Overview of IN and TMN harmonization

Introduces the work being performed in ETSI and ITU-T on the management of IN and on IN and TMN harmonization. After a short history of, and rationale for the work in this area, a brief overview of the results achieved in ETSI's joint experts group on IN/TMN is provided. This includes the proposed mapping of the IN functional entities onto TMN function blocks and the proposal for integration of IN and TMN modeling techniques. This work has resulted in the “Baseline Document on the Integration of IN and TMN”. Both ETSI and ITU-T have accepted this document as a starting point for further addressing the special requirements of IN with respect to management (i.e., rapid deployment and provisioning of new services and corresponding management functionality). The work on further alignment of IN and TMN terminology and concepts is an ongoing activity, as both IN and TMN concepts are expected to evolve toward the definition of open and distributed platform-oriented environments. The article also addresses this work program, the intermediate results, and the expected outcome of this continued effort on the standardization of IN management