Cisco Cisco Video Assurance Management Solution 2.0 White Paper
White Paper
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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Cisco Active Network Abstraction
As the foundation of Cisco VAMS, Cisco ANA is a flexible, vendor-neutral network resource
management solution for a multitechnology, multiservice network environment. It dramatically
reduces the need for traditional systems integration, reducing time to market and lowering
deployment and ongoing maintenance costs.
Cisco ANA offers service providers:
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Simplified integration of OSS applications with network information
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A flexible, common infrastructure for managing network resources
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Consistent procedures and interfaces for all network elements
Operating between the network and the OSS layer, Cisco ANA creates multiple virtual network
elements (VNEs) and aggregates them into a software-based virtual network, much as real
network elements create the real-world network. Cisco ANA dynamically discovers network
components and tracks the status of network elements in near real time (Figure 4). Cisco ANA
also provides platform and network mediation services for both Cisco applications and value-
added applications from Cisco partners.
Figure 4. Cisco ANA Network View
Cisco ANA delivers three types of functionality:
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Vendor-neutral network resource management: Using its OSS-to-network mediation and
distributed management platform features, Cisco ANA provides consistent, vendor-neutral
network resource management functions for network elements from Cisco and other
networking vendors. Northbound APIs integrate Cisco ANA with IBM Netcool, Cramer6