Viewpoints of the Architecture

This architecture provides the common model required for interoperable network management. It is presented as a number of viewpoints, each of which provides a different abstraction of the system and examines some aspects of the general model presented above. Each viewpoint describes the major components and the interactions from different points of abstraction. Viewpoints are simply different views of the same overall problem, with a focus on a particular aspect. This very much follows on from the model we presented in the Preface and chapter one. The presentation of architectural issues through a number of viewpoints is intended to give a clearer understanding of the issues and how they relate to each other. This approach also helps in placing priorities on issues and identifying areas of neglect. Considering each of the viewpoints in turn may be helpful in the process of designing a management solution. The three viewpoints in this architecture are as follows:
  1. The Enterprise Viewpoint This viewpoint focuses on requirements of management and manageability, policies and interoperability. The intent is to represent the user's view of the architecture, and the overall goals of the architecture. An enterprise model describes the overall objectives of a system in terms of roles ( for people ), actions, goals and policies. It specifies the activities that take place within the organization using the system, the roles that people play in the organization, and the interactions between the organization, the system and the environment in which system and organization area placed.
  2. The Information and Computational Viewpoint The purpose of the information viewpoint is the identification and location of information, and the description of information processing activities.An information model describes the structure, flow, interpretation, value timeliness and consistency of information held within the system. The purpose of the computational viewpoint is to describe the system as a set of linked applications programs. A computational model provides programmers with a description of a system that explains how distributed application programs may be written for it. The information and computational viewpoint compose of
  3. The Engineering Viewpoint The purpose of the engineering viewpoint is to describe the system in such a way that designers can reason about the performance of the system built to their designs. This viewpoint discusses the realization of the common model as physical communication, and addresses the requirements that arise from physically separating OSs and managed objects. This includes communication techniques, conformance, and supplier-specific extensions.
  4. Conformance It is envisaged for a system to conform in any number of viewpoint and conformance to each viewpoint brings different benefits. The enterprise and information viewpoints can be used to establish a design model of information sources and processes that meet the requirements of the enterprise that requested the system. Conformance requirements in these viewpoint identify constraints on the conceptual schema of the system information base and on system management policies necessary to enable the system to operate. The computational viewpoint can be used to transform an information model into a network of interacting computer programs. Conformance requirements at this level identify constraints on programming language structures to enable the system to operate. The engineering viewpoint can be used to transform a computational viewpoint model into a model in terms of processing, memory and communication functions. The conformance requirements at this level identify constraints on system that independently conform to the architecture necessary to enable their interconnection.