MCI Communications Corp has become the first US long-distance company to offer Simple Network Management Protocol-based network management for its Frame Relay service. This is claimed to enable customers to manage wide area networks and local area networks simultaneously. Dubbed the Virtual Private Data Service, VPDS, Frame Relay Customer Network Management System, the service collects and displays Frame Relay performance and alarm monitoring information, on demand, from the MCI VPDS network. Information available on it includes: alarms on network equipment; permanent virtual circuits and access lines; input and output errors as well as statistics on frame and byte counts. Information is provided from an MCI Common Network Management server, through the Frame Relay network, to the customer’s workstation: in addition to the use of standard SNMP, MCI’s Enterprise Defined Management Information Base defines which information database is available to the customer. The network management service uses the same access line for both Frame Relay traffic and network management. It is initially to be offered as a stand-alone feature of MCI’s Frame Relay service, but the company also says that it plans to enhance Common Network Management capabilities for use with future services, as well as incorporating it or similar capabilities into other MCI data network management products, such as its Integrated Network Management Service. The claim is that the system will work with customers’ existing management stations and MCI is making the MIN/B information freely available. However, the idea is also to offer a variety of options to customers, including a complete turnkey system that incorporates all the necessary hardware and software to manage the network. While pricing has not been finalised, MCI says that it is to charge installation fees based on the level of installation support required, as well as monthly charges of from $300 to $2,000, depending on the workstation and network management package selected. This capability is to be available on a limited basis from this month and will be generally available from the first quarter next year.
