Patent ID: 8898199

Claim:
A method for remotely monitoring network elements through a monitoring platform, said network elements each including a memory to store a device descriptor table that records local monitoring information about said corresponding network elements, said monitoring platform including a memory to store a file descriptor table that records mappings from the device descriptor tables of said network elements to the monitoring platform, comprising: initializing a server of the monitoring platform; embedding a sub-file system in a network element to be mounted on the monitoring platform to enable the network element to interact with the server; creating a mapping management link from a local sub-file system to the server and providing an interface for reading and writing of a file in the sub-file system by the network element through loading a client server system; creating and initializing a Virtual File System (VFS) and a root file system of the monitoring platform, and mounting the root file system on the VFS; correspondingly mounting each network element on the VFS according to a file system type of each network element; updating, at each of said network elements, the device descriptor table stored in the memory included in the network element, in response to updating of local monitoring information of the network element; and informing the monitoring platform to update the file descriptor table stored in the memory included in the monitoring platform; receiving, by the monitoring platform, a request from an entity for local monitoring information about a specified network element of said network elements; determining whether the request is legal; if the monitoring instruction is illegal, returning a response message to the entity to inform that the monitoring instruction is illegal and then stopping the current monitoring operation; and if the monitoring instruction is legal, retrieving, by the monitoring platform, the file device descriptor table, to obtain a mapping from the monitoring platform to the device descriptor table stored in the memory included in the specified network element; based on the obtained mapping, retrieving, by the specified network element, the device descriptor table stored in the memory included in the specified network element, to obtain the local monitoring information about the specified network element; and providing, by the monitoring platform, said obtained local monitoring information to said entity.