TMF INCHES TOWARD STANDARD WITH MULTI-TECHNOLOGY PLAY

New version of interface provides new technology support

The TeleManagement Forum released a new version of its multi-technology network management (MTNM) interface last week, featuring support for new technologies such as DSL, microwave radio and Ethernet. Optical equipment makers and software companies, including Telcordia Technologies, quickly adopted the interface standard.

MTNM version 3.0 is a suite of solutions that consists of documents defining the information exchange between network management and element management systems, enabling the management of Sonet/SDH, dense wave division multiplexing and ATM networks.

Enhancements to this interface include transport improvements not only to ATM and DWDM but also to multiplex section protection (MSP). Additionally the interface offers enhancements to non-transport areas such as connection, configuration, equipment, performance and fault management.

What began as an initiative by the DWDM crowd has become a defacto standard, said Jim Warner, president and CEO of the TMF. “Six of the top seven optical equipment providers are putting it in their products,” he said.

Version 3 strikes the right balance between complexity, capability and ease of implementation, while maintaining the investments made by Ciena in the original model, said Keith Dorking, senior principal engineer for Ciena, in a statement.

The TMF claims that nearly 40 of the world's top operations support system software vendors and network equipment suppliers already have incorporated the MTNM interface into their products. Telcordia, making its push to be the leader in next-generation network management as well as legacy networks, announced last week successful interoperability testing of the MTNM interface standard with both Fujitsu Network Communications and Ciena.

Telcordia tested its Activator and Inventory solutions with Ciena's CoreDirector product. Telcordia has contributed to the development of the interface with network inventory discovery, event logging, equipment protection and control plane management technologies. As many as 25 TMF companies contributed to the interface specification.

Bruno Codospoti, head of the network activation and management practice at BusinessEdge Solutions, a system integrator and provider of pre-integrated OSS solutions, said companies like Ciena didn't exactly follow the original TMF 814 interface specification, but that the new release is important for them to work in multi-technology networks.

The TMF likely will submit MTNM version 3 to the ITU for acceptance as a standard in that body as well, Warner said. “There may be a smidgen of contention there,” he said. “Some service providers prefer the ITU interface version, but we can do some harmonization there.”

The TMF recently submitted its eTOM (Telecom Operations Map) business process framework to the ITU and expects it to be accepted as early as this week without any modification requests. “When it's made a standard, all other process models can cease and desist,” Warner said.