FCAPS

Back in April 1997 the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) released recommendation M3400. This was the first introduction to FCAPS where the general management functionality was split into five key areas. The ISO (International Standards Organisation) the applied the concept to data networks calling it the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Network Management Model as the basis for managing data networks.

All management is to do with monitoring and control, and the management of networks is no exception. Each aspect of network management we will see a lifecycle of some sort, corresponding to analysis, design, construction, monitoring and back to analysis again.

In the things would fit nicely into the framework, however these days you will find lots of overlaps. The framework should not be viewed as a rigid set of rules but as a high level guide. In my experience good fault management will always involve performance management, with performance data you get a much better view of what is going on in the environment and as a result identify the fault before it starts to impact services.