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SNMP Traps Simplify Alarm Reporting, Reduce Network Traffic
An SNMP Trap is an unsolicited message sent from an "agent" to a master station. It provides a means for devices at your sites to alert your master station to events at your sites even when the master station has not polled the device.
To understand the usefulness of a trap, we must first take a look at the architecture of a network management system. At the top, you'll have your master station, the device to which all of your remote devices report. Down from here, you'll have "agents," devices that report to the master. Now, in a typical network management system, the master station would have to poll agent devices prompting agents to send status information to the master.
Of course every time the master station needed an update, it would cause a massive burst of traffic, as it sent a request for information to all network agents, and all the agents responded – whether they had any changes to report or not. To reduce traffic, a network manager could reduce the frequency of these polling requests, but this also reduced network visibility and increased the risk of network alarms going unanswered and unattended to, leading to network outages.
No matter how traffic was optimized, as networks grew and network monitoring systems with them, it became impractical for an alarm master to poll a large number of agent devices, each monitoring a large number of points, in terms of both traffic and effort expended by the master station. The Trap is the solution to the problem.
Because traps don't require a request from the master and are only sent when something within the agent changes state, they can result in a substantial network traffic savings and a decrease in response time. For example, if an agent configured to send SNMP Traps sets an alarm at a site, it doesn't have to wait to be polled by a master station to send the alarm update. The master station likewise doesn't have to receive frivolous updates about the agent's other unchanged points.
An SNMP capable RTU (or "agent") can forward traps for many different types of alarms to an SNMP capable master, eliminating frivolous network traffic.
Setting Up a Trap
A master station won't necessarily understand traps sent to it right away. The master station must have the OiD (Object Identifier) to decode traps sent to it. The OiD is loaded from a MiB file. These are usually available from the manufacturer for your agent devices. If a MiB is not available, you can edit and compile one yourself without too much trouble.
Agent devices must similarly be configured to send traps. (Otherwise, they will simply wait to be polled by the master station). Typically, you will configure traps as a "notification," defining the destination of traps and enabling the trap notification for alarm points and analog thresholds on your agent devices. If working with telecom and other equipment that is not capable of sending SNMP Traps, it may be helpful to install an RTU capable of mediating alarms to SNMP, to get your network on the same page. DPS Telecom recommends the NetGuardian series remotes as agent devices at your sites because they can mediate alarms to SNMP traps. They can send traps to multiple managers, along with notifications direct to technicians, so when an alarm occurs, you can be sure that the right people know about it.
SNMP Traps in Practice
Firstly, when setting up a network management system – both masters and agents – it's important to consider using devices that are SNMP compatible. There are RTUs that can report alarms directly to you, or output to a terminal in your CO, and that may be fine when your network is small. (Again, not optimal, but any problems it causes in managing your small network may not be very pronounced.) However, you may well want to employ SNMP Traps as your network grows and you find that consolidating your network management information will help coordinate maintenance and repair efforts. With the right RTU, you'll be able to forward SNMP traps for alarms, analog thresholds, ping targets, so your master station can get all the information it needs to help you make intelligent decisions about your network.
The NetGuardian 832A G5 can forward SNMP Traps for all of its discrete points, analog inputs, and ping targets to multiple SNMP managers.
Similarly, a master station can forward SNMP traps to a higher level master station. If your network has tiers, regional networks or data centers reporting to higher level master stations, traps become even more necessary. As your network increases in size, so does the effort required to poll all of your agent objects. Consolidating alarming at a mid-level manager and forwarding traps to the top level master helps you organize alarm data, reduce network traffic for network monitoring systems, and decrease response time.
T/Mon can receive SNMP Traps and poll legacy/proprietary devices to bring all of your network monitoring on to one platform. It can then forward SNMP traps to a higher level master.
Of course, this also assumes that you can build your network from the ground up with SNMP compatible devices. Your network may have some devices in it running either legacy or proprietary protocols. And while SNMP provides an efficient means for dealing with network traffic, this doesn’t mean you can discard your non-SNMP equipment. You may not even be able to mediate all of your alarms to SNMP. So, you'll want a multi-protocol master station capable of both polling your legacy/proprietary equipment and receiving your SNMP traps.
The alarm management platform from DPS Telecom, T/Mon, is capable of doing just this. It handles SNMP traps gracefully; MiBs are easy to load into the master. It can poll legacy and proprietary equipment, and parse rules for anything outputting ASCII, so there's no worry about whether or not T/Mon will be compatible with your equipment. Rest assured: it is. It can also forward SNMP Traps to a higher level master, so you can make it your top level master or make it a regional solution for your large, sophisticated network.
SNMP Traps will help you streamline your network monitoring systems, reducing network traffic and decreasing response time. It's important that, when considering network management systems and expansions, you look for devices that support SNMP traps.
Related Topics:
SNMP Trap
SNMP Trap Basics
SNMP MIB
In-Depth Look at SNMP MIBs
SNMP OID
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