Patent ID: 6542515
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
A mechanism for managing a plurality of profile data structures, each profile data structure comprising a hierarchical structure of attributes, where each attribute comprises information about an entity, the mechanism comprising:a plurality of profile objects having an interface for sending and receiving information; a profile service mechanism having an interface for sending and receiving information; a protocol layer operatively coupled to the profile objects interface and the profile service interface, the protocol layer defining a plurality of request elements and a plurality of response elements; protocol layer interface within the protocol layer receiving user-entity specified set of request elements from the user entity and sending a responsive set of response elements to the user entity; a first set of methods within the profile service mechanism that create instances of the profile objects, wherein each of the first set of methods correspond to one of the request elements and one of the response elements; and a second set of methods within the profile objects that manipulate instances of the profile objects, wherein each of the second set of methods correspond to one of the request elements and one of the response elements.