Telephonic communications – Diagnostic testing – malfunction indication – or electrical... – Monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-31
2002-10-22
Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2743)
Telephonic communications
Diagnostic testing, malfunction indication, or electrical...
Monitoring
C379S009060, C379S015010, C379S265040
Reexamination Certificate
active
06470073
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to communications systems and more particularly to service state administration for a communications apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Telecommunications switches form the backbone of telephony networks, interconnecting a variety of telecommunications devices. These switches typically contain interface cards, with each card having multiple ports for connecting to other telecommunications devices. Maintaining and accessing information describing the current condition of these telephony resources (cards and ports), can be difficult and time-consuming. Often, each card in the switch will have an LED indicating generally the state of the card. This LED typically indicates a fairly generic condition, for example, an LED that indicates whether the card is receiving power. Determining the precise state of a card may be difficult, and even obtaining limited information often requires direct physical access to the switch.
In addition, maintaining and administering an increasing number of ports on each card presents a significant task, both from the user standpoint and from a design standpoint. Because of delays inherent in managing a large number of resources and the increasing complexity of switching systems, users are often confronted with extended lags between administrative requests and the perceived responses by the switch. Also, the interfaces for controlling various resources are becoming more complex, yet rarely offer sufficient feedback to provide users with detailed information about the operation of the resources within a switch.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, service state administration for a communications apparatus is provided which substantially eliminates or reduces disadvantages and problems associated with previous systems and methods. In a particular embodiment, the present invention provides a hierarchical service state administration agent that provides precise and consistent administration of interrelated communications resources.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an administrative agent for maintaining service state information for a telecommunications apparatus includes a card agent, a device agent, and a port agent. The card agent maintains card state data for a plurality of cards, the device agent maintains device state data for a plurality of devices on the cards, and the port agent maintains port state data for a plurality of ports on the devices. The card state data, the device state data and the port state data each indicate a physical state, a configuration state, and an operational state.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a hierarchical model for maintaining states of a telephony resource includes a first level, a second level and a third level. The first level indicates whether a resource is physically present. The second level has a user configurable target value set to ONLINE or OFFLINE and an actual value indicating whether the resource is ONLINE or OFFLINE. Moreover, the actual value of the second level is valid only when the first level indicates that the resource is PRESENT. The third level indicates an internal state of the resource, and the internal state is valid only when the actual value is valid and indicates that the resource is ONLINE.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for transitioning a telecommunications apparatus ONLINE receives notification to place a first resource ONLINE and transitions the first resource ONLINE.
The method also transitions a plurality of second resources dependent on the first resources ONLINE, and transitions a plurality of third resources dependent on the second resources ONLINE. The method transitions a resource to ONLINE after the resource receives a notification to go ONLINE. To transition a resource to ONLINE, the method determines whether the resource has a target state set to ONLINE, sets an actual state to ONLINE if the target state is set ONLINE, and notifies any dependent resources of the resource to go ONLINE if the actual state is set ONLINE.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method for transitioning a telecommunications apparatus OFFLINE targets a first resource to go OFFLINE, notifies a plurality of second resources depending on the first resource to go OFFLINE, and notifies a plurality of third resources dependent on the second resources to go OFFLINE. For each of the second resources and the third resources, the method stores a target configuration state indicating whether a user has configured each resource to ONLINE or OFFLINE. The method also sets an actual state for each of the third resources to OFFLINE, sets an actual state for each of the second resources to OFFLINE, and sets an actual state for the first resource to OFFLINE.
The invention provides a number of technical advantages. The invention provides a more effective and user-friendly approach to maintaining and administering state information for telephony resources and for controlling transitions between the states. The system tracks multiple levels of communications resources and accurately models the dependencies of these resources. For example, given a card with multiple devices and each device having multiple ports, the state of a card dictates the potential states for devices on the card. Similarly, the state of a device dictates the potential states for ports on the device. In addition, the system uses a state model that maintains consistent information irrespective of the type of resource the state information describes. For example, the information describing the state of a card uses the same state model as the information describing the state of a port.
Also, the state model allows a user to accurately determine the precise state of a resource using three levels: a physical state, a configuration state, and an operational state of the resource. Moreover, the state model tracks interdependencies between these three levels, creating a hierarchical model to precisely indicate the current condition of a resource. Thus the present invention provides a system to track the interdependencies between multiple levels of resources and multiple levels of states using a unified state model. This ensures that the current state for any given resource reflects the interdependencies among cards, devices and ports and among physical states, configuration states, and operational states.
The present invention provides a unified system for administering communications resources within a switch. Moreover, this system may be remotely administered while still allowing a user to access precise information describing the current state of each resource within a switch. In addition, using the configuration state, a user may independently configure any resource within a switch, from an entire card down to an individual port.
Other technical advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: H1801 (1999-09-01), Browning et al.
patent: H1860 (2000-09-01), Asthana et al.
patent: H1964 (2001-06-01), Hoffpauir et al.
patent: 6279125 (2001-08-01), Klein
patent: 6282266 (2001-08-01), Przyblyski et al.
Fish Robert W
Sharpe Christopher R.
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Cisco Technology Inc.
Kuntz Curtis
Taylor Barry
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