A formal approach to model SNMP network management systems

The simple network management protocol (SNMP) is currently the dominant network management standard for the TCP/IP networking environment. Fundamental to SNMP is the management information base (MIB). The heart of SNMP is the protocol. In this paper, we propose an approach to formalize our understanding of SNMP. We prove that MIB with lexicographic order is a well-founded set. We also provide formal semantics for protocol operations by derivation.