The MIB is defined as an abstract entity consisting of simple type objects. Simple type objects are objects that have values that are strings or strings that can be interpreted as integers. Simple type objects do not represent an aggregate such as a structure.

Aggregate objects, such as a C language structure, are represented in the MIB by having a separate object type for each element. This can be compared to having a single table for each column in a relational database, with the entire table made visible with a join of all the column tables.

In the model each object has: