SNMP Over a Multi-Protocol Internet
charter-ietf-mpsnmp-01

Within the SNMP management framework, the philosophy is to place the
burden of management processing on managers, not on agents. As the
Internet evolves to accommodate multiple protocol suites, there may be
SNMP agents in the Internet that do not support the recommended method
of exchanging SNMP messages using UDP/IP. In these instances, the
proper model for managing a multiprotocol internet should be that
agents must only be required to support one method of exchanging SNMP
messages (i.e., encapsulation of SNMP messages in one of the
protocol suites of the multi-protocol internet), and the managers
support as many encapsulation methods as needed (potentially, all) to
communicate with all resources it manages.

The SNMP over a Multi-protocol Internet Working Group is chartered to identify
and provide solutions for communication between SNMP agents and
managers in those configurations where the recommended method of
exchanging SNMP messages using UDP/IP cannot be used; i.e., where a
managed resource supports a single protocol suite that protocol is not
UDP/IP but another protocol suite of the multi-protocol internet (for
example, OSI, AppleTalk, or XNS/IPX).

Questions to be considered include: What are the appropriate protocol
suites to consider? What is the appropriate method of encapsulating
SNMP? What are the addressing considerations for SNMP messages What
new MIB Modules are required? What (positive) effect can SNMP-based
management have on resource-sharing among multiple protocols?