An integrated methodology for supporting network planning and traffic engineering with considerations to SMDS service

The integrated network planning system (INPLANS) is introduced. It was developed to provide a single environment to support regional network planning and traffic engineering across different networking technologies. There are four main capabilities in INPLANS: integrated network monitoring (INM), which supports planning and engineering monitoring studies; integrated network servicing (INS), which provides an integrated and interactive environment for the network servicing process; integrated capacity expansion (ICE), which provides a 1-5 year view of network demands and requirements; and integrated technology planning (ITP), which provides cost effective backbone and network access design plans. The overall network planning and traffic engineering process and how it is supported and implemented in INPLANS are described. The switched multimegabit data service (SMDS) is considered, and the impact of SMDS on the planning and engineering process is described