Network management apparatus and method

• US 20060101138A1
• Filed: 11/04/2005
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Son, Kyoung-ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities

Abstract

A network management apparatus and method are provided to easily manage devices that are dynamically added to a network and yet maintain an existing network management structure. The network management apparatus includes a device connection management unit which determines whether to extend a predetermined management information base (MIB) according to an object identifier (OID) of a device connected to a network, and a virtual MIB connection unit which creates an object ‘virtual’ in the predetermined MIB according to the determination results provided by the device connection management unit, creates a virtual object for the device under the object ‘virtual’, assigns a serial number to the virtual object for the device according to a time in which the device has been connected to the network, and redefines the OID of the device according to the serial number.

Claims

1. A network management apparatus comprising:

a device connection management unit which determines whether to extend a predetermined management information base (MIB) according to an object identifier (OID) of a device connected to a network; and

a virtual MIB connection unit which creates an object in the predetermined MIB according to determination results provided by the device connection management unit, creates a virtual object for the device under the object, assigns a serial number to the virtual object for the device according to a time in which the device has been connected to the network, and redefines the OID of the device according to the serial number, to thereby extend the predetermined MIB.

2. The network management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device connection management unit determines whether to extend the predetermined MIB according to an OID root value of the device.

3. The network management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device connection management determines whether to extend the predetermined MIB according to an Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the OID of the device.

4. The network management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the virtual MIB connection unit replaces the OID root value of the device with the serial number.

5. The network management apparatus of claim 4 further comprising:

an MIB extraction unit which extracts an MIB of the device according to the determination results provided by the device connection management unit;

an MIB interpretation unit which determines whether the MIB of the device is valid; and

an MIB information management unit which manages the MIB extended by the virtual MIB connection unit.

6. A network management apparatus comprising:

a management information base (MIB) management unit which creates an MIB for a device to be managed and defines an object identifier (OID) for the MIB; and

a control unit which transmits the OID to a network manager device for managing a network if the device to be managed has been connected to the network.

7. The network management apparatus of claim 6, wherein the MIB management unit defines the OID using a predefined OID root value.

8. The network management apparatus of claim 6, wherein the control unit transmits the OID to the network management device, and the OID comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device to be managed.

9. The network management apparatus of claim 7, wherein the control unit transmits the predefined OID root value to the network management device.

10. A network management method comprising:

determining whether to extend a predetermined management information base (MIB) according to an object identifier (OID) for an MIB of a device connected to a network;

creating an object in the predetermined MIB according to a result of the determining, creating a virtual object for the device under the object, and assigning a serial number to the virtual object for the device according to a time in which the device has been connected to a network; and

redefining the OID of the device according to the serial number.

11. The network management method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises determining whether to extend the predetermined MIB according to the OID root value of the device.

12. The network management method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises determining whether to extend the predetermined MIB according to an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device included in the OID of the device.

13. The network management method of claim 11, wherein the redefining comprises:

extracting an MIB of the device according to the result of the determining;

determining whether the MIB of the device is valid; and

replacing the OID root value of the device with the serial number.

14. A network management method comprising:

creating a management information base (MIB) for a device to be managed and defining an object identifier (OID) for the MIB; and

transmitting the OID to a network manager device for managing a network if the device to be managed has been connected to the network.

15. The network management method of claim 14, wherein the defining the OID comprises defining the OID using a predefined OID root value.

16. The network management method of claim 14, wherein the defining the OID comprises defining the OID to include an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device.

17. The network management apparatus of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the OID comprises transmitting the predefined OID root value to the network management device.