Open-i™ Overview

• Remote Monitoring    
• Remote Control    
• Remote Management    
• Remote Configuration    
• Individual Open-i™ Components    
• Configurable Components

Expand your network visibility with the Open-i Solution. A proactive solution that actually bridges the gaps in your network, the Open-i Solution enables you to remotely monitor, control, and manage network and facility elements using a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent. 

The Open-i Solution is an extremely intelligent package that collects information on the health of a communications facility, enhances security-monitoring capabilities and conducts remote site control functions. 

This solution is comprised of the Open-i System hardware, the embedded software communication interfaces, a Microsoft Windows® 95/98/NT configuration tool, and the network management software, which is fully integrated with Hewlett-Packard's OpenView™ Network Node Manager and Cabletron SPECTRUM™. The Open-i MIB can also be compiled on IBM NetView™, Tivoli® and other network management packages. 

The flexibility of the Open-i Solution satisfies a crucial need for many network managers to create a heterogeneous network that operates under one single management platform. The Open-i Solution creates a real-time, end-to-end solution that can be configured by using a combination of open system architecture, intelligent software and modular hardware configuration. 

Remotely Monitor, Control, Manage, and Configure Any Element, Any Device, Anywhere on the Network

You can do it all with the Open-i Solution. 

Remote Monitoring

The Open-i System can collect information on the network and facility elements' health at a detailed level and provide this information to a Network Operations Center (NOC) via SNMP traps. The Open-i System collects information via contact closure inputs, analog inputs or serial ASCII inputs and via the embedded SNMP agent (eliminating the traditional proxy agent), converts it to SNMP and communicates it via Ethernet, PPP, or SLIP to the NOC. 

Remote Control

The Open-i System can also control electro-mechanical functions such as turning an A/C unit off or on, taking card readers off-line for facility lockdown, or delaying the sprinklers going off in false fire alarm situations. It does this via contact closure outputs. 

Remote Management via Virtual Serial Bridge™

Now for the best part, the Open-i System provides the capability of managing vendor-specific devices REMOTELY without the need for device driver development, rewriting proprietary management software, or writing to a vendor's API. It does this via its Virtual Serial Bridge software, which currently runs under Microsoft Windows NT in VT100 and/or graphical user interface (GUI) mode. The Open-i Solution is currently the only SNMP device with the ability to support application-based trap acknowledgement. This means that the Open-i System can be configured such that the receipt of messages by the NMS (via SNMP traps) is acknowledged and confirmed. This overcomes a well-known limitation of SNMP ­ the lack of trap acknowledgement. With the implementation of Reliable SNMP™, we have added another layer of confidence to this solution by confirming that the NMS has received the trap message. 

Remote Configuration

The Open-i System's remote configuration allows you to change the Open-i unit's configuration, modify parameters, upgrade firmware and reboot your Open-i System, all with the use of the Open-i NMS application from the NOC. This ability reduces the need to send technicians to the remote locations to make changes and saves on both time and costs. Besides configuring the contact input, contact output, and virtual serial connectivity settings, you can also configure community strings, the primary and backup modes of communication from the Open-i System to the NOC, and dial-on-demand. 

Individual Open-i Solution Components

Developed and designed for maximum flexibility, the Open-i System is a completely configurable rack-mounted unit available in three models, the Open-i 3000, the Open-i 1000, and the Open-i 1000L Series Systems. This provides a cost effective and efficient choice of a solution to fit your particular network management needs. The Open-i System is configured to fit your facilities environment, allowing you to choose the number of contact inputs, contact outputs, analog input sensors and serial port connectors to satisfy your requirements. 

Embedded Software

The Open-i System uses VxWorks™ as the embedded operating system and has a fully compliant SNMP agent, containing a 100% standard SNMP MIB. 

Network Management Software (NMS)

The NMS application has been developed as part of a larger centralized platform that utilizes open architecture standards. The NMS application provides a GUI to manage and control the Open-i System and its connected elements. The application is fully integrated with HP OpenView and Cabletron SPECTRUM. Although any SNMP platform can receive information from an Open-i System, users who choose to incorporate the Open-i NMS application will gain the maximum benefit. These include but are not limited to greater insight and true end-to-end manageability of Open-i Systems and devices connected to it.

The Open-i Solution utilizes a Windows-based, 32-bit software application that runs on either Windows 95/98/NT to configure the unit. Properties for every contact input, contact output, environmental sensor, communication method, and access authority can be configured and downloaded to an Open-i System. Technicians can use the Configuration Tool software to capture the most current configuration of a unit, modify this configuration as needed, and download the new configuration. 

Open-i System Configurable Components

The Open-i unit is designed to provide remote, real-time monitoring of contact inputs from network element devices such as radios, multiplexers, switches, hubs, and facility subsystems such as power distribution, HVAC, UPS, battery mgmt. and security systems. The Open-i 3000 Series System can monitor up to 128 contact inputs; the Open-i 1000 Series System monitors up to 64 contact inputs; and the Open-i 1000L Series System monitors up to 16 contact inputs. 

Network management information necessary for the Open-i System to monitor contact inputs is defined in the Management Information Base (MIB). The way in which the MIB defines each contact input's variable determines how the Open-i System responds to a given contact input condition. 

With the Open-i 3000 and 1000 Series Systems, you can configure up to 16 contact outputs to control external devices such as heaters, fans, and air conditioners. With the Open-i 1000L Series System, you can configure up to four contact outputs. The contact outputs can be set remotely from the Network Operations Center (NOC) or locally from the Open-i 3000 Series System front panel or the virtual front panel for the Open-i 1000 and 1000L Series Systems. 

The implementation of the analog sensors within the Open-i System allows you to cost effectively expand network facility monitoring capabilities to monitor hundreds of facilities, each with dozens of analog sensors, from the same NMS that monitors the rest of your network. The analog sensors report numeric values such as electric current, pressure, temperature, and humidity measurements. With the addition of 32 to 64 analog inputs for the Open-i 1000 Series System and 48 to 96 analog inputs for the Open-i 3000 Series System, our Open-i Solution now provides the highest density of analog inputs per remote unit and provides the lowest cost-per-channel of any comparable technology. The implementation of the analog input sensors provides three unique contributions to your network management functionality: immediate access to robust remote facilities data, a basis for better-informed decisions, and the potential for predictive-failure alarms.