An alarm management approach in the management of multi-layered networks

We consider large interconnected networks that operate under a user-provider paradigm (such as IP over SONET) where networks from different layers are in different administrative domains. In such a relationship, the overall network survivability can benefit from a limited sharing of network management data between networks of different layers. The paper proposes a multi-layered alarm management framework in such a setting. The alarm manager uses a finite state machine to represent an alarm instance with state transitions triggered as a result of the correlation of multiple alarms. We present a constructive argument to demonstrate the correctness of the finite state machine. Alarm correlation is handled by a rule-based reasoning engine. The set of correlation rules and corresponding actions depends on the definition of alarms that can enter the system. Therefore, based on the multi-layered paradigm and the inclusion of a performance management agent, three alarm categories are created: provider network alarms; user network alarms; predictive alarms.