HTTP INTERFACE TO ELEMENT MANAGER INFRASTRUCTURE

Abstract: An element Manager Infrastructure in the TMN model has an interface, preferablyan an http interface, to a web browser. The interface in association with an http parser creates html pages on the fly.

Description: HTTP interface to Element Manager Infrastructure. This invention relates to network management, and in particular an interface to an element management infrastructure in the Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model. The Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) model, developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), defines three areas: Element Management, Network Management and Service Management. In the TMN model, the Element Manager Layer controls the information exchange between network elements or groups of network elements. Functions within this layer communicate with the Network Management Layer by relaying element status and performance to a network management system (NMS). Element management allows TeMIP users to remotely configure equipment from virtually any equipment vendor at the Element Management Layer of the TMN Model. To add the support infrastructure for viewing and testing the managed objects of an element managers, it is first necessary to add the support infrastructure (managed objects classes) to the architecture and then to create, or update, the test driver and viewer modules. GDMO (Guidelines for Definition of Managed Objects) is a standard for defining objects in a network in a consistent way. With a consistent "language" for describing such objects as workstations, LAN servers, and switches, programs can be written to control or sense the status of network elements throughout a network. GDMO prescribes how a network product manufacturer must describe the product formally so that others can write programs that recognize and deal with the product. GDMO is used to describe the class or classes of the object, how the object behaves, its attributes, and classes that it may inherit. Issues arise when the definition of the managed object class changes i.e. settable values change, GDMO definitions change etc. A change is then required in the definition of the managed objects as well as the test driver/viewer information. This creates inconsistencies in the sense that different definitions of the managed objects are essentially introduced, in other words, debugging now requires testing the test driver as well. The element information is typically presented in the form of a GUI (Graphical User Interface). In the prior art this necessitated the writing of a large amount of code. In the event of a change in the object model, for instance, the addition of new objects, it was necessary to write additional code, which is very time consuming. An object of the invention is to alleviate this problem. According to the present invention there is provided an element Manager Infrastructure in the TMN model having an interface to a browser. The interface is preferably an HTTP interface. HTTP stands for hyper text transfer protocol, and is a protocol that enables web browsers to interpret documents marked up with graphics and formatting. Different browsers may present the same document in different ways. The HTTP interface provides immediate support for managed objects modeled in an element manager. When a managed object is introduced immediate support for testing and viewing the status of the object is supported. Managed object attributes can be set/reset, and reconciled, as well, simulate events for managed objects can be executed. In accordance with the invention, dynamic html pages are generated on the fly as the object model changes. This concept is applicable anywhere objects model the underlying problem domain through the use of data driven modeled attributes. The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example, only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1 depicts the high level objects, with their relationships to each other, involved in the design and implementation of the HTTP interface; and Figure 2 depicts the HTTP Interface Message Flow. In Figure 1, for simplicity only the necessary components of the network element manager are shown. The element process manager 10 comprises a connection manager 11, a node manager 12, an NEM (Network Element Model. This is a term used to refer to the object model used to model the equipment being managed.) objects database 13, an HTTP parser 14, and an HTTP proxy 15. The proxy 15 communicates under the control of the connection manager with an Internet Browser 16 using the http protocol. The HTTP Proxy component 15 mingles with the several components of the architecture. The HTTP Proxy 15 defines the interface for HTTP communication. The NEM objects 13, shown as a singular module, represent a collection of persistent data objects. The relationship to the NEM objects are direct access, through a get, and indirect (messaging) for all other messages. The relationship line between the Node Manager 12 and the HTTP Proxy 15 is not solid since this relationship is garnered via messaging only. Figure 1 illustrates the HTTP components' existence within the process boundary of the element manager. The HTTP interface could exist within its own process boundary translating the requests to specialized element management messages. The Internet Browser 6 can be any recognized Web Browser, i.e. Netscape Navigator, Hot Java, Microsoft Explorer, etc. Communication between components is shown in more detail in Figure 2, which traces a message communicated from a web browser to the ATMC base process. ATMC stands for ATM Commander by Crosskeys Systems Corporation, which provides element management services for the Siemens EWSX V3 node. When communication is initiated with the base process 1, by specifying the address and port to communicate with, i.e. http://yourMachine.company.com:80, the element management process creates an HTTP proxy, if it is the first time establishing a HTTP connection 2. It then establishes the HTTP Proxy as the communication link for receiving all HTTP requests 3, 4 from the browser 16. When a request is received by the HTTP proxy it processes the message 5 determining where the message should be directed (NodeManager or NEM Objects). The Proxy then interprets the text in the URL and acts on the request by either getting, or setting, data into the NEM objects 6, or even creating the appropriate NEM objects. At this point the HTTP Proxy needs to formulate the response. It now sends the compiled information to the HTTP parser 14 to format and data-fill the appropriate HTML response page 7. The HTTP proxy then streams the HTML response page to the browser 16 over link 8. The HTTP Proxy's main responsibility is to service HTTP requests. Supported HTTP requests include GET, HEAD, and POST. Requests embedded in a HTTP message are directed to one of two places, the NEM objects, or the NodeManger. The following table below details the module receiving the message, the HTTP message, encoded message, and desired action for each message sent to the HTTP Proxy. HTTP helper (not shown in the diagram) objects model the HTTP specification, and aid in the dissection of the received messages, as well as helping to formulate the responses. Helper objects include: HTTP_Substitution, HTTP_URI, HTTP_Header, HTTP_Request, and HTTP_ResponseHeader. All these objects are reusable. An HTTP_Substitution object exists as entries in a dictionary, each with their identifier and data portion. The substitution object helps with parsing the request and formulating the response. The HTTP_URJ object represents the Uniform Resource Identifier, also commonly referred to Uniform Resource Locator (URL). This object returns information with respect to a URI string parsing its contents and retrieving information such as absolute path, net path, host, port, etc. The HTTP_Header object models a name- value pair for a HTTP message header. The name and value information is encapsulated in the object which is then packaged in a list to be used by the request/response mechanism of the HTTP server. The HTTP_Request object represents the data gathered from a simple/full request from a HTTP server. This class encompasses a HTTP GET, HEAD, and POST. The HTTP_ResponseHeader object represents a FULL response to the HTTP client. Encapsulated within the class are the status codes identifying the response status. The HTTP Parser's main responsibility is to execute a search for keywords located in a static HTML page and replace the keywords with data which has been compiled and interpreted by the HTTP Proxy. The connection manager manages all communication to the ATM Commander base process. The node manager is responsible for the management of multiple network elements in the ATMC. For a detailed explanation please see. The NEM object represents the objects located in the database. The http interface described provides immediate support for managed objects modeled in an element manager and thus gives the user access to a rich graphical user interface without requiring extensive modifications to the GUI code.

Claims: Claims 1. An element manager infrastructure in the TMN model comprising an element management process having an interface to a browser. 2. An element manager infrastructure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said interface is a proxy. 3. An element manager infrastructure as claimed in claim 2, wherein said interface is an http proxy. 4. An element manager infrastructure as claimed in claim 3, wherein said http proxy exchanges messages with objects of said element management process. 5. An element manager infrastructure as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said browser is an Internet browser. 6. An element manager as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, further including an http parser for creating dynamic mark-up pages by replacing keywords in static pages with data that has been created and compiled by the proxy. 7. An element manager as claimed in claim 6, wherein said mark-up pages are html pages. 8. A method of interacting with a network element manager, comprising the steps of providing a browser to present a graphical user interface to the user, and establishing communication between said element manager and said browser via a proxy which forwards messages from the element manager in a common protocol understandable to said browser. 9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said common protocol is http and said proxy is an http proxy. 10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said proxy receives http requests from said browser, determines where in the element manager to direct said requests, and formulates a response to the browser. 11. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the proxy receives information from the element manager and sends it to an http parser, which formulates a response for the browser. 12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said parser replaces keywords in a static mark-up language page with data which has been compiled and interpreted by the proxy. 13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said mark-up language page is an html page. 14. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said http parser automatically formats and fills html response pages on the fly. 15. A method as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 14, wherein said browser is a web browser. 16. The use of a web browser as a graphical user interface for a network element manager, wherein said browser permits interactive communication with said network element manager.

Inventors: DUIMOVICH FRANK, KADAR VINCENT, TURNER ROBERT, DUIMOVICH, FRANK, KADAR, VINCENT, TURNER, ROBERT
Applicants: CROSSKEYS SYSTEMS CORP, DUIMOVICH FRANK, KADAR VINCENT, TURNER ROBERT, CROSSKEYS SYSTEMS CORPORATION, DUIMOVICH, FRANK, KADAR, VINCENT, TURNER, ROBERT
Application year: 1998
Main classification: H04L12
IPC codes: H04L12