To provide a graphic user interface, supported by HTML or Java script, to a personal
computer (102) for the control of SONET/SDH network elements (106),
an RS-232 port of a PC is used to establish a PPP session to a remote access server,
RAS (122). The network element (106) is therefore configured to imitate
a modem, and to route PPP packets into its related management system across an
optical ring (12). The management system may include an intermediate network
manager (120) and a DHCP server (124). Once legitimacy of the PC
is established through the IP session, the PC is provided with an IP address to
invoke the PC's IP stack. Subsequently, IP is communicated across the PPP session,
with the RAS (120) configured to terminate the PPP session and forward IP
packets into an IP network (128). IP packets (131), received at a
web server (140), are converted into command line interface (CLI) messages
135 and are sent directly to the network manager (120) within an
IP packet. The network manager (120) terminated the IP packet and re-packages
the CLI messages into an optical carrier format (140) for relay to an addressed
network element (106). The addressed network element (106), which
is responsive to the CLI messages from a management perspective, then alters its
set-up or functionality accordingly. Complex text-based CLI instructions are thus
avoided by a field-based engineer through the use of a GUI supported by a PC having
web-browser capabilities, with an typical architecture shown in FIG. 2.
