Panos Georgatsos
Algosystems S.A, Greece
Dimitris Makris
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
David Griffin
University College London, UK
George Pavlou
University of Surrey, U.K
Stelios Sartzetakis
Institute of Computer Science-Foundation for Research and Technology, Greece
Yves T'Joens
Alcatel Corporate Research Center, Belgium
Daniel Ranc
Institut National des Telecommunications, France
This paper addresses the applicability and interoperation of standards and emerging technologies for the operation and management of ATM networks. The issue is tackled from a practical perspective based on experiences gained through the design, realisation and experimentation of a system developed by the ACTS AC208 REFORM project. Assuming an ATM-based network infrastructure offering a range of services with distinct QoS guarantees, the REFORM system encompasses the required functions for ensuring cost-effective network survivability and availability; fast-responding, reliable fault detection and self-healing mechanisms, distributed dynamic routing functions with inherent load balancing capabilities, efficient VP layer design and dynamic network reconfiguration functions. A number of standards and emerging technologies were used for designing and realising the wide spectrum of the functionality incorporated within the REFORM system, including: ITU-T OAM I.610 and Q.2931, ATMF UNI 3.0 and PNNI version 1, OMG CORBA and Component Model, TINA NRA and ISO/OSI and ITU-T TMN. Based on the gained experience, the paper discusses and draws conclusions on the applicability, coexistence and interoperation of the adopted technologies. It is shown that these technologies can coexist, through careful design, to the benefits of network design and operation.