) relating to at least one of the quantities and in which for each size of the subset one

Referencing information is included for reference to the respective size.