Content for  TS 32.102  Word version:  18.0.0

Within a TMN, the necessary physical connection (e.g. circuit-switched or packet-switched) may be offered by communication paths constructed with all kinds of network components, e.g. dedicated lines, packet-switched data network, ISDN, common channel signalling network, public-switched telephone network, local area networks, terminal controllers, etc. In the extreme case the communication path provides for full connectivity, i.e. each attached system can be physically connected to all others. The TMN should be designed such that it has the capability to interface with several types of communications paths, to ensure that a framework is provided which is flexible enough to allow the most efficient communications:

• between NE and other elements within the TMN;
• between WS and other elements within the TMN;
• between elements within the TMN;
• between TMNs;
• between TMNs and enterprise.

In this case the term efficiency relates to the cost, reliability and maintainability of the data transported. Two aspects impact costs. The first is the actual cost to transport data across the network between the TMN and the NE. The second aspect is the design of the interface including the selection of the appropriate communications protocol. Whatever standardised protocol suite at the networking level that is capable of meeting the functional and operational requirements (including the network addressing aspects) of the Logical and Application Protocol levels of a given 3GPP management interface, is a valid Networking Protocol for that interface. A number of requirements must be met by the Networking Protocol, as follows:

• Capability to run over all supported bearers (leased lines, X.25, ATM, Frame Relay, ...)
• Support of existing transport protocols and their applications, such as OSI, TCP/IP family, etc.
• Widely available, cheap and reliable.

The Internet Protocol (IP) is a Networking Protocol that ideally supports these requirements. IP also adds flexibility to how management connectivity is achieved when networks are rolled out, by offering various implementation choices. For instance, these may take the form of:

• Dedicated management intranets.
• Separation from or integration into an operator's enterprise network.
• Utilisation, in one-way or another, of capacities of the public Internet and its applications or other resources.

Meeting application requirements in the most affordable manner together with development lead-time are important issues identified in early 3GPP management standardisation work. But the TMN functional, information and physical architectures should also keep pace with the introduction of new technologies, services and evolving network infrastructures. Technology is advancing so rapidly today that this should be a fundamental part of the physical architecture - to be able to easily adopt new important technologies. A 3GPP system will need to incorporate new successful technologies from the IT-world. Today distributed computing implementations have matured to a point where the goals of TMN can be realised using commonly available technologies for a reasonable cost. Widely accepted open standards and new IT-technologies will be indispensable to fulfil the challenging managing requirements of a 3GPP system. New technologies in the IT business such as generic application components together with distributed processing technology are new important drivers upon application design of management systems. The possibility to purchase functional components from the open market are of great importance from many aspects such as cost-efficiency and time-to-market.