Abstract :
Fast-packet based services are set to dominate the telecommunications business at the beginning of the next millennium. The commercial and technical reasons for using technologies such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay (FR) and the internetworking protocol (IF) within terrestrial networks are well documented and the techniques for managing such networks are fairly well understood. Future broadband networks, including IMT2000/UMTS are likely to be based on a fast-packet architecture even if the core and access elements use different technology. Satellite systems are set to adopt the same transport technologies as terrestrial systems and support the same applications and services. Many of the network and service management issues will also be similar, but some characteristics of satellite systems will raise different issues to be resolved. Future satellite systems will need a different approach to management of space segment capacity. This will require a more flexible and dynamic approach to system management which takes more account of service provider and customer requirements. The use of packet based transport would appear to be the ideal technology to achieve this due to inherent statistical multiplexing capabilities. The application of dynamic management will depend on the architecture of the system itself and the facilities required by the service providers. This paper reviews the work currently ongoing in the field of next generation access network management and how it can be applied to satellite fast-packet networks
