managing a nuclear reactor, analyze the output, and hand a simple, easy-to-respond- to decision to the operator. The same problem is true in complex networks. Most of them have hundreds of managed devices with simple associated element- management systems that generate primitive data about the health and welfare of each device. The information from these element managers is delivered to the network management center, where it is displayed on one of many monitors that the network managers themselves use to track and respond to the status of the network. What they really need is a single map of the network that shows all of the managed devices in Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Protocols Chapter 2 green if they are healthy. If a device begins to approach a preestablished threshold of performance, the icon on the map that represents that device turns yellow, and if it fails entirely it turns red, yells loudly, and automatically reports and escalates the trouble. In one of his many books on American management practices, USC Professor Emeritus Warren Bennis observes that "the business of the future will be run by a person and a dog. The person will be there to feed the dog; the dog will be there to make sure the person doesn't touch anything." Clearly that model applies here. So, how can this ideal model of network management be achieved? Every vendor will tell you that its element-management system is the best element manager ever created. None of them are willing to change the user interface that they have created SO carefully. Using a canonical form, however, there is no reason to. All that has to be done is to exact an agreement from all vendors that stipulates that while they do not have to change their user interface, they must agree to speak some form of technological Esperanto on the back side of their device. That way, t