Patent ID: 7581000

Claim:
A monitoring device having a memory containing data representing access information configured to be used by a selected communication protocol to extract information related to a monitored device among distinct devices communicatively coupled to a network, comprising: a processor configured to retrieve, from an external storage device, a plurality of implementation identifiers, wherein each implementation identifier identifies at least one access function configured to access the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least one of model information, a unique identifier, and status information of the monitored device; the processor being configured to select an implementation identifier among the plurality of implementation identifiers; the processor being configured to access an external information storage unit to obtain support information for accessing the monitored device using the at least one access function, the support information including precondition information that identifies a location within a data structure of the monitored device from which to obtain the at least one of model information, a unique identifier, and status information of the monitored device; the processor being configured to use the precondition information to identify the location within the data structure that stores the at least one of model information, a unique identifier, and status information of the monitored device before obtaining the at least one of model information, a unique identifier, and status information of the monitored device from the data structure; and the memory configured to store, as said data representing the access information, the support information in association with the implementation identifier and vendor information of the monitored device, wherein the precondition information is a data string, and the processor is configured to locate the data string of the precondition information in the data structure of the monitored device, and the processor is configured to obtain the at least one of model information, a unique identifier, and status information from the data structure of the monitored device based on a location of the data string of the precondition information in the data structure of the monitored device.