Abstract
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is currently the dominant network management standard for the TCP/IP networking environment. Fundamental to SNMP is the management information base (MIB). The heart of SNMP is the protocol. In this paper, we propose an approach to formalize our understanding of SNMP. We will prove that MIB with lexicographic order is a well- founded set. We will also provide formal semantics for protocol operations by derivation.