Centralised Management for a Set of Network Nodes

• US 20090098861A1
• Filed: 03/21/2006
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mavenir Systems Incorporated (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Mavenir Systems Incorporated (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kalliola, Janne, Dahlblom, Thomas, Tiihonen, Mikko, Wong, MengHong, Aalto, Markus, Lattu, Tommi
• Granted Patent: US 7,995,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/18 Service support devices; Network management devices

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for centralised management of a set of network nodes. The method includes supporting, in a centralised management entity, operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, implementing, at least partially, at least one of said predefined management interfaces in the network nodes of said set, and controlling, via said centralised management entity, a network node of said set by means of a management interface implementation relating to said node.

Claims

1. A method for centralised management of a set of network nodes, wherein the method comprises supporting, in a centralised management entity, operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, implementing, at least partially, at least one of said predefined management interfaces in the network nodes of said set, and controlling, via said centralised management entity, a network node of said set via a management interface implementation relating to said node.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said predefined management interface is effected by means of a predefined management protocol, the network nodes implementing at least some aspects of the management protocol.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing, to the centralised management entity, information about a management interface implementation of certain network node, said information being used in the centralised management entity in controlling said certain network node.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing, to the centralised management entity, a management component stub/a management component, said management component stub/management component being part of the management interface implementation of certain network node, said management component stub/management component being used in the centralised management entity as an intermediate in controlling said certain network node.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein the method further comprises examining in the centralised management entity said information or said management component stub/management component so that operations implemented in the management interface implementation of said certain network node are discovered.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein said providing is conducted by sending the information about management component or the management component stub/management component from a network node.

7. A method according to claim 4, wherein said providing is conducted by means of that the centralised management entity searches for management components of network nodes or information about management components of network nodes.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said controlling via said centralised management entity is at least partially automated by means of scripts or predefined logic.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein said centralised management entity comprises an access control functionality, and the method comprises using said access control functionality for controlling access to a management interface implementation relating to certain node.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein said method further comprises controlling, via said centralised management entity, a monitoring process residing in a network node of said set by means of a management interface implementation relating to said monitoring process.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said method further comprises balancing load in said set of network nodes by means of controlling services running in said nodes via said monitoring process.

12. A method according to claim 11, further comprising conducting said load balancing by commanding said monitoring process to shut down and start up services in said nodes.

13. A method according to claim 10, further comprising conducting said load balancing responsive to monitoring information from the monitoring process.

14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising taking, via the centralised management system, a snapshot of a system configuration of a network node.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising restoring, via the centralised management system, a previously taken snapshot of a system configuration of a network node.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein said controlling of a network node comprises at least one of the following:

changing all or part of the configuration or business logics running in the network node, and accessing and monitoring system data of the network node.

17. A method according to claim 1, further comprising conducting, in the centralised management system, an error check procedure relating to said controlling of a network node.

18. A centralised management entity for a set of network nodes, wherein said centralised management entity comprises processing means, which are adapted to control the centralised management entity to support operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, and to control a network node of said set via a management interface implementation relating to said node, said management interface implementation implementing at least one of the operations of said predefined management interface.

25. A centralised management entity according to claim 18, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the centralised management entity to receive from a certain network node information about a management interface implementation of said certain network node, or a management component stub/a management component, said management component stub/management component being part of the management interface implementation of said certain network node, and to use said information or said management component stub/management component in controlling said certain network node.

26. A centralised management entity according to claim 25, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the centralised management entity to examine said information or said management component stub/management component so that operations implemented in the management interface implementation of said certain network node are discovered.

27. A centralised management entity according to claim 25, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the centralised management entity to effect said receiving of said information or said management component stub/management component by searching for management components of network nodes or information about management components of network nodes.

28. A centralised management entity according to claim 18, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the centralised management entity to control a monitoring process residing in a network node of said set by means of a management interface implementation relating to said monitoring process.

29. A centralised management entity according to claim 28, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the centralised management entity to balance load in said set of network nodes by means of controlling services running in said nodes via said monitoring process.

30. A centralised management entity according to claim 18, wherein said controlling of a network node comprises at least one of the following:

changing all or part of the configuration or business logics running in the network node, and accessing and monitoring system data of the network node.

19. A network node for a centrally managed set of network nodes, wherein said network node comprises an at least partial implementation of a predefined management interface, which is specific to a certain centralized management entity, and processing means, which are adapted to control the network node to adapt for being managed via said at least partial implementation of a predefined management interface.

20. A network node according to claim 19, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the network node to provide at least partial implementation of the predefined management interface or information about the implementation of the predefined management interface to the centralised management system.

21. A network node according to claim 19, wherein the network node is one of the following:

a SMS gateway, an MMS gateway, a WAP gateway, an HTTP gateway, an e-mail gateway, a subscription data profile manager, a content management system, a rendering engine, a personalisation engine, a direct delivery SMS center, a content transcoding engine, an OSA (Open Service Architecture) Parlay Gateway, a Parlay X Gateway, an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) gateway node, a streaming server or some other gateway or node providing some other functionality in the mobile value added service delivery chain.

31. A network node according to claim 19, wherein said predefined management interface is effected by means of a predefined management protocol, and the processing means are further adapted to control the network node to implement at least some aspects of the management protocol.

32. A network node according to claim 19, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the network node to provide, to the centralised management entity, a management component stub/a management component, said management component stub/management component being part of the management interface implementation in said network node, said management component stub/management component being such that it is allowed to be used in the centralised management entity as an intermediate in controlling said certain network node.

33. A network node according to claim 19, wherein the processing means are further adapted to control the network node to run a monitoring process, and wherein said at least partial implementation of a predefined management interface is adapted to be used for controlling said monitoring process.

22. A system comprising a set of network nodes, the set comprising at least one network node, and a centralised management entity for said set of network nodes, wherein said centralised management comprises processing means, which are adapted to control the centralised management entity to support operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, nodes of said set comprise an at least partial implementation of at least one of said predefined management interfaces, and said processing means of the centralised management entity are further adapted to control the centralized management entity to control a network node of said set via a management interface implementation relating to said node.

23. A memory medium embodying a computer program executable in a centralised management entity for a set of network nodes, wherein said computer program controls the centralised management entity to support operations of at least one predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to said centralised management entity, and to control a network node of said set via a management interface implementation relating to said node, said management interface implementation implementing at least one of the operations of said predefined management interface.

24. A memory medium embodying a computer program executable in a network node of a set of centrally managed network nodes, wherein said computer program controls the network node to adapt for being managed via an at least partial implementation of a predefined management interface, wherein said predefined management interface is specific to a certain centralised management entity.