Protocol-Independent Data Modeling: Lessons Learned from the SMIng Project

The definition of management data models remains a significant effort and because the number of deployed management protocols keeps growing, duplicated efforts and inconsistencies remain a serious problem. A protocol- independent data modeling language for network management protocols called SMIng was developed within the Network Management Research Group of the Internet Research Task Force to tackle some of these problems. This article summarizes the main lessons learned during this project, with a view to helping designers of future management data modeling languages.