IB to XML schema converter XML config file and data base SNMP MIB Figure 18.4 Block diagram of XMLP agent. Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS to XML-based protocol for the network management. XML-based protocol is mostly linked with HTTP, but most of the concepts discussed here with UDP holds good. 18.6 SOAP SOAP (simple object access protocol) is a lightweight protocol that uses XML to define the messaging framework to generate messages that can be exchanged over a variety of protocols. SOAP provides a structured information exchange in a decentralized and distributed environment using all the capabilities offered by XML technology. It should be understood that SOAP is just a management pro- tocol and does not require development of client or server in a specific programing language, though most open source, SOAP-based, client-server developments are using Java. SOAP is stateless and does not enforce a specific schematic for the management data it has to exchange. SOAP was a recommendation from W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). The SOAP 1.2 recommendation has two parts. The first part defines the SOAP message envelope while the second part defines the data model and protocol binding for SOAP. Following with the XMLP discussion, the SOAP message envelope has a SOAP header and SOAP body. The header is identified using the tag <env:Header> and the body is identified using the tag <env:Body>. The header contains the transac- tion and management information as in most XML protocols. Standardizing bod- ies for Web services are working toward defining standard entries for the header in specific domains. The SOAP header block is not mandatory for message transmission. Specific information that can be used by SOAP intermediaries or destination nodes can be put in the header block. The SOAP body blocks/entries are mandatory for any message envelope to be valid and this block is the key information that is processed at the receiver. It can contain either the application data, the remote procedure call with parameters, or 