An osSoamDmSessionStartStopAlarm notification is sent when the state of osSoamDmCfgSessionStatus changes. The management entity that receives the notification can identify the system from the network source address of the notification, and can identify the individual PM session reporting the start/stop by the indices in the OID osSoamDmCfgSessionStatus, including osEthServId, osEthServFlowId, and osSoamDmCfgIndex. An agent is not to generate more than one osSoamDmSessionStartStopAlarm 'notification-event' in a given time interval per DM session as specified by osSoamPmNotifCfgAlarmInt. A 'notification-event' is the transmission of a single notification to a list of notification destinations. If additional operational state changes occur within the osSoamPmNotifCfgAlarmInt period, then notification generation for these changes are suppressed by the agent until the current alarm interval expires. At the end of an alarm interval period, one notification-event is generated if any operational state changes occurred since the start of the alarm interval period. In such a case, another alarm interval period is started right away.