An apparatus comprising a plurality of entities associated with a network element (NE), wherein the entities are associated with each other in a hierarchical architecture, wherein each entity is assigned an Access Identifiers (AID), and wherein each AID comprises a prefix that indicates a type for the corresponding entity and a numerical field that indicates the association between the corresponding entities and the remaining entities. Also disclosed is an apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising assigning an AID to each of a plurality of NE entities having a hierarchical relationship, wherein the AID comprises a prefix comprising no more than about five characters and a numerical string consisting essentially of numbers, and managing the NE entities using the AIDs.