Formal description of OSI management information structure as a prerequisite for formal specifications of TMN interfaces

Abstract

When specifying interfaces for the Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) using OSI management information model, coming up with a precise and unambiguous behaviour specification for Managed Objects (MO) classes is a difficult process.

There are two main causes of ambiguities have at least two sources: The first, obviously, is the free English GDMO clauses describing MO behaviours, the second is the standard itself (written in free English) that does not always precisely and formally define what GDMO templates and CMIS management requests express.

This paper presents the study of a formal description in Z of the OSI Management Information Model. Z is a formal description language based on the set theory and first order logic notations.

In our conclusion we show how this formalisation is a progress in building a FDT (Formal Description Technique) for the specifications of TMN interfaces.