Object-oriented programming interface for developing and running network management applications on a network communication infrastructure

• US 6,182,153 B1
• Filed: 02/15/1996
• Issued: 01/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zimmermann, Olaf, Hollberg, Ulf, Ehrlich, Ralf Stefan, Scheere, Ulrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell, Robert B.
• Application Number:
  US08/602,170
• Time in Patent Office: 1,811 Days
• Field of Search: 395/683, 395/680, 395/682, 709/315
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

A programming interface for converting network management application programs written in an object-oriented language into network communication protocols. The application programs manipulate managed objects specified according to GDMO/ASN.1 ISO standards. Methods are provided for mapping from GDMO templates and ASN.1 defined types into C++ programming language.

The interface has both an object interface composing means for generating code which provides proxy managed object classes as local representatives for managed object classes, and a run time system means for providing proxy agent object classes as representatives for remote agents.

Claims

1. An object-oriented programming interface for developing and running a plurality of network management applications on a network communication infrastructure, wherein each of said management applications has access to and can manipulate a plurality of managed objects which are accessible at a plurality of remote managed agents through the communication infrastructure and can exchange management information between the management applications and the remote managed agents, and wherein the plurality of managed objects are defined by a corresponding plurality of managed object classes and are specified in an object-oriented syntax notation defining data types;

said programming interface comprising;

object interface composing means for generating code which provides a plurality of proxy managed object classes as local representatives for the plurality of managed object classes, a plurality of object classes for types defined in said syntax notation, a plurality of notification classes for incoming notifications, and a plurality of object-oriented methods for manipulating a plurality of specified managed objects;

run time system means for providing a plurality of proxy agent object classes as representatives for the plurality of remote managed agents which provide access to the operations of the common management information services;

wherein the code generated by the object interface composing means is linked to the run time system for execution.

2. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein the object interface composing means generates C++ code, the application programs are written in C++, and the plurality of proxy managed object classes and the ASN classes are object classes in C++.

3. The programming interface according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the object interface composing means generates automatically proxy managed object C++ class definitions and implementation files based on managed objects written in accordance with the ISO standard GDMO and ASN.1.

4. The programming interface according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the object interface composing means comprises generating means for the generation of code for said plurality of managed objects based on the specifications of management information in GDMO and in ASN.1.

5. The programming interface according to claim 1, including means for providing non-direct-addressing proxy agents for which, for each management request, the agent must be addressed explicitly by supplying an addressing parameter as part of the request by means of a context object or implicitly through a directory service.

6. The programming interface according to claim 5 wherein the object interface composing means generates a C++ class for every GDMO managed object class, a C++ class for each ASN.1 type, a C++ class for every GDMO notification, meta information data structures for GDMO and ASN.1, and a set of utility files.

7. The programming interface according to claim 1, including means for signalling errors by error objects returned as a function return or through function reference arguments and by error objects thrown by exceptions.

8. The programming interface according to claim 7, including means for defining error classes representing an inheritance hierarchy.

9. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein the inheritance relation between generated proxy managed object classes in C++ reflects the inheritance relation of the managed object classes defined in GDMO and ASN.1 documents.

10. The programming interface according to claim 9, wherein the definition of managed object classes is derived from more than one superior class thereby providing multiple inheritances.

11. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of managed objects are fully embedded into C++ to allow strong type checking at compile time.

12. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein said incoming notifications are stored in an event queue object.

13. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of proxy agent objects provide a service interface to the operations of the common management information services.

14. The programming interface according to claim 1, including means for providing direct-addressing proxy agents which can connect to one specific agent at a time.

15. The programming interface according to claim 1 wherein the proxy agents provide a set of additional methods including simple-create, simple-get, simple-action and simple-delete to perform operations on only one attribute of one managed object or on several attributes of a single managed object.

16. The programming interface according to claim 1, wherein the run time system receives notifications and stores them in the event queue means of the responsible proxy agent object.