There are many types of systems available for various purposes of network management, which help network management professionals to manage and operate the network and services daily. However, there is no single solution available to address all the network management requirements. Each system may cover one or several functions.
In the following table, we listed the major network management systems and their functions and applications, the corresponding technologies and the leading vendors/systems.
| Systems / Tool Types | Functions/ Applications | Technologies | Examples |
| AAA: Authentication, Authorization, Accounting |
User management, network access security, and billing | RADIUS, TACACS+, Kerberos, SSH, MD5 | Market fragmented |
| Alarm Management Systems | Collect, monitor and analyze alarms from the network for fault management. | SNMP, CMIP/CMIS | Market fragmented |
| BERT: Bit Error Rate Tester | Test bit error rate and block error rate in modems. (Cable and DSL) | Fluke, Agilent | |
| Billing Systems | Bill services to users | No standards for this application. | Market fragmented |
| BSS: Business Support Systems | Taking customer’s orders, managing customer data, billing, rating, and offering B2B and B2C services | No standards for this application. | Telcordia |
| Collectors and Probes | Gather data from the network and feed the data to a management platform for analysis | Netflow, IPFIX, syslog, SNMP, RMON | Market fragmented |
| Device Manager | Manage individual network devices | CLI: Command-Line Interface | Provided by equipment vendors such as Cisco CLI |
| Element Manager | Manage element configuration, monitor and change status of network elements, fault management, etc. | NETCONF, CLI, SNMP | Often provided by the equipment vendor, such as Cisco Works2000 |
| Firewall | Detect and block un-authorized and suspicious access to network; prevent possible attacks. | Filtering, pattern match, inspection, Net Address Translation (NAT) | Market fragmented |
| IDS: Intrusion Detection Systems and IPS: Intrusion Prevention Systems | Detect abnormal traffic and prevent possible attacks | Content inspection, Signature scanning, behavior analysis | Market fragmented |
| Inventory Systems | Track and manage assets of network, and the services provided by the network | CMIP/CMIS. | Market fragmented |
| Management Platforms | Network configuration, fault and performance monitoring for an entire network | NETCONF, SNMP, Netflow, syslog | HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli |
| Network Analyzers | Trouble shooting; traffic monitoring and analysis | Packet sniffing, protocol analysis | Network General Sniffer, Agilent NetMatrix |
| Network Mapping | Draw network topology map, network configuration, fault monitoring, asset tracking | SNMP, Ping, CMIP/CMIS | LANsurveyor |
| OSS: Operations Support Systems | Performs management, inventory, engineering, planning, and repair functions for Service Providers | SNMP, CWMP (CPE WAN Management Protocol) | Telcordia |
| Performance Analysis Systems | Analyze traffic and performance data for network planning, load balancing and optimization. | SNMP, RMON, NetFlow, IPFIX, CMIP/CMIS | Market fragmented |
| Service Provisioning Systems | Facilitate deployment of services over the network. It may be part of OSS. | CWMP (CPE WAN Management Protocol) | |
| Service Order Management Systems | Manage orders for services by customers. It may be part of BSS. | No standards in for this application. | |
| Systems Management | Enterprise-wide administration of distributed computer systems. | SNMP, CMIP/CMIS, syslog, NetFlow, IPFIX, NETCONF | HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Microsoft SMS |
| Trouble Ticket Systems | Manage the process to effectively solve the reported problems in a network. | No standards in for this application. | LANDesk |
| Work Order Systems | Assign and track maintenance jobs in a network to ensure its effective completion. | No standards in for this application. | LANDesk |
Related Terms:SNMP, RMON, CMIP, CMIS, Netflow, ICMP, IPFIX, CLI, FCAPS, TMN, RADIUS, TACACS, Network Performance, Fault Management, Security Management, Configuration Management, Accounting Management