Overview of the Telecommunications Management Network

This paper provides a broad overview of a new telecommunications support called the Telecommunications Managements Network (TMN). The purpose of a TMN is to overlay and interface with a telephone network to manage the operations, administrative and maintenance support for it. The TMN, as described in this paper, is based on work being done by several CCITT Study Groups. Similar studies are also being made by other regional standards organizations in Europe and North America. By maintaining constant liason between these groups, an attempt is being made, wherever possible, to make common recommendations for the TMN. The paper describes both the broad concepts behind the TMN, the major study areas and technical considerations associated with it and the overall architecture proposed for it. It also is intended to provide the background and the basic, TMN definitions needed to support a suite of four companion papers that describes specific aspects of the TMN.