To provide a graphic 
user interface, supported by 
HTML or 
Java script, to a 
personal computer (102) for the control of SONET / SDH network elements (106), an RS-232 port of a PC is used to establish a PPP session to a remote access 
server, RAS (122). The 
network element (106) is therefore configured to imitate a modem, and to 
route PPP packets into its related 
management system across an optical ring (12). The 
management system may include an intermediate network manager (120) and a DHCP 
server (124). Once legitimacy of the PC is established through the IP session, the PC is provided with an 
IP address to invoke the PC's IP stack. Subsequently, IP is communicated across the PPP session, with the RAS (120) configured to terminate the PPP session and forward IP packets into an IP network (128). IP packets (131), received at a 
web server (140), are converted into 
command line interface (CLI) messages 135 and are sent directly to the network manager (120) within an IP packet. The network manager (120) terminated the IP packet and re-packages the CLI messages into an optical carrier format (140) for 
relay to an addressed 
network element (106). The addressed 
network element (106), which is responsive to the CLI messages from a management perspective, then alters its set-up or functionality accordingly. Complex text-based CLI instructions are thus avoided by a field-based engineer through the use of a GUI supported by a PC having web-browser capabilities, with an typical architecture shown in FIG. 2.