Patent ID: 8121479

Claim:
A network component comprising: a processor coupled to a memory configured to store a data structure comprising: an optical network terminal management and control interface (OMCI) comprising a plurality of managed entities (MEs), wherein one or more of the MEs comprises a description of the OMCI that indicates substantially all of a plurality of OMCI features that are supported by an optical network terminal (ONT), wherein the description of the OMCI comprises: an OMCI Object, whose instance describes a plurality of ME types and a plurality of message types supported by the OMCI; a plurality of Managed Entity Objects, whose instances describe each ME supported by the OMCI; and a plurality of Attribute Objects, whose instances describe each attribute supported by the OMCI, wherein one or more of the OMCI Object, the Managed Entity Objects, and the Attribute Objects are exempt from a management information base (MIB) audit process.