Abstract: In an Open System Interconnection (OSI) environment, an agent Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) platform maintains an up to date tree of all of the Managed Object Instances (MOIs), in order to perform scoping functions. The agent platform receives a message from an OSI manager which includes a base MOI and levels below the base MOI to receive the message. The agent platform recurses through the tree below the base MOI to determine which MOIs should receive the message. If the message is delete, the children of MOIs to be deleted are also deleted. The children of undeletable MOIs are not deleted. A current, accurate tree is maintained by the agent platform, which can register a new MOI in the tree when a valid request is received from the MOI or the manager. The agent platform can also deregister an MOI upon valid request from the agent associated with the platform.