White Paper

Sharing of Terminals at NOC for Console Port Network Elements

By Dr. John W. Pan

Introduction
Centralized management of network elements requires means of communication to link the NOC (network operations center) to each of the network elements. Modern equipment provides IP interfaces for efficient centralized management. However, legacy equipment often only provides a console port for management. Two issues affect efficiency. First, when using the console port for remote management the network must provide dedicated lines from the NOC to such network elements. Second, even when dedicated lines are provided, the NOC needs to provide a terminal for each of such equipment. This paper discusses solutions to these two issues. Note that when network elements have Ethernet ports for management, such equipment can be managed using the IP network for transport. Importantly, since each equipment is addressable a single terminal at the NOC can manage a multitude of such network elements.

RS232 over IP
In terms of Loop Telecom products, the Loop-V4200-9 with a Terminal Server plug-in card can provide RS232 raw data transport over an IP network.
Terminal IP NETWORK

Network Element

TS

Loop-V4200-9

Loop-V4200-9

TS

TS: Terminal Server

Used in this way with a Terminal Server card at each end, the plug-in card can provide IP addresses for the RS232 ports thus allowing transport of raw RS232 management signals. Thus, the transport issue is solved. The next section describes a method to allow shared terminals for the many legacy network elements.

looptelecom.com

March 8, 2002

Sharing of Terminals at NOC for Console Port Network Elements White Paper

Shared Terminal Scheme for Console Port Network Elements

The primary reason for needing a dedicated terminal for each "RS232 type" network element is to collect alarms. Otherwise, by changing the IP address inside the terminal server, a single terminal can be shared, albeit in time-shared mode talking to one NE at a time. The proposal here is to have 1. One port of the Terminal Server will be dedicated to Alarm Collection. The PC connected to this port will be programmed (a) to receive from multiple RS232 type network elements, (b) displaying the address and type of NE, and (c) logging the message with a time stamp. Several other ports will be time-shared for interactive session with any NE. The PCs connected to these ports is used in a time-shared mode by changing its destination IP address. In this way, a few terminals will suffice to manage a multitude of "RS232 type" network elements.
Alarm Collection Terminal Shared Management Terminals

2.

TS Loop-V4200-9
TS: Terminal Server

TS

IP NETWORK

Loop-V4200-9 TS TS

Network Element

Network Element

Network Element

Since each type of NE may need specific management software, each of the management PCs will have the appropriate management software as needed. The number of network elements to be managed in this way is not unlimited. It is determined by the expected traffic. With a very large number of elements, then N terminal ports will be needed for alarm collection, and M terminal ports for interactive management. For example, if 20,000 such network elements are to be managed, then perhaps 2 terminals would be needed for alarm collection, and 10 terminals for interactive management.

looptelecom.com

March 8, 2002