Network management: Emerging trends and challenges

Network management is arguably one of the most important challenges faced by the owners and operators of advanced networks and services. Lucent Technologies, as a major equipment vendor, and Bell Labs, as its R&D arm, have had extensive historical experience with designing network management systems for AT&T telecommunication networks and other associated data networks. This experience enables Lucent to provide unique differentiation to its products and also places it in an excellent position to address the network management needs and challenges of the emerging networks and services. This issue of the Bell Labs Technical Journal provides a sample of some of the many the activities, tools, technology trends, and designs currently under way in network management in various wings of Lucent. This paper, an introduction to the issue, discusses the evolution of network management, placing it in the context of underlying networking trends. In addition, it provides a brief introduction to the papers presented in this issue, which together provide a snapshot of Lucent's network management activities in support of an efficient, reliable, and flexible networking vision.