13.5. Summary

The aim of this chapter was to give a brief overview of telecommunications management systems and to describe their importance in optical networks. The optical control plane is a recent development, and its functionality is limited in scope, that is, discovery, provisioning, and restoration. A lot more happens in the management plane, and some of the management plane mechanisms are fairly entrenched in carrier networks. The control plane, however, can aid the management plane in certain useful ways, as described in the latter part of this chapter. A good understanding of the management plane functions is essential to put the control plane developments in perspective and to gain an overall understanding of operational aspects of optical networks. A wealth of material is available on management systems and protocols, and the interested readers may start by looking into the references mentioned in this chapter.