Patent ID: 7984457

Claim:
A method, comprising: determining by a networking apparatus if a module data structure for a multi-protocol optical networking module (MPONM) of a plurality of MPONMs of the networking apparatus has been created previously; and if the module data structure has not been created previously, creating by the networking apparatus, a module data structure corresponding to the MPONM to include a plurality of configuration parameter values in data elements of the module data structure corresponding to filtering operations for networking communications of a plurality of communication protocols to configure corresponding filtering resources of the MPONM, wherein creating the module data structure comprises creating the module data structure by an externalized initialization function of an application programming interface (API) of the networking apparatus in response to an initialization request by a networking application of the networking apparatus to perform an initialization to enable the MPONM to subsequently perform the filtering operations for the networking application, the initialization request implicitly identifying the MPONM to the API by providing a handle of a device driver for interfacing with the MPONM.