VSAT SNMP Support
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is designed to allow network devices to exchange management information for monitoring, diagnostic and configuration purposes. Spacenet has developed advanced solutions for implementing and supporting SNMP over VSAT networks.
Key components of SNMP are agents, managers and MIBs. SNMP Agents reside on the network devices that are being monitored/managed (“network elements”), and track the information defined by their Management Information Bases (MIBs). The MIB for each device defines parameters that can be monitored (ranging from common measurements like number of connection errors or bandwidth in use to specialized data like CPU temperature) as well as options that can be configured via SNMP commands. Some devices use a subset of a standard generic MIB defined by SNMP, while others manage specialized functions defined in “private MIBs” unique to that type of network element.
The SNMP Manager has the ability to communicate with each SNMP agent and collect its data from it or send configuration commands to it, in addition to SNMP Traps (alerts that a network element is unreachable or down). The manager maintains that information and is able to display it or pass it to a third-party network monitoring system, such as OpenView or What’sUp.
Spacenet’s SNMP support includes SNMP Agents for hub equipment as well as individual VSAT units, with the central manager being part of the Spacenet Network Management System (NMS). Spacenet has also developed a “light-functionality” SNMP manager/MIB browser that can easily be customized to meet a customer’s needs.
To minimize the data traffic over VSAT links created by the SNMP system, the NMS’s SNMP proxy agent will generate all SNMP Traps for the network. Trap generation will be completely configurable by the customer, and any existing VSAT event normally monitored by the NMS can be configured to generate a SNMP Trap to one or more SNMP managers. SNMP Traps can also be generated in response to specific VSAT network events (“VSAT Backbone Down,” etc.).
Individual SNMP Agents can be remotely enabled or disabled individually or as part of a group. Additionally, the VSAT can act as a standalone proxy agent for LAN-connected IP devices – enabling SNMP monitoring of PCs or other IP network members in remote locations through the VSAT unit’s SNMP Agent. This functionality requires the development of a private MIB branch within the Spacenet private MIB to meet a customer’s needs (including the development of traps to match network events within the remote network).
Spacenet’s VSAT SNMP implementation is also built with security in mind. By default, only SNMP Managers pre-authorized by the NMS are allowed to communicate with the agents. Additionally, SNMP “set” commands are not supported by default, preventing configuration of equipment by outsiders.
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