The Smarts Service Assurance Manager Adapter Platform (Adapter Platform) is an optional component in a Network Protocol Manager deployment. The Adapter Platform is included in the deployment only if the customer wants to forward informational traps to the Global Manager for display in the Global Console.

The Adapter Platform imports and normalizes topology from IP Availability Manager, and imports and normalizes events of interest from Smarts adapters such as the SNMP Trap Adapter. Normalize means to convert topology or event information into a common form that is understood by the Global Manager. The normalized event information is transferred as Smarts notifications to the Global Manager.

An Adapter Platform feature, called the Topology Importer, collects hostnames and IP addresses from IP Availability Manager so that the Adapter Platform can accurately place events in their topological context. The Adapter Platform updates this list as the information changes in IP Availability Manager.