Abstract:
An apparatus comprising a Generic Status Portal (GSP) configured to grant access to a Managed Entity (ME) via an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) Management and Control Interface (OMCI), wherein the ME comprises status information about a non-OMCI management domain at the ONT. Also included is an apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising initializing an ONT ME, adding status information associated with a managed function to the ONT ME, indicating a status information update of the ONT ME, and providing the status information via an OMCI. Included is a method comprising providing status and performance monitoring (PM) information from an ONT via an OMCI at the ONT, wherein the status and PM information is associated with at least one managed function instance of at least one non-OMCI domain.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/580,404 filed Oct. 16, 2009 by Michael R. Shaffer, et al., and titled “Collecting Status from a Partner Management Domain,” which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/108,974, filed Oct. 28, 2008 by Michael R. Shaffer, et al., and titled “Method for Collecting Status from a Partner Management Domain,” both of which are incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not applicable. 
     REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX 
     Not applicable. 
     BACKGROUND 
     A passive optical network (PON) is one system for providing network access over “the last mile.” The PON is a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) network comprised of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the central office, an optical distribution network (ODN), and a plurality of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) at the customer premises. The PON system may comprise a control and management (C/M) plane that controls and manages the data transmissions. The C/M plane may comprise an ONT Management and Control Interface (OMCI) that manages higher layers, such as one or more service defining layers. The OMCI may model data flow between the OLT and the ONTs using a protocol-independent management information base (MIB) that comprises a plurality of managed entities (MEs), for example as described in the OMCI for Gigabit PON (GPON), International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) publication G.984.4, which is incorporated by reference as if reproduced in its entirety. 
     Network Edge and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) devices, such as ONTs, are typically used on the boundary of network management domains. The CPE devices may comprise different types of equipment such as ONTs, Residential Gateways, or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Access Multiplexers (DSLAMs). These CPE devices can vary from simple modem-like devices to complex devices that combine different networking functions. A complex device can have multiple management systems, where each management system may have a span of control referred to as a management domain. 
     Typically, different management domains in a Network Edge or CPE device use different interface technologies that are unique to the management domains. As such, from a management perspective, the device functionality may be divided into multiple domains, which are referred sometimes as “partner” domains. The partner domains coexist on such devices, where each domain has its own interface. To help effectively maintain such devices, network support personnel need to have the ability to collect status and performance monitoring (PM) information from one domain through its partner domain on the same device. 
     SUMMARY 
     In one embodiment, the disclosure includes an apparatus comprising a Generic Status Portal (GSP) configured to grant access to a ME via an OMCI, wherein the ME comprises status information about a non-OMCI management domain at the ONT. 
     In another embodiment, the disclosure includes an apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising initializing an ONT ME, adding status information associated with a managed function to the ONT ME, indicating a status information update of the ONT ME, and providing the status information via an OMCI. 
     In yet another embodiment, the disclosure includes a method comprising providing status and PM information from an ONT via an OMCI at the ONT, wherein the status and PM information is associated with at least one managed function instance of at least one non-OMCI domain. 
     These and other features will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a more complete understanding of this disclosure, reference is now made to the following brief description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts. 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a PON. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a GSP ME architecture. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an ONT ME. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart of an embodiment of an ONT ME handling method. 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a general-purpose computer system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     It should be understood at the outset that although an illustrative implementation of one or more embodiments are provided below, the disclosed systems and/or methods may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or in existence. The disclosure should in no way be limited to the illustrative implementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below, including the exemplary designs and implementations illustrated and described herein, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents. 
     Disclosed herein is a system and method for accessing status information of a first management domain at an ONT via a second management domain interface at the ONT. The second management domain interface may be an OMCI domain and the status information may comprise status and PM information associated with the first management domain that is not an OMCI domain, also referred to herein as an OMCI partner domain. The ONT may comprise a GSP ME, which may be accessed by an OLT to obtain the status information of the OMCI partner domain using the OMCI. The GSP ME may provide the status information in a Status Document Table attribute that may be configured in Extensible Markup Language (XML) document format. Additional status information may be provided by a plurality of PM MEs for a plurality of corresponding managed functions, a plurality of secondary GSP MEs for a plurality of corresponding OMCI partner domains, or both. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of a PON  100 . The PON  100  comprises an OLT  110 , a plurality of ONTs  120 , and an ODN  130 , which may be coupled to the OLT  110  and the ONTs  120 . The PON  100  may be a communications network that does not require any active components to distribute data between the OLT  110  and the ONTs  120 . Instead, the PON  100  may use the passive optical components in the ODN  130  to distribute data between the OLT  110  and the ONTs  120 . In an embodiment, the PON  100  may be a Next Generation Access (NGA) system, such as a ten gigabit per second (Gbps) GPON (XGPON), which may have a downstream bandwidth of about ten Gbps and an upstream bandwidth of at least about 2.5 Gbps. Alternatively, the PON  100  may be any Ethernet based network, such as an Ethernet PON (EPON) defined by the IEEE 802.3ah standard, a 10 Gigabit EPON as defined by the IEEE 802.3av standard, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) PON (APON), a broadband PON (BPON) defined by the ITU-T G.983 standard, a GPON defined by the ITU-T G.984 standard, or a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) PON (WPON), all of which are incorporated herein by reference as if reproduced in their entirety. 
     In an embodiment, the OLT  110  may be any device that is configured to communicate with the ONTs  120  and another network (not shown). Specifically, the OLT  110  may act as an intermediary between the other network and the ONTs  120 . For instance, the OLT  110  may forward data received from the network to the ONTs  120 , and forward data received from the ONTs  120  onto the other network. Although the specific configuration of the OLT  110  may vary depending on the type of PON  100 , in an embodiment, the OLT  110  may comprise a transmitter and a receiver. When the other network is using a network protocol, such as Ethernet or Synchronous Optical Networking/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH), that is different from the PON protocol used in the PON  100 , the OLT  110  may comprise a converter that converts the network protocol into the PON protocol. The OLT  110  converter may also convert the PON protocol into the network protocol. The OLT  110  may be typically located at a central location, such as a central office, but may be located at other locations as well. 
     In an embodiment, the ONTs  120  may be any devices that are configured to communicate with the OLT  110  and a customer or user (not shown). Specifically, the ONTs  120  may act as an intermediary between the OLT  110  and the customer. For instance, the ONTs  120  may forward data received from the OLT  110  to the customer, and forward data received from the customer onto the OLT  110 . Although the specific configuration of the ONTs  120  may vary depending on the type of PON  100 , in an embodiment, the ONTs  120  may comprise an optical transmitter configured to send optical signals to the OLT  110  and an optical receiver configured to receive optical signals from the OLT  110 . Additionally, the ONTs  120  may comprise a converter that converts the optical signal into electrical signals for the customer, such as signals in the Ethernet or ATM protocol, and a second transmitter and/or receiver that may send and/or receive the electrical signals to a customer device. In some embodiments, ONTs  120  and optical network units (ONUs) are similar, and thus the terms are used interchangeably herein. The ONTs  120  may be typically located at distributed locations, such as the customer premises, but may be located at other locations as well. 
     In an embodiment, the ODN  130  may be a data distribution system, which may comprise optical fiber cables, couplers, splitters, distributors, and/or other equipment. In an embodiment, the optical fiber cables, couplers, splitters, distributors, and/or other equipment may be passive optical components. Specifically, the optical fiber cables, couplers, splitters, distributors, and/or other equipment may be components that do not require any power to distribute data signals between the OLT  110  and the ONTs  120 . Alternatively, the ODN  130  may comprise one or a plurality of active components, such as optical amplifiers. The ODN  130  may typically extend from the OLT  110  to the ONTs  120  in a branching configuration as shown in  FIG. 1 , but may be alternatively configured in any other point-to-multi-point configuration. 
     In an embodiment, the ONT  120  may be configured using a plurality of different management domains, which may each have a different network interface at the ONT  120 . The management domains may comprise an OMCI domain and other partner domains, such as a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) domain and/or a DSL Forum TR-69 domain. Typically, the network interface associated with each domain may be used to access only the status information associated with that domain. As such, the OLT  110  may need to access the network interface associated with each domain to obtain different status and PM information for different management domain. This may complicate overall network maintenance and monitoring, where the OLT  110  may not be able to use the OMCI to access or use status information from OMCI partner domains (non-OMCI domains), such as the SNMP domain. 
     To improve maintenance and monitoring of the ONT  120 , the ONT  120  may be configured to support access of information across multiple domains using one of the network interfaces at the ONT  120 . Specifically, the ONT  120  may comprise a GSP  125 , which may be accessed via the OMCI at the ONT  120 . For example, the OLT  120  or any Element Management System (EMS) in the network may use OMCI MIB MEs to obtain the status information from the ONT  120 . The GSP  125  may provide access to the status information, such as to a database that comprises different status and PM information associated with a plurality of different management domains at the ONT  120 . The GSP  125  may be accessed via the OMCI to obtain at least some status and PM information, which may be associated with OMCI partner domains in the ONT  120  that are non-OMCI domains. In an embodiment, the GSP  125  may provide access to a plurality of MEs for each non-OMCI managed function instance on the ONT  120  that corresponds to a non-OMCI domain. The GSP  125  may also provide access to a plurality of MEs for a plurality of OMCI partner domains (e.g. non-OMCI domains). In an alternative embodiment, the ONT  120  may comprise a different GSP  125  for each OMCI partner domain that provides the associated status information. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an embodiment of a GSP ME architecture  200 , which may be used for accessing the status information for a plurality of managed function instances for at least one management domain at an ONT, such as the ONT  120 . The status information may be accessed via at least one GSP at the ONT, such as the GSP  125 , using the OMCI at the ONT. The GSP ME architecture  200  may be associated with at least one OMCI partner domain and may comprise at least one corresponding GSP ME. For instance, the GSP ME architecture  200  may comprise a GSP ME  210  and a plurality of PM MEs  220 , which may be linked to the GSP ME  210 . For example, the GSP ME  210  may point to N PM MEs  220  (e.g. PM ME  1  to PM ME N), where N is an integer. Each PM ME  220  may provide status information that corresponds to a managed function instance associated with the OMCI partner domain. Additionally or alternatively, the GSP ME  210  may point to a plurality of additional GSP MEs  230  (e.g. GSP ME  2  and GSP ME  2 ), where each additional GSP ME  230  may provide status information that corresponds to an additional OMCI partner domain. In an embodiment, the GSP ME  210 , the PM MEs  220 , and/or the additional GSP MEs  230  may be stored and maintained in a database in the ONT. In some embodiments, a copy of the ONT MEs may also be stored and updated by the OLT or EMS. In  FIG. 2 , the links between the GSP ME  210 , the PM MEs  220 , and the additional GSP MEs  230  are represented by arrows. 
     Similar to the GSP ME  210 , any PM ME  220  or additional GSP ME  230  may point to a plurality of subsidiary PM MEs (not shown), which may provide status information about a plurality of managed function instances associated with one OMCI partner domain. Additionally or alternatively, the PM ME  220  or the additional GSP ME  230  may point to a plurality of subsidiary GSP MEs (not shown), which may provide status information about a plurality of managed functions associated with a plurality of OMCI partner domains. In an embodiment, the GSP ME  210 , the GSP MEs  230 , and/or PM MEs may point to less than or about seven different subsidiary PM MEs and/or GSP MEs. However, the subsidiary PM MEs or GSP MEs may also be further linked to less than or about seven additional MEs (PM MEs and/or GSP MEs). Such a recursive relationship between the different MEs in the GSP ME architecture  200  may allow access to status information for a substantially large quantity of managed function instances and for a plurality of OMCI partner domains. As such, the limitation imposed by the maximum number of links allowed per ME may be circumvented. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an embodiment of an ONT ME  300 , such as a GSP ME or PM ME, which may be accessed by the GSP to provide status information about the ONT. The ONT ME  300  may comprise a plurality of ME attributes, including a ME Identity (ID)  310 , a Portal Type  320 , a Status Document Table  330 , at least one ME Class  340 , and at least one corresponding ME Pointer  345 . The Status Document Table  330  may comprise the status information and the other attributes may comprise information about the ONT ME  300  and any other associated MEs that may be linked to the ONT ME  300 . 
     In an embodiment, the ME ID  310  may identify a managed entity instance, such for a non-OMCI managed function. The ME ID  310  may associate the ONT ME  300  with a managed entity instance of an OMCI partner domain. In an embodiment, the ME ID  310  may have a size equal to about two bytes. As such, different ONT MEs may be associated with different management function instances for the same or different OMCI partner domain using different ME IDs. 
     In an embodiment, the Portal Type  320  may identify the type of the non-OMCI managed function associated with the management domain. In an embodiment, the Portal Type  320  may have a size equal to about one byte. For instance, the Portal Type  320  may be set to a value equal to about one for a Residential Gateway managed function, about two for a Circuit Emulation Service (CES) managed function, about three for a 802.11 station managed function, about four for an Internet Protocol (IP) router managed function, or about five for a DSL (or xDSL) service managed function. The Portal Type  320  may also be set to any reserved value, for instance from about six to about 255 to indicate other types of managed functions. 
     In an embodiment, the Status Document Table  330  may be established for the first ME in a group of associated or linked MEs, such as the GSP ME  210  in the GSP ME architecture  200 . Initially, when the ONT ME  300  is established for the ONT, the Status Document Table  330  may also be set to about zero. Subsequently, the status information associated with the GSP ME  210  may be added to the Status Document Table  330 . The Status Document Table  330  may be formatted in an XML document format, which may be available to the OLT or EMS upon request. For example, the Status Document Table  330  may be saved as an XML schema file (“.xsd”) in the database in the ONT. Formatting the Status Document Table  330  in XML document format may simplify the creation and configuration of tools, which may be used to parse and interpret the content of the document. The Status Document Table  330  may have a variable size depending on the amount of status information. As such, the content of the document may be parsed or obtained using a “get” and “get next” sequence of commands, which may be suitable for unspecified content size. 
     The Status Document Table  330  may comprise textual representation of some status and PM information about a managed function instance for a management domain. The content of the Status Document Table  330  may be specified by the vendor of the ONT. In an embodiment, a first element of the document may comprise an XML declaration that indicates the version of the XML and encoding used in the remainder of the document. Additionally, a second element of the document may comprise a schema reference to the vendor&#39;s schema used in the remainder of the document. 
     In an embodiment, the ME Class  340  may identify an OMCI class of the ME specified by the corresponding ME Pointer  345 . For example, the ME Class  340  may indicate if the ME specified by the corresponding ME Pointer  345  is a PM ME or a GSP ME. Accordingly, the corresponding ME Pointer  345  may point to a PM ME or GSP ME linked to the ONT ME  300 . In an embodiment, each of the ME Class  340  and the ME Pointer  345  may have a size equal to about two bytes. Initially, when the ONT ME  300  is established for the ONT, each of the ME Class  340  and the ME Pointer  345  may be set to about zero. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates one embodiment of an ONT ME handling method  400 , which may be used to establish and maintain an ONT ME, such as the ONT ME  300 , at the ONT. The ONT ME handling method  400  may begin at block  410 , where the ONT ME may be initialized and stored, e.g. at a database in the OLT. For instance, a plurality of attributes for a GSP ME associated with a managed function instance for an OMCI partner domain may be set and stored at the ONT. The attributes, such as the attributes of the ONT ME  300 , may be initialized by the OMCI partner domain of the ONT and stored at a database in the ONT. During the ONT ME initialization, the ME ID attribute may be assigned a value that identifies the associated managed function instance and the Portal Type  320  may be assigned a value that identifies the type of the managed function associated with the OMCI partner domain. Additionally, the Status Document Table  330  may be empty, e.g. set to about zero, and no subsidiary MEs may be specified, e.g. the ME Class and ME Pointer attributes may also be set to about zero. 
     Next at block  420 , the status information associated with the managed function instance may be added to the ONT ME. For instance, status and PM information of the managed function may be added in XML document format to the Status Document Table  330 . The status information may be added by the OMCI partner domain of the managed function. At block  430 , an attribute change message may be sent to indicate that the Status Document Table  330  has been updated. The ONT may send the attribute change message to the OLT to inform the OLT that the status information in the Status Document Table  330  is updated. The status change message may comprise a value change attribute, which may be set to about one to indicate an update to the Status Document Table  330  from a non-OMCI domain. At block  440 , access to the Status Document Table  330  may be granted to provide the updated status information. For instance, the OLT may access the GSP at the ONT via the OMCI to obtain the status information, such as in the form of a XML schema file (“.xsd”). 
     In some embodiments, the ONT ME handling method  400  may comprise additional steps, such as when additional status information is linked to the ONT ME. For instance, at the next block  450 , additional status information associated with additional managed function instances may be linked to the ONT ME. The additional status information may be added to additional PM MEs for additional managed function instances by the same OMCI partner domain. The ONT ME, which may be a GSP ME, may thus be linked to the additional PM MEs by updating the values of the ME Class and corresponding ME Pointer attributes of the ONT ME. Additionally or alternatively, additional status information associated with additional OMCI partner domains may be linked to the ONT ME. The additional status information may be added to additional GSP MEs, which may also be linked to the ONT ME by updating the values of the ME Class and corresponding ME Pointer attributes. The additional status information may be added by the additional OMCI partner domains. The additional status information may be added to additional Status Document Table  330  attributes in the PM MEs and/or GSP MEs. 
     Next, at block  460 , an attribute change message may be sent to indicate that any of the additional Status Document Table  330  attributes has been updated. The ONT may send the attribute change message to the OLT to inform the OLT that the status information in one of the additional Status Document Table  330  attributes is updated, e.g. from a non-OMCI domain. At block  470 , access to any of the Status Document Table  330  attributes may be granted to provide the additional updated status information. For instance, the OLT may access the same GSP at the ONT via the OMCI to obtain different status information for different managed functions that may correspond to the same OMCI partner domain (e.g. in a PM ME) or a different OMCI partner domain (e.g. in a GSP ME). Alternatively, the OLT may access different GSPs at the ONT to obtain different status information that correspond to different OMCI partner domains (e.g. in different GSP MEs). The additional status information may be obtained by first accessing the ME Class and corresponding ME Pointer attributes in the ONT ME, which may redirect the OLT to the additional Status Document Tables in the ONT. The additional status information in the additional Status Document Tables may be exchanged in the form of XML schema files (“.xsd”). 
     The network components described above may be implemented on any general-purpose network component, such as a computer or network component with sufficient processing power, memory resources, and network throughput capability to handle the necessary workload placed upon it.  FIG. 5  illustrates a typical, general-purpose network component  500  suitable for implementing one or more embodiments of the components disclosed herein. The network component  500  includes a processor  502  (which may be referred to as a central processor unit or CPU) that is in communication with memory devices including secondary storage  504 , read only memory (ROM)  506 , random access memory (RAM)  508 , input/output (I/O) devices  510 , and network connectivity devices  512 . The processor  502  may be implemented as one or more CPU chips, or may be part of one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). 
     The secondary storage  504  is typically comprised of one or more disk drives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data and as an over-flow data storage device if RAM  508  is not large enough to hold all working data. Secondary storage  504  may be used to store programs that are loaded into RAM  508  when such programs are selected for execution. The ROM  506  is used to store instructions and perhaps data that are read during program execution. ROM  506  is a non-volatile memory device that typically has a small memory capacity relative to the larger memory capacity of secondary storage  504 . The RAM  508  is used to store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to both ROM  506  and RAM  508  is typically faster than to secondary storage  504 . 
     At least one embodiment is disclosed and variations, combinations, and/or modifications of the embodiment(s) and/or features of the embodiment(s) made by a person having ordinary skill in the art are within the scope of the disclosure. Alternative embodiments that result from combining, integrating, and/or omitting features of the embodiment(s) are also within the scope of the disclosure. Where numerical ranges or limitations are expressly stated, such express ranges or limitations should be understood to include iterative ranges or limitations of like magnitude falling within the expressly stated ranges or limitations (e.g., from about 1 to about 10 includes, 2, 3, 4, etc.; greater than 0.10 includes 0.11, 0.12, 0.13, etc.). For example, whenever a numerical range with a lower limit, R 1 , and an upper limit, R u , is disclosed, any number falling within the range is specifically disclosed. In particular, the following numbers within the range are specifically disclosed: R=R 1 +k*(R u −R 1 ), wherein k is a variable ranging from 1 percent to 100 percent with a 1 percent increment, i.e., k is 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent, 5 percent, . . . , 50 percent, 51 percent, 52 percent, . . . , 95 percent, 96 percent, 97 percent, 98 percent, 99 percent, or 100 percent. Moreover, any numerical range defined by two R numbers as defined in the above is also specifically disclosed. Use of the term “optionally” with respect to any element of a claim means that the element is required, or alternatively, the element is not required, both alternatives being within the scope of the claim. Use of broader terms such as comprises, includes, and having should be understood to provide support for narrower terms such as consisting of, consisting essentially of, and comprised substantially of. Accordingly, the scope of protection is not limited by the description set out above but is defined by the claims that follow, that scope including all equivalents of the subject matter of the claims. Each and every claim is incorporated as further disclosure into the specification and the claims are embodiment(s) of the present disclosure. The discussion of a reference in the disclosure is not an admission that it is prior art, especially any reference that has a publication date after the priority date of this application. The disclosure of all patents, patent applications, and publications cited in the disclosure are hereby incorporated by reference, to the extent that they provide exemplary, procedural, or other details supplementary to the disclosure. 
     While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods might be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limited to the details given herein. For example, the various elements or components may be combined or integrated in another system or certain features may be omitted, or not implemented. 
     In addition, techniques, systems, subsystems, and methods described and illustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may be combined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, or methods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Other items shown or discussed as coupled or directly coupled or communicating with each other may be indirectly coupled or communicating through some interface, device, or intermediate component whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise. Other examples of changes, substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could be made without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein.