Patent ID: 7962588
Filing Date: 2011-06-14
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An optical communications network comprising: a plurality of optical network elements; a plurality of network management systems, each executing a framework application; a communications link coupling at least one of said network management systems and at least one of said optical network elements; and a memory device accessible by said at least one network management system; wherein said at least one network management system communicating with said at least one optical network element to detect a hardware feature present at said at least one optical network element that is not currently supported by said at least one network management system, wherein said hardware feature comprises any of data rate, transmission format, transmission protocol, and span management, wherein said network management system comprises a user interface, the user interface comprising a generic portion generated by the framework application, a hierarchical listing of hardware components in the optical network, wherein the hierarchical listing is arranged based on a physical configuration of said optical network elements, wherein said optical network elements comprise one or more bay, wherein said one or more bay comprises one or more shelf, and wherein said one or more shelf comprises a plurality of hardware component slots, and a feature-specific portion generated by a feature application; wherein said at least one network management system determining the feature application supporting the hardware feature that is not supported by the framework application, wherein the determining of the feature application is responsive to a comparison of file names between files in the at least one of said network management systems and files in said memory device; wherein said at least one network management system loading the feature application from said memory device to the framework application if it is determined that the feature application is not already supported by the framework application, wherein the memory device is configured to store dynamically loadable feature applications for providing support for certain hardware features; wherein said at least one network management system executing the feature application at said at least one network management system to manage said at least one optical network element; wherein said at least one network management system through the execution of the feature application supports said hardware feature without requiring a new monolithic software upgrade of the at least one network management system, said feature application working coextensive with another feature application previously supported by said at least one network management system; and wherein said at least one network management system communicates with said at least one optical network element in response to installing a hardware component in said at least one optical network element.