With network operators vying for customers for a new generation of virtual private networks, Bell Communications Research – the research arm for the Baby Bells – has introduced proposed generic changes to the Switched Multi-Megabit Data Service standard that could eat into their main advantage: manageability. Virtual Private Networks score at the moment of course because they can be used both for speech and data, whereas the Switched Service is restricted to the latter. But who can doubt that when broadband ISDN finally arrives, Bellcore and like-minded organisations will add similar services to them. The sales pitch for virtual private networks leans strongly on the fact that people like to retain control of their networks. Use our service, they say, and you will be able to manage sections of the public operators network as if it were your own. The new work by Bellcore plays on exactly the same point and attempts to find ways in which Switched Multimegabit networks can be tied into existing local network management regimes. The document, Generic Requirements for SMDS Customer Network Management Service, TA-TSV-0001062, Issue 2, defines how users can directly access a variety of critical information to manage SMDS service, details the various capabilities they will have with the service, and outlines Switched customer network management service objectives. Issue 1 of the Advisory was released in early 1991. As with the previous issue Bellcore has chosen the Simple Network Management Protocol as the interface between the user and the operator, but the updated advisory goes further in the extent to which users can actually tweak and reconfigure the network operator’s equipment. So instead of just being able to request alerts if something goes wrong the subscriber will be able to invoke test procedures or halt delivery of a particular service to a particular terminal. The organisation is not blind to the security gaps that could be opened by this kind of flexibility, and requires the use of Secure SNMP as developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Finally, Bellcore has decided to tackle the thorny issue of usage information and billing. Bellcore proposes that each network has a usage server so that network managers can retrieve their usage information via the standard File Transfer Protocol. The European Telecommunication Standards Institute uses Bellcore’s work as the basis for a European-ised version of the technology. However, it was was unable to say immediately whether the latest changes would be incorporated into its work.
