Question 9/II - International network management
(Continuation of Question 23/II, amended, studied in
the 1985-1988 study period)

Considering

1. that digital exchanges and digital transmission systems have been
introduced in the international network, and these facilities will have
the ability to dynamically allocate digital transmission capacity;

2. that these digital facilities will provide the means to introduce a
variety of new services, and that these new services may generate
varying amounts of revenue, and administrations may wish to assign
different priorities to the various services, particularly during
periods of
network congestion;

3. that the introduction of new services may generate new or unusual
traffic flows in the network, and the effect of these new traffic flows
may not be fully understood when the service is introduced;

4. that interworking between the telephone network and non-telephone
networks is developing, and that congestion in one network (or in the
interface between the networks) has the potential to cause problems in
the connected network;

5. that time-dependent or state-dependent dynamic routing schemes
may be considered for use in the international network, and their
introduction may create new considerations for network management;

6. that network management controls can be effective in alleviating
congestion in common channel signalling networks, and can also help
during CCS fault recovery, and these controls could be applied
automatically and in any case should be coordinated with the internal
CCS flow control and fault recovery mechanisms;

(Note - This part of the Question has some urgency, considering reports
from administrations of exchange failures apparently caused by
inadequate resources for common channel signalling.)

7. that with the increasing size of digital exchanges and transmission
systems, failures of such facilities may have a severe impact on service
if network management actions are not pre-planned and implemented;

8. that the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) can
support a wide range of network management functions between a
network management centre (or operation system) and exchanges, and
also between exchanges,

What new Recommendations, or changes to existing
Recommendations, are necessary to provide guidance on the network
management surveillance and control capabilities which may be
necessary for the ISDN, and in particular during the transition to ISDN?

Note - In progressing this Question, close coordination will be
necessary with Study Group XI for common channel signalling and
digital exchange aspects, Study Group XVIII for ISDN, Study Group X for
the specification of MML functions for network management, Study
Groups IV, XI and XV for TMN and with Study Group VII for data
network aspects.