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6.2 SNMP
6.2.1 Overview
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the most widely used network management
protocol in TCP/IP networks. SNMP enables you to remotely manage all your network devices
compliant with this protocol, such as monitoring the network status, changing network device
settings, and receiving network event alarms.
SNMP supports managing devices bought from various vendors automatically, regardless of physical
differences among the devices.
SNMP management framework
The SNMP management framework consists of SNMP manager, SNMP agent, and Management
Information Base (MIB).
SNMP manager: It is a system that controls and monitors network nodes using the SNMP
protocol. Network Management System (NMS) is the most widely used SNMP manager in
network environments. An NMS can be a dedicated network management server, or an
application that implements management functions in a network device.
SNMP agent: It is a software module in a managed device. This module is used to manage data
about the device and report the management data to an SNMP manager.
MIB: It is a collection of managed objects, defining a series of attributes of managed objects,
including names, access permissions, and data types of objects. Each SNMP agent has its own
MIB. An SNMP manager can read and/or write objects in the MIB based on the permissions
assigned to the SNMP manager.
An SNMP manager manages SNMP agents in an SNMP network. The SNMP manager exchanges
management information with the SNMP agents using the SNMP protocol.
Basic SNMP operations
The AP supports the following basic SNMP operations:
Get: An SNMP manager performs this operation to query the SNMP agent of the AP for values
of one or more objects.
Set: An SNMP manager performs this operation to set values of one or more objects in the MIB
of the SNMP agent of the AP.
SNMP protocol version
The AP is compatible with SNMP V1 and SNMP V2C and adopts the community authentication
mechanism. Community name is used to define the relationship between an SNMP agent and an
SNMP manager. If the community name contained in an SNMP packet is rejected by a device, the
packet is discarded. A community name functions as a password to control SNMP agent access
