30.6 The Structure Of Management Information
In addition to the standards that specify MIB variables and their meanings, a separate standard specifies a set of rules used to define and identify MIB variables. The rules are known as the Structure of Management Information (SMI) specification. To keep network management protocols simple, the SMI places restrictions on the types of variables allowed in the MIB, specifies the rules for naming those variables, and creates rules for defining variable types. For example, the SMI standard includes definitions of terms like IpAddress (defining it to be a Coctet string) and Counter (defining it to be an integer in the range of 0 to 232-1), and specifies that they are the terms used to define MIB variables. More important, the rules in the SMI describe how the MIB refers to tables of values (e.g., the IP routing table).
Abstract from Internetworking With TCP/IP Vol I: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture Fourth Edition,
DOUGLAS E. COMER,
Department of Computer Sciences Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907,
PRENTICE HALL,
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458