This OID represents the Network Management Interface (NMI) branch for the Nortel Networks's generic MIBs suite. Nortel NMI is an umbrella to include various generic MIBs that can be implemented by Nortel devices to interface to a carrier grade Network Management System (NMS).

This branch currently consists of MIBs to support carrier grade alarm surveillance. Characteristics of such a system as applicable to this interface are - reliable and accurate alarm service - capability to summarise currently outstanding alarms - no stuck alarms, no need to age out / manually clear alarms - standards based open interface to alarms

For future revisions of the Nortel NMI MIBs, it is mandatory to ensure that the changes are backward compatible. It is very IMPORTANT to follow the SMI rules at RFC 1902 to ensure that no non-backward compatible changes are made as multiple applications use this for various purposes. This MIB is entensible, but the current set of variables cannot be modified.