4.3 Application of IRPs

32.1503GPPIntegration Reference Point (IRP) Concept and definitionsRelease 17Telecommunication managementTS

When providing integrated management solutions for multi-vendor networks, there is a strong requirement that the NEs and the management solutions that go together with them are systems integratable.

It should be noted that these IRPs could be provided by an IRPAgent on any management interface.

These IRPs are introduced to ensure interoperability, for example between Product-Specific Applications (PSA) and the Network and System Management Processes (SMP) of the Network Manager (NM) – see figure 4.3 from TS 32.101 [1]. These IRPs are considered to cover the most basic needs of task automation.

Figure 4.3: Examples of IRPs for application integration

Taking one of the above mentioned IRPs as an example, the Network and System Management Processes have similar need to receive notifications from various PSAs. The corresponding service is formalized as a Notification IRP.
It specifies: firstly, an interface through which subscriptions to different types of notifications can be set-up
(or cancelled), and secondly, common attributes for all notifications.

Further, applying a common Name Convention for Managed Objects is useful for co-operating applications that require identical interpretation of names assigned to network resources under management.