Architecture for network manager

A distributed network management architecture, where a plurality of network managers share information about network elements by building the necessary infrastructure to discover alternate routes to element controllers when possible. A large number of network elements and operation controllers or managed object agents spans are simultaneously accessible to multiple graphical network browser instances on physical workstations. Each network manager can manage an element controller directly, through a direct connection, or indirectly, through an indirect connection to a second network manager which directly manages that element controller. As well, a plurality of telecommunication networks can be federated for transparently increasing the number of users and the reliability of each network. By allowing each network manager to be configured individually, more flexibility over both engineering and survivability is achieved.