Simple Network Management Protocol

In telecommunication, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standard protocol that (a) is used to manage and control IP gateways and the networks to which they are attached, (b) uses IP directly, bypassing the masking effects of TCP error correction, (c) has direct access to IP datagrams on a network that may be operating abnormally, thus requiring management, (d) defines a set of variables that the gateway must store, and (e) specifies that all control operations on the gateway are a side-effect of fetching or storing those data variables, i.e., operations that are analogous to writing commands and reading status.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C