In order to scale to large numbers of underlying systems, Service Assurance Manager performs topology abstraction. Difference between detailed and abstracted representation illustrates the difference between a detailed representation and an abstracted representation of network connectivity.
Abstraction produces a coarse level of topology detail. A system, for example, is viewed as a single entity rather than as a collection of its components, and connectivity is between systems as opposed to between components in the system.
Although Service Assurance maintains a coarse level of topology detail, it stores sufficient information for its varied Notification Log, Topology Browser, and Map views. When needed, detailed information can be automatically retrieved from the underlying applications by Service Assurance.
