rk elements had low- tech command line interfaces (CLIs) that allowed operators to configure device parameters and required a lot of manual intervention and support to maintain device and network inventory, provision services and re-route traffic. The intelligence was provided by the OSS, which was costly to develop and maintain, and by humans who were difficult to hire and train. Each device had a separate unique interface that had to be understood. The networking trend will take us towards intelligent devices and networks that are programmable, self-managing and self-healing. These devices present standardized interfaces such as XML and SNMP, aid in automation of numerous manual tasks, and allow dynamic configuration/re- configuration of highly available network services. The concept of pushing the intelligence into the network means that we can develop lighter-weight OSS applications that rely less on human intervention. For example, an The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS intelligent network that can perform self-discovery and notify an OSS inventory application of the installed elements and cards, used ports and bandwidth will drastically simplify the network inventory process and lead to more accurate inventory. The move from dumb network devices to intelligent ones allows us to reduce our reliance on intelligence trapped in people and applications, and reduces operations cost. Furthermore, distribution of intelligence in the network elements themselves allows for greater scalability. Intelligent network devices on the network include softswitches, IP-PBX, SIP-enabled phones, IADs, CPE equipment, broadband aggregators, NGDLCs, MPLS routers and switches. Cisco has been pioneering the effort on intelligent and programmable network elements through the development of Intelligent Agents that run on the network element and provide functions for Syslog-based fault reporting, scaleable configuration/re-configuration, collection of usage based accounting parameters, management of SLAs and service a