is an "object," and, for the most part, implemented as a software object, it seams appropriate to specify it in an object-oriented (OO) way. The language to be used should be independent of any software design language, which implies the use of UML, AMLs or the CORBA approach. However, MOs have been described for a long time already with TMN, SNMP, and lately also with CORBA specific methods. TMN and SNMP both use ASN. for data specifications (as AMLs does), while CORBA use C++ typing (as UML does). The similarities end with the use of common data types, however: TMN describes its MO-specification language as "Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects" (GDMO). A TMN-MO is a "real object," i.e., specified as to its operations, data structure, behavior and inheritance relations. The syntax for TMN objects is defined as an extension of ASN. 1, using the "macro facility" of that language. SNMP describes its MO-specification language as "Structure of Management Information (SMI)." An SMI is divided into three parts: module definitions, MO definitions, and notification definitions. MOs are stored in a virtual "manage- ment information base" (MIB). Collections of related objects are defined in MIB modules that are written using an adapted subset of ASN. 1. SNMP-MOs are not objects in the same sense as in TMN. SNMP-MOs are described in terms of variables that may have states. The only operations that can be performed on these MOs are therefore some kind of reads and writes. If CORBA is used as a platform3 for mpCPs, IDL (the "interface definition lan- guage") will be used as the MO-specification language. IDL is a language that relies on how CORBA views objects in general. This view is very similar to how you specify objects in C++, although generalized in order to facilitate adap- tation to different software design languages. Mapping specifications between IDL and languages such as C, C++, ADA, JAVA, and SMALLTALK are pro- vided. CORBA objects are stored in an "interface repository" (the correspond- ence to a MI