Patent ID: 7363360

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a plurality of network elements, each of the network elements coupled to a respective subscriber line extending from a field office of a communication network and configured to control communication occurring across said respective subscriber line; a plurality of clients remotely located from the network elements, the plurality of clients including a first client and a second client; and an element management system (EMS) remotely located from the network elements and the clients, comprising: memory for storing sets of graphical user interface (GUI) code, client profile data, and element status data, each set of GUI code associated with a respective network element type, the client profile data indicating which of the network elements are of interest to the clients, the element status data indicating a respective status for each of the plurality of the network elements indicated by the client profile data to be of interest to at least one of the clients; and a system controller configured to receive a first notification from the first client, the first notification identifying one of the network elements, the system controller configured to determine a network type for the identified network element and to retrieve the set of GUI code associated with the determined network element type in response to the first notification, the system controller configured to transmit the retrieved set of GUI code to the first client in response to the first notification, wherein the retrieved set of GUI code, when run on the first client, causes the first client to display a GUI for displaying information pertaining to the identified network element, the system controller configured to update the client profile data, in response to the first notification, such that the client profile indicates that the first client is interested in the identified network element, the system controller configured to automatically poll, based on the client profile data, each of the network elements indicated to be of interest to at least one of the clients by the client profile data, wherein the system controller, in automatically polling the network elements, is configured to poll the identified network element in response to a determination that the client profile data indicates the identified network element to be of interest to at least one of the clients, the system controller further configured to detect a status change for the identified network element by comparing the element status data to data received from the identified network element via polling, the system controller configured to transmit element update data indicative of the detected status change to the first client in response to a determination by the system controller that the client profile data indicates the identified network element to be of interest to the first client, the system controller further configured to update the element status data in response to the detection of the status change by the system controller.