Lost in (Management) Space: Charting Your Course Along Network Management Dimensions

If we think of network management as a multidimensional space, the question arises as to which dimensions or axes span that space and what coordinates will be defined for each axis. This is important because, when faced with any problem, it can be tremendously helpful to know how to divide the problem into different aspects. Each aspect corresponds to one of the dimensions. If the dimensions are identified in such a way that they are independent of each other, we call them orthogonal. When those dimensions are clear, it becomes much easier to define a systemic approach to the problem and deal with its different aspects one at a time.

Figure 4-1 depicts a set of orthogonal dimensions for network management. We take a closer look at each dimension in the following sections.