To allow for interoperability of management across many different network platforms, network management standards are required so that vendors can implement and adhere to these standards. Two main standards have emerged:

• Simple Network Management Protocol – IETF community
• Common Management Information Protocol – Telecommunications community

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) actually refers to a set of standards for network management, including a protocol, a database structure specification, and a set of data objects. SNMP was adopted as the standard for TCP/IP internets in 1989 and became very popular. An upgrade, known as SNMP version 2c (SNMPv2c) was adopted in 1993. SNMPv2c provides support for centralized and distributed network management strategies, and included improvements in the structure of management information (SMI), protocol operations, management architecture, and security. This was designed to run on OSI based networks as well as TCP/IP based networks. Since then SNMPv3 has been released. To solve the security shortcomings of SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c, SNMPv3 provides secure access to MIBs by authenticating and encrypting packets over the network. The common management information protocol (CMIP) is an OSI network management protocol that was created and standardized by the ISO for the monitoring and control of heterogeneous networks.

Web Links CMIP http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/ tk472/tk473/ tk119/tech_protocol_ home.html