Reusability enhancement by using flexible topology architecture for network management system

Abstract

With the expansion of services on IP Network, many network management systems have been developed by telecommunication companies in order to manage the service network. Based on the common functionalities among network management systems, a platform for network management system was developed, so that a network management system can be developed on the platform. However, in the process of development, reusability of the modules of the platform has been stagnating around 30%. Thus this thesis proposes a method to enhance reusability in developing network management systems. The goal of the method is to overcome the limitation of the reusability approach that utilizes only the management system platform developed based on common functionalities. For this purpose, the architecture of network management system is considered as a proactive reuse strategy. That is, the reuse strategy is to consider the three-tier architecture of network management systems in advance in order to increase reuse rate. This thesis proposes a flexible topology architecture as a way to enhance reusability. We apply the approach to the user interface tier where reuse rate turns out to be low according to the reusability analysis. For building flexible network management topology, the concepts of ``Block and Scope``, ``Scope and Group Box``, and ``Equip and Scope`` are suggested. The flexible topology architecture, especially using the concept of ``Equip and Scope``, can contribute to reusability improvement in developing a network management system.