CISCO-WIRELESS-NOTIFICATION-MIB

This MIB is intended to be implemented on those Network Management applications that manage a network of wireless devices through the Controller and send relevant management information to Northbound Operation Support Systems. The Northbound OSS, with the information received shall present a consolidated view of the whole network of wireless devices. The NM learns the status of the managed devices from the Controller through interfaces like the SNMP, and raises events. Depending upon the event severity, alerts are raised for the events. The alert/event information is sent to the Northbound OSS in the form of SNMP Notifications. This MIB defines these Notifications. The MIB objects cWNotificationDescription, cWNotificationSpecialAttributes and cWNotificationVirtualDomains have been defined to have a maximum size of 1024. The bigger size is required for the following reasons. 1. If the size is reduced, the information intended to be sent to the Northbound applications will be truncated / lost. 2. Networks using UDP are better in handling fragmentation than before. 3. In case if the implementation is used in those networks that can't handle Notifications of a larger size, the intent is to suggest the use of the TCP as the transport protocol for SNMP as against the UDP. 4. The respective objects may not have the maximum defined range at all the times. The higher range is just to accommodate those cases where the size can hit the maximum value. The relationships between NCS, CC, AP, MN and Mgmt-Appl can be depicted as follows : +................+ +................+ + + + + + NB OSS 1 + .. + NB OSS n + + + + + +................+ +................+ ^ ^ . . . . Notifications . . . +..........+ + + + NCS + + + +..........+ ^ ^ ^ . . . SNMP . . . . . . . . . +......+ +......+ +......+ + + + + + + + CC + + CC + + CC + + + + + + + +......+ +......+ +......+ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +......+ +......+ +......+ +......+ + + + + + + + + + AP + + AP + + AP + + AP + + + + + + + + + +......+ +......+ +......+ +......+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +......+ +......+ +......+ +......+ + + + + + + + + + MN + + MN + + MN + + MN + + + + + + + + + +......+ +......+ +......+ +......+ GLOSSARY Access Point ( AP ) An entity that contains an 802.11 medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) interface and provides access to the distribution services via the wireless medium for associated clients. LWAPP APs encapsulate all the 802.11 frames in LWAPP frames and sends it to the Controller to which it is logically connected to. Alert An alert is an NM response to one or more related Events from Managed Object. If the Event learnt is severe enough to let the user know about, the NM raises an alert i.e if event has one of the following severity critical, major, minor or warning. One or more Events can result in a single alert being raised. Central Controller ( CC ) The central entity that terminates the LWAPP protocol tunnel from the LWAPP APs. Throughout this MIB, this entity is also referred to as 'Controller'. Event An Event is an occurrence or detection of some condition in and around the network. Event can be generated by the NM corresponding to traps received or through polling the managed object. Light Weight Access Point Protocol ( LWAPP ) This is a generic protocol that defines the communication between the Access Points and the Controllers. Managed Object Managed Objects are used to represent those entities being managed by the NM. It could be an AP, WLAN, Controller or an MN. Mobile Node ( MN ) Mobile Nodes are roaming 802.11 wireless devices that would associate to an AP to get their uplink to the wired network. Mobile Nodes are also known as clients. Network Management Application ( NM ) Application which manages network of managed objects using SNMP. It provides network management functions of FCAPS - Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security to manage the network. Notification NM application like NCS sends Notifications defined through this MIB, corresponding to their Alerts and Events to a Northbound OSS to provide a consolidated view. Operations Support Systems ( OSS ) Management applications in the network that receive Notifications from NM (like NCS) and provide consolidated view of the whole network of wireless devices. Received Signal Strength Indicator ( RSSI ) A measure of the strength of the signal as observed by the entity that received it, expressed in 'dbm'. Signal-Noise Ratio ( SNR ) A measure of the quality of the signal relative to the strength of noise expressed in 'dB'. Virtual Domain A NM's Virtual Domain is a logical grouping that consists of a set of managed objects like Controllers, APs, WLANs, maps etc. It restricts a user's view to information relevant to these managed objects. Through a virtual domain, an administrator can ensure that users are only able to view the managed objects and maps for which they are responsible. A managed object can belong to more than one virtual domain. Network Control System ( NCS ) Network Control System (NCS) is a converged platform for wired, wireless, and security policy management in a single solution for faster troubleshooting and more efficient network operations. Wireless LAN ( WLAN ) A WLAN refers to the network of IEEE 802.11 complaint wireless devices within mutual communication range of each other via the wireless medium. REFERENCE [1] Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications. [2] IEEE 802.11 - The original 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s, 2.4 GHz RF and IR standard.