IDL event and request formatting for corba gateway

• US 7,228,346 B1
• Filed: 04/21/2000
• Issued: 06/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Allavarpu, Sai V., Dong, Xeusi, Lee, Linda C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu; Jinsong
• Application Number:
  US09/557,068
• Time in Patent Office: 2,601 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/315, 709/316, 709/227, 719/315, 719/316, 370/360, 717/108
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A CORBA Gateway between CORBA-based applications and an enterprise manager may be configurable to manage various networked objects, such as printers, scanners, copiers, telephone systems, etc., which may be interconnected via networks. CORBA-based manager applications may communicate managed object-related messages, such as events, requests, and responses, with the managed objects through a CORBA Object Request Broker (ORB). The CORBA gateway may translate the manager requests from IDL to PMI requests. Similarly, the CORBA gateway may translate the enterprise manager PMI responses and PMI events to IDL/IIOP responses and events which may be passed on through the CORBA ORB to the manager applications in the form of IDL responses and CORBA events. In some embodiments, the client may choose the format in which to send and receive message information. To provide text based events, requests, and replies, an extension IDL interface may be used.

Claims

1. A network management system, comprising:

a gateway which is coupled to one or more managed objects and which is configured to deliver messages between the managed objects and one or more managers, wherein each managed object is a computer programming language object representing one or more devices on a network, wherein each manager is configured to send request messages to and receive event messages from one or more of the managed objects; and

a platform-independent interface to the gateway, wherein the gateway is configurable to communicate with the managers through the platform-independent interface to deliver the messages;

wherein the platform-independent interface to the gateway is configured to provide for selection, from a plurality of different formats, of a format for delivery of the messages for each manager in a format selected by that manager.

2. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the selected format comprises text.

3. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the selected format comprises Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN1).

4. The network management method of claim 1, wherein the messages are communicated with the managers via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

5. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the platform-independent interface to the gateway is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

6. The network management system of claim 5, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

7. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the managed objects comprise one or more objects corresponding to a telephone network.

8. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the managed objects comprise an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.

9. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises a request gateway which is configured to deliver messages generated by the one or more managers to the one or more managed objects, and wherein the messages comprise requests for the one or more managed objects.

10. The network management system of claim 9, wherein the requests comprise a query for information concerning one of the managed objects.

11. The network management system of claim 9, wherein the requests comprise a command to set one or more parameters of one of the managed objects.

12. The network management system of claim 9, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

13. The network management system of claim 9, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

14. The network management system of claim 1, wherein the gateway comprises an event gateway, and wherein the messages comprise events associated with the managed objects.

15. The network management system of claim 14, the events comprise an alert generated by one of the managed objects.

16. A network management method, comprising:

one or more managers each selecting, from a plurality of different formats, a format for messages deliverable by a gateway between one or more managed objects and each of the one or more managers, wherein each managed object is a computer programming language object representing one or more devices on a network, and wherein each manager is configured to send request messages to and receive event messages from one or more of the managed objects;

wherein the gateway is configurable to communicate with the managers through a platform-independent interface to deliver the messages; and

delivering the messages between the one or more managed objects and the one or more managers, according to the format selected by each manager.

17. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the selected format comprises text.

18. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the selected format comprises Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN1).

19. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the messages are communicated with the managers via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

20. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the platform-independent interface to the gateway is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

21. The network management method of claim 20, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

22. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the managed objects comprise one or more objects corresponding to a telephone network.

23. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the managed objects comprise an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.

24. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the gateway comprises a request gateway which is configured to deliver messages generated by the one or more managers to the one or more managed objects, and wherein the messages comprise requests for the one or more managed objects.

25. The network management method of claim 24, wherein the requests comprise a query for information concerning one of the managed objects.

26. The network management method of claim 24, wherein the requests comprise a command to set one or more parameters of one of the managed objects.

27. The network management method of claim 24, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

28. The network management method of claim 24, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

29. The network management method of claim 16, wherein the gateway comprises an event gateway, and wherein the messages comprise events associated with the managed objects.

30. The network management method of claim 29, the events comprise an alert generated by one of the managed objects.

31. A computer-readable, storage medium comprising program instructions for network management, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to perform:

one or more managers each selecting, from a plurality of different formats, a format for messages deliverable by a gateway between one or more managed objects and the one or more managers, wherein each managed object is a computer programming language object representing one or more devices on a network, wherein each manager is configured to send request messages to and receive event messages from one or more of the managed objects;

wherein the gateway is configurable to communicate with the managers through a platform-independent interface to deliver the messages; and

delivering the messages between the one or more managed objects and the one or more managers, wherein messages are delivered to each of the one or more managers in the format selected by that respective manager from the plurality of different formats.

32. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the selected format comprises text.

33. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the selected format comprises Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN1).

34. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the messages are communicated with the managers via Internet Inter-Object Protocol (IIOP).

35. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the platform-independent interface to the gateway is expressed in an interface definition language, and wherein the interface definition language comprises a language for defining interfaces to managed objects across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages.

36. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 35, wherein the interface definition language comprises OMG IDL.

37. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the managed objects comprise one or more objects corresponding to a telephone network.

38. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the managed objects comprise an object corresponding to a telecommunications device.

39. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the gateway comprises a request gateway which is configured to deliver messages generated by the one or more managers to the one or more managed objects, and wherein the messages comprise requests for the one or more managed objects.

40. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 39, wherein the requests comprise a query for information concerning one of the managed objects.

41. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 39, wherein the requests comprise a command to set one or more parameters of one of the managed objects.

42. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 39, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a Portable Management Interface (PMI) format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

43. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 39, wherein the requests are converted from the interface definition language to a platform-specific format prior to delivery to the managed objects.

44. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 31, wherein the gateway comprises an event gateway, and wherein the messages comprise events associated with the managed objects.

45. The computer-readable, storage medium of claim 44, the events comprise an alert generated by one of the managed objects.