The Committee on Network Operations and Management, CNOM, provides the Communications Society with a focus on network and service operation and management.
CNOM actively encourages the exchange of information on the operational and technical management aspects of public and private networks for voice, data, image, and video, and organizes publications and discussions of these topics.
Specific technical interests include:
- Automation of network operations
Effectiveness, prompt service delivery, cost decrease, process re-engineering: these are just a few of the aspects related to the automation of network operations.
Attention shall be posed in the process of automation to the risk of sclerotizing the management through the shift of procedures from human to computers: as needs and technology evolve the systems supporting and controlling the management rapidly become “legacy” and may make further evolution sluggish, costly and difficult. - Real-time management of networks
Relates to the variety of problems of managing resources to exploit the network capabilities. Hot issues are bandwidth management in ATM and the management of Internet traffic. - Customer network management and control
Outsourcing is in full upswing. The issue of customer network management includes also the aspects of mgt systems deployed on the customer premises allowing the customer to manage local and the virtual network offered by public network providers. - Management in a deregulated environment
The telecommunications Act is reshaping the rules of the game in the USA and beyond. New challenges are appearing. This area includes the aspect of end-to-end management across several jurisdictional boundaries and interdomain management agreement for resource management and quality of service ensurance. - Enterprise network management
Enterprises are more and more based on a networking of their resources and more and more vital business information and processes are intertwined with communications networks. This area includes Intranets as well as Extranets management. - Network-operations architecture
As transport networks become a commodity the competitive edge for an Operator is more and more tied to its capabilities in the effective operations. Process re-engineering is up in the list of priorities for Large network operators. - Service management
Most people agree that money derives from services and selling (managing) services is the real competitive edge in communications today.
Operators often tend to approach service management from a network perspective, i.e. they work to ensure that the underlying network is reliable and delivers good quality so that services can rest assured of the unrestrained availability of the network.
As more and more networks are involved in the delivery of services this approach may become unpractical and very costly (like managing a network by focusing on the existence of perfect links and equipment). New approaches have to be found.
Another aspect to be addressed is the management involving Information Systems, such as those related to service provision, customer care, billing. This area is a bridge between telecommunications systems and information systems. - Hot networking technologies and network management
New technologies deriving from the explosion of Internet and the evolution of information technology promise interesting new approaches and solutions to management challenges. That includes disruptive approaches, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), big data and analytics in networks, and Cloud and Fog Computing.
A major goal is to promote dialog among end-users, providers, and manufacturers.
CNOM promotes two network management-focused conferences (NOMS, CNSM) plus symposiums, special sessions, workshops, talks and tutorials at major IEEE Communications Society conferences. It also fosters the publication of network management-related papers in several technical journals.