FCAPS

FCAPS

FCAPS and Its Importance

FCAPS is a model and framework for telecommunications management network of ISO for network management. FCAPS is an acronym for Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security) which are the categories into which the ISO model defines network management tasks. In some networks replaced with Management Accounting.

The detailed management of the IT infrastructure of an organization's information is a fundamental requirement. Employees and customers rely on IT services, and the availability and performance are important issues to be quickly identified and resolved. The average repair time should be as low as possible to prevent system crashes where possible loss of benefits or lives.

ISO management model classifies tasks management systems in five functional areas. The task manager will manage an enterprise network management platform evaluation using as to the extent that said platform resolves the management problems in each of these areas, which made it important (ITU-T, 1997):

Configuration management.

Performance Management.

Management accounting.

Fault Management.

Security management.

Value Of Enterprise Network Management Systems

Network management is often centralized in a management center, which controls and monitors the proper functioning of all equipment integrated into the various networks of the company in question. A network management center has three main types of resources (ITU-T, 1996):

Management methods. Define the behavior patterns of the other components of network management center in certain circumstances.

Human Resources. Staff involved with the proper functioning of the network management center.

Support tools. Tools that facilitate management tasks and allow human operators to minimize the number of these.

Systems management support consists generally (ISO/IEC, 1998): Interface with the operator or manager of the network. This interface to information management, through which the operator can invoke operations performing control and monitoring of the resources under their responsibility, is a cornerstone in achieving a management system to succeed. This can consist of alarms and alerts in real time, graphical analysis and activity reports, Hardware and software elements distributed among different network components.

The elements of the network management system, under the manager-agent paradigm, are classified into two groups:

Managers are the elements of the management system that interact with human operators and trigger actions necessary to carry out the tasks has invoked them.

Agents, on the other hand, are the components of the management system invoked by the manager or managers of the network.

The operating principle lies in the exchange of management information between managers and managed nodes nodes. Typically, agents managed by each node status information and operating characteristics of a particular network resource. The manager asks the agent, through a network management protocol, to perform certain operations on those data management, through which you can know the status of the appeal and may influence their behavior.

There are several network management protocols, within which stands SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), belonging to the TCP / IP. This is the protocol used in enterprise networks, as all computers support it, and in fact, SNMP can be considered the de facto standard. Another standard protocol is the CMIP (Common Management Information Protocol) family of protocols OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which although not strongly established in the company, is present in the Most operators of telecommunication services for network management (ITU-T, ...