Management of a telecommunications system

A telecommunications system, comprising:

• a storage for maintaining a plurality of objects representing elements of the telecommunications system or operations that are applied to those elements, at least one of the plurality of objects representing an element of the telecommunications system and as an operation to be applied to that element;
• a management element for communicating over a communications link with a management controller to enable management operations to be invoked;
• and
• a management controller connected to an item of telecommunications equipment of the telecommunications system for passing messages over a communications link between the management controller and a management element of the telecommunications system to invoke management operations;
• a set of messages which are generated by the management controller or the management element for passing over the communications link to invoke corresponding management operations, each message being arranged to include one or more information elements referenced when processing the message, at least a first message in the set being arranged to include an information element identifying one of said objects;
• the management element being arranged, upon receipt of said first message, to cause the corresponding management operation to be invoked unless the object specified in that message represents an element of the telecommunications system and an operation to be applied to that element, in which event the management element causes a management operation to be invoked which is dependent on the operation represented by that object, whereby the first message is used to invoke different management operations dependent on the object identified in the first message.

A method of managing a telecommunications system, the telecommunications system having a plurality of objects representing elements of the telecommunications system or operations that are applied to those elements, at least one of the plurality of objects representing an element of the telecommunications system and as an operation to be applied to that element, the method comprising the steps of:

• connecting a management controller to an item of telecommunications equipment of the telecommunications system;
• selecting a message from a set of messages which are generated by the management controller or a management element of the telecommunications system for passing over a communications link to invoke corresponding management operations, each message in the set of messages being arranged to include one or more information elements referenced when processing the message, at least a first message in the set being arranged to include an information element identifying one of said objects;
• passing the selected message over the communications link between the management controller and the management element of the telecommunications system to invoke a management operation;
• and
• invoking the management operation, wherein, upon receipt of said first message by the management element, the invoking step involves causing the corresponding management operation to be invoked unless the object specified in that message represents an element of the telecommunications system and an operation to be applied to that element, in which event the invoking step involves causing a management operation to be invoked which is dependent on the operation represented by that object, whereby the first message is used to invoke different management operations dependent on the object identified in the first message.