Do-it-yourself TMN applications by visual programming methods

The development of specialized telecommunications management network (TMN) applications using conventional programming languages requires enormous development resources. In this article a method is presented that enables any network operator to create customized applications utilizing visual programming techniques. The advanced script construction method outlined in this article represents a script in the operations system (OS) as a linked network of templates for individual network element (NE) commands/Q3 operations and NE responses similar to a hypertext structure employed for the navigation through multimedia documents. The scripts are created by using visual programming techniques. The craft can interactively influence script control flow during its execution. This creates a vast number of options for script construction and virtually eliminates the expensive design and development of specialized TMN applications