12.1 Remote Monitoring Using Web NMS RME

• Distributed Mediation Server : An Introduction

• Distributed Scenarios

• Components in Distributed Setup

• Salient Features of Distributed Mediation Setup

Distributed Mediation Server : An Introduction

Distribution of the network-facing functions is key to management of carrier-class and geographically distributed networks. This also makes network management efficient and scalable, enabling the central site to focus on the analysis of the collected network statistics.

Distributed Mediation Servers (DMS) are servers that can be deployed along with central Web NMS Server in large scale or remotely distributed networks. Each Distributed Mediation Server performs network-facing functions for a segment of the network. The collected data can then be correlated to transfer relevant information to the central Web NMS Server. Thus compared to a centralized data collection, deployment with Distributed Mediation Servers builds a scalable and highly available system.

Distributed Scenarios

Distribution is effective in providing scalability and remote management capabilities to management applications (EMS/NMS). The following sections describe both these :

• Scalability : When deploying management applications (EMS/NMS) to manage a very large networks or those with carrier-class devices, the application needs to be highly scalable to manage the devices, ports and connections, both physical and logical. This need of scalability can be addressed by Web NMS distributing the network facing functionality via the Distributed Mediation Severs. The Central EMS server can collate data from the different Distributed Mediation Servers and provide a single console view of the entire network to the operators.

• Remote Management: When management applications (EMS/NMS) are deployed by telecom and network service providers, they require management of infrastructure across multiple/remote locations. In this case, the network data need to be correlated at the remote locations and only essential data need to be transferred to the central location. The remote location could also have firewall implemented. This need for remote management can be addressed in Web NMS, by deploying the Distributed Mediation Servers at remote locations. The Distributed Mediation Server can even work behind firewalls, collating network data and transferring them to the Central Server. The connection to the Central Server could be a dial up or a dedicated circuit.

The Distributed Mediation Server can also be used by OEMs and equipment manufacturers to provide scalable remote management capability to their Element Management Systems by deploying the DMS in the distributed environments.

Components in  Distributed Setup

When deploying Web NMS using Distributed Mediation Servers, the following components are deployed:

Salient Features of Distributed Mediation Setup

The following are some of the salient features of the Distributed Mediation Server:

• Requires low system resources

• Supports single console to manage devices from various locations

• Functions across networks shielded by firewalls, proxy servers

• Communicates with devices across NAT-enabled networks and provides support for duplicate IP addresses

• Connects to the Central Web NMS Server through a dial-up, VPN, or a WAN network

• In case of communication failure it stores and forwards network data ensuring zero data loss

• Features pluggable communication (supports XML over HTTP & HTTPS, XML over TCP, JMS, etc.)

• Performs the local discovery, status polling, and data collection in the deployed network. All network data are stored in a local database.

• Correlates the network data and transfer only the required data to the central server

• Provides customizable southbound and northbound interfaces

• Supports automatic downloading of service packs from the central site for easy administration