Patent ID: 7853985

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for checking the authenticity of a manager application in a telecommunications management network operating system (TMN-OS) including multiple manager applications, each manager application connected Co a corresponding one of multiple agent applications of a network element via a telecommunication management network (TMN), each manager application having a predefined communications protocol selected from a plurality of communications protocols and one or more valid authentication mechanisms selected from a plurality of authentication mechanisms, the method comprising: transmitting communication protocol-specific authentication data from a first one of the multiple manager applications via the TMN to an agent application of the network element corresponding to the first manager application according to a first communication protocol predefined for the first manager application, the communication protocol-specific authentication data including a requested authentication mechanism; and checking the authenticity of the manager application by the network element: checking whether the requested authentication mechanism is valid for the first communication protocol predefined for the first manager application; and if the requested authentication mechanism is valid, comparing the communication protocol-specific authentication data with predetermined authentication data, wherein authentication checking is carried out centrally in an authenticity checking device for any of the plurality of communication protocols and any of the plurality of authentication mechanisms, and authentication data and data identifying the one or more valid authentication mechanisms for each of the multiple communication protocols are stored centrally in a central authentication databank.