Due to the liberalization of the telecommunications market, we expect
public and private organizations to compete in an open market of basic
and value-added services. Broadband networks, high performance multim
edia and mobile end systems, distributed information systems, open dis
tributed applications, user and terminal mobility, and multimedia tele
-services with different qualities will form the basis for various ser
vices to be provided at different costs and with various modalities of
use. The provision of such services in a way which meets the users' r
equirements can be guaranteed only if all the required resources, incl
uding the underlying network and the available end systems, are superv
ised and controlled effectively by an adequate open distributed manage
ment system. In addition, the size and scale of future networks, the o
penness of applications, and the global use of tele-services will requ
ire management systems which cross the boundaries of different autonom
ous management domains. The coordination and cooperation between auton
omous operators and managers will be inevitable. This paper describes
an integrated approach to open distributed management. It is based on
an inter-domain management concept, and comprises an architecture whic
h provides a framework for the development and operation of management
services. The architecture includes a development and a run-time envi
ronment. The runtime environment consists of an administration platfor
m, an inter-domain management information service and a trader. The de
velopment environment comprises a tool-box and construction kits for m
anagement services and management user interfaces. Open distributed ma
nagement applications used for the validation of the architecture and
its components are outlined. An overview of future activities conclude
s the paper.