Ethernet frame tunneling over GPRS/EDGE for universal network monitoring

Abstract

Many equipment manufactures introduce proprietary protocols in network monitoring and equipment configuration to maintain market monopoly. This paper presenting a low cost solution to access, monitor and configure such equipments irrespective of its communication method. The solution consists of especially designed hardware modules which are collocated and connected with the equipments (need to monitor remotely) distributed over large geographical area. The system is designed such that multiple peer to peer connections can be setup with remotely held equipments to ensure the physical connectivity. Due to its' peer to peer and low level nature, system supports proprietary or standard network monitoring despite the differences of the equipment or the network monitoring software implementation. Furthermore, this paper discuss the solution facilitated the transportation of analogue and digital alarms from remote sites to a central network monitoring node which often equipment operators need separate transport system.