5. The system of claim 4 , wherein: the network alarm input message processing facility is further configured to receive another network alarm message provided by another network element of the wide area network, the another network alarm message being in the second message format, and map content of the another network alarm message to the plurality of fields of the network universal message format; the network alarm message conversion facility is further configured to: translate the content of the another network alarm message in the second message format, and populate the plurality of fields with the translated content from the network alarm message in the second message format to generate another new network alarm message in the network universal message format; and the network alarm output message processing facility is further configured to provide the another new network alarm message in the network universal message format to the network surveillance application.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein: the first message format is specific to a first vendor that provided the network element; and the second message format is specific to a second vendor that provided the another network element.