deploying and managing ip over wdm networks - Index of

Management System Design and Implementation Issues 155
transfers as much application logic as possible to the lower layers of the system
(e.g., the view manager). Nonetheless, it is inescapable that a certain amount of
application data and metadata are kept in the GUI. The data corresponds with
the entities that are manipulated in the WINMAN system and must be surfaced
onto the visual interface, such as network devices, termination points, links, or
connections. Procedures such as filtering, or grouping according to certain
attributes, are hastened when the data is stored locally. In addition, the metadata
is saved in local files, and it contains information that concerns the semantics of
the actual data; for instance, the keywords that have been agreed in communication
with the view manager.
It was shown in the previous chapter that the WINMAN front end is
structured according to the MVC design pattern. Moreover, the MVC paradigm
is trailed within the bounds of the GUI component. This is accomplished
by separating the classes that contain the data from those intended to visualize it;
to make it more tangible, for each of the managed elements, there are two relevant
GUI classes—the view class, which has properties and methods that determine
the drawing of the element on the canvas, and the model class, which
carries all of the significant information and methods to retrieve or alter it.
In detail, the WINMAN GUI supports:
• Both physical and logical views of the network. These views are disjoined
in the network representation. Physical elements (e.g., OXCs and routers),
equipment, cards, and topological links are shown in the physical
view, whereas the PTPs and the existing connections are depicted in the
logical view. Furthermore, the WINMAN GUI supports further discrimination
of the logical views with technological domain criteria; that
is, it gives access to five different logical network panels:
1. An integrated panel showing the IP points that are accessible from
the service layer;
2. A summary IP view, which contains the border PTPs of the IP
network;
3. A detailed IP view, which includes the total IP PTPs;
4. A summary WDM view, which contains the border PTPs of the
WDM network;
5. A detailed WDM view, which includes all the WDM PTPs.
The network nodes in each panel are positioned on the plane in
an orderly manner forming network clouds with clear outlines. Also,
the PTPs belonging to the same physical device are grouped in close
proximity to each other in order to exhibit the property of inherence to
the corresponding device.