Object oriented modeling of configuration management in global networks

In our current environment, the international telecommunications network is a static union of bi-laterally owned disjoint subnetworks managed and operated pairwise by carriers with capacity engineered for peak traffic resulting in very low utilization at off-peaks. This paper describes an innovative configuration management infrastructure by which the bi-laterally owned subnetworks can be reconfigured at the facility layer to mimic a multi-lateral network. The proposed dynamic capacity reassignment exploits the time-of-day capacity usage due to time-zone differences between carriers. Network robustness and efficiency are enhanced by shifting the unused bi-laterally owned capacity in the network periodically or during demand surges to meet the network load. Such capacity shifts require coupling between the transport and switching layers to ensure that the reconfigured capacity is cleared of calls. This paper focuses on the object oriented information modeling of capacity management in the context of a two-tier network management system by which the technological disparities of bi-lateral subnetworks are made invisible. This object model is based on the CCITT TMN X-interface and interpreted for the specific application. To our knowledge, this is the first such exploitation of TMN.