Network management system using model-based intelligence

A method for obtaining user information relating to a computer network, comprising the steps of:

• representing network entities of said computer network by models, each model containing data relating to a corresponding network entity and being implemented by at least one object-oriented software object containing said network data;
• representing relations between said network entities by model relations;
• updating the data in said models with new data from the corresponding network entities;
• processing the data in said models to provide user information;
• and supplying the user information to a user.

A method for monitoring the status of a network comprising a plurality of interrelated network entities, said method comprising the steps of:

• maintaining in a computer system a representation of the network including models and relations between models, each model corresponding to one or more of the network entities and including status information regarding one or more network entities, each model further including one or more inference handlers;
• said representation of the network communicating with selected ones of the network entities and obtaining operational information;
• said inference handlers updating the status information in said models in response to said operational information;
• and
• said representation of the network providing the status information to a user.