Farming methodology for TMN platform independent class repository design

As the agents in a TMN system are constructed based on different platforms, there are some problems in the development, maintenance and administration of classes in distributed objects (DO). To solve these problems, the paper suggests the Farming methodology which originated from the network computing concept. With the methodology, redundant software and data components in the distributed objects are moved to a platform independent class repository (PICR) in the form of componentware. When the PICR is constructed, several aspects of TMN are considered. After setting up the framework of DO, some small componentwares are loaded dynamically to DO, while others are loaded statically. DOs can self-adapt componentware for the evolution of a network environment while the TMN system is running.