Network monitoring system

A network monitoring system which monitors activities on a network, comprising:

• monitoring policy setting means for setting a monitoring policy;
• monitoring means for monitoring the network according to the policy set in said monitoring policy setting means;
• and
• monitoring policy changing means for automatically changing the current monitoring policy being set in said monitoring policy setting means, according to a monitoring result reported by said monitoring means,
• wherein said monitoring policy changing means automatically increases the frequency of the monitoring and adds a new object or item to the coverage of the monitoring, when degradation in service level of the network is observed;
• and
• wherein said monitoring policy changing means automatically decreases the frequency of the monitoring and withdraws an existing object or item from the coverage of the monitoring, when improvement in service level of the network is observed.

A method of monitoring activities on a network, comprising the steps of:

• (a) setting a monitoring policy;
• (b) monitoring the network according to the set monitoring policy;
• (c) automatically changing a current monitoring policy that is originally set by said setting a monitoring policy, According to a monitoring result obtained at said monitoring;
• (d) automatically increasing the frequency of the monitoring and adding a new object or item to the coverage of the monitoring, when degradation in service level of the network is observed;
• and
• (e) automatically decreasing the frequency of the monitoring and withdrawing an existing object or item from the coverage of the monitoring, when improvement in service level of the network is observed.