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It is an acronym for Faults, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security, the categories into which the model breaks the various network management tasks.
The goal of fault management is to recognize, isolate, correct and log faults that occur in the network.
When a fault or event occurs, a network component will often send a notification to the network operator using a proprietary or open protocol such as SNMP.
The goals of configuration management include:
Accounting is often referred to as billing management. The goal is to gather usage statistics for users.
Using the statistics the users can be billed and usage quota can be enforced.
Examples:
For non-billed newtworks, 'Administration' replaces 'Accounting'. The goals of Administration is to administer the set of authorized users, by establishing users, passwords and permissions; and to administer the operations of the equipment such as by performing software backup and synchronization.
By collecting and analysing performance data, the network health can be monitored. Trends can indicate capacity or reliability issues before they become service affecting.
Performance thresholds can be set in order to trigger an alarm. The alarm would be handled by the normal fault management process (see above).
The first task of security management is the identification of risks. Next these risks need to be secured and managed.
Other models for network management are available. One example is the ITIL model.