Method and device for management of tree data exchange

• US 7,269,821 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2003
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Sahinoja, Mikko, Hartikainen, Rauno
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): TECKLU, ISAAC TUKU
• Application Number:
  US10/422,015
• Publication Number:
  US 20030204640A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: 717/106, 709/226
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A management tree or nodes arranged hierarchically tree-like, respectively, is used to manage, contain and map information of a manageable device according to the SyncML DM protocol standard. A management server can request from such a device, by means of a GET command, information contained in a certain node of the management tree server. The manageable device responds by transmitting the requested information of the management tree. The inventive concept provides methods which allow a request of information not only from one single node but from a plurality of nodes at the same time. This leads to an efficient, time and cost saving management process.

Claims

1. Method for generating a request for obtaining at least a part of management related information of an electronic device, wherein said management related information is distributed among a plurality of nodes arranged as a hierarchical structure, at least one of said nodes is associated with a certain part of said management related information,

wherein said request is generated by coding an address information identifying a selected node of said plurality of nodes and

coding a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information in said selected node,

and wherein said request additionally contains information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node, and a command for instructing an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels, an identification of nodes within said hierarchical structure relative to said selected node and retrieval and return said management related information distributed in said identified nodes.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of identified nodes are nodes arranged hierarchically subordinate or hierarchically superordinate relative to said selected node.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein said information relating to said hierarchical structure comprises filter information in order to instruct selective retrieval of management related information and in order to instruct return of said selectively retrieved management related information.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein said address information contains said information relating to said hierarchical structure.

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein said information relating to the hierarchical structure is an instructional sequence for decoding by means of a common gateway interface script.

6. Method according to claim 1, wherein said request is based on a synchronization markup language protocol and especially is based on a synchronization markup language device management protocol.

7. Method according to claim 6, wherein said command of said request is a modified GET-command including said address information within a TARGET element containing a modified location uniform resource identifier.

18. Software tool for handling management related information, comprising program code portions for carrying out the operations of claim 1, wherein said program code portions are embodied in a computer readable storage medium for execution by a computer, a user terminal or a network device.

19. Computer program product for handling management related information, comprising program code section stored on a computer readable medium for carrying out the operations of claim 1, wherein said program product is run on a computer, a user terminal or a network device.

8. Method for generating a response containing management related information in response to receipt of a request for at least a part of said management related information from a requesting electronic device, wherein said management related information is distributed among a plurality of nodes arranged as a hierarchical structures, where at least one of said plurality of nodes is associated with a certain part of said management related information, wherein said request comprises an address information identifying a selected node of said plurality of nodes, a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information in said selected node, additional information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said node, and a command for instructing an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels, and wherein said response is for transmission to said requesting electronic device, said method comprising:

retrieving a part of management related information associated with one selected node identified by an address information provided by said request,

generating said response containing said retrieved part of management related information,

identifying nodes relative to said selected node on the basis of information related to said hierarchical structure of a plurality of nodes connected to said selected node provided by said request,

additionally retrieving parts of management related information associated with said identified nodes, and

adding said additionally retrieved parts of management related information to said response.

9. Method according to claim 8, wherein said request is generated by:

coding an address information identifying a selected node of said plurality of nodes and

coding a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information in said selected node, and

wherein said request additionally contains information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node, and a command for instructing an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels, identifying nodes within said hierarchical structure relative to the selected node and for retrieval and return said management related information distributed in said identified nodes.

10. Method according to claim 8, wherein said plurality of connected nodes are nodes arranged hierarchically subordinate or hierarchically superordinate relative to said selected node.

11. Method according to claim 8, wherein said information relating to said hierarchical structure comprises filter information in order to selectively retrieve management related information from said identified nodes.

12. Method according to claim 8, wherein said address information contains said information relating to said hierarchical structure.

13. Method according to claim 8, wherein said information relating to the hierarchical structure is an instructional sequence for decoding by means of a common gateway interface script.

14. Method according to claim 8, wherein said response is structured in a plurality of sections and each of said plurality of sections contains retrieved management related information of one node.

15. Method according to claim 8, wherein said response is based on a synchronization markup language protocol and especially is based on a synchronization markup language device management protocol.

16. Method according to claim 15, wherein said response contains a RESULTS element containing a plurality of ITEM elements, wherein each of said plurality of ITEM elements contains management related information of one identified node.

17. Method according to claim 16, wherein said each of said plurality of ITEM elements are coded as if a request response to a GET-command has been generated addressing said respective node corresponding to an ITEM element.

20. Computer program product for handling management related information, comprising program code sections stored on a computer readable medium for carrying out the method of claim 8, wherein said program product is run on a computer, a user terminal or network device.

21. A device, comprising computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program codes therein for generating a request for at least a part of management related information of a request receiving electronic device, wherein said management related information is distributed among a plurality of nodes arranged as a hierarchical structure, at least one of said plurality of nodes is associated with a certain part of management related information, wherein said computer program codes comprising:

instructions for coding an address information identifying a selected node of said plurality of nodes,

instructions for coding a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information associated with said selected node,

wherein said component for generating said request additionally comprises

instructions for coding an information relating to said hierarchical structure of a plurality of nodes connected to said selected node, and

instructions for coding a command instructing an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels, identifying nodes within said hierarchical structure relative to said selected node and for retrieval and return said management related information distributed in said identified nodes.

22. The device according to claim 21, wherein said computer program in said device

generates said request by coding an address information identifying a selected node of said plurality of nodes and

coding a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information, and wherein

said request additionally contains information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node, and a command for instructing an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels, identifying nodes within said hierarchical structure relative to the selected node and for retrieving and return said management related information distributed in said identified nodes.

25. The device according to claim 21, wherein said computer program codes further comprises instructions for generating a response to said request by:

retrieving a part of management related information associated with one selected node identified by an address information provided by said request,

generating said response containing said retrieved part of management related information,

identifying nodes relative to said selected node on the basis of information related to said hierarchical structure of a plurality of nodes connected to said selected node provided by said request in an exploration of said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels,

additionally retrieving parts of management related information associated with said identified nodes, and

adding said additionally retrieved parts of management related information to said response.

23. A device, comprising computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program codes therein for generating a response containing management related information in response to receipt of a request for at least a part of said management related information from a requesting electronic device, wherein said management related information is contained in said device and is distributed among a plurality of nodes arranged as a hierarchical structure, where at least one of said plurality of nodes is associated with a certain part of said management related information, wherein said computer program codes comprising:

instructions for retrieving a part of management related information associated with one selected node identified by an address information provided by said request,

instructions for generating said response containing said retrieved part of management related information,

instructions for identifying nodes relative to said selected node on the basis of information related to said hierarchical structure of a plurality of nodes connected to said selected node provided by said request, wherein said request instructs an exploration of said hierarchical structures starting from said selected node and including a defined number of hierarchical levels,

instructions for retrieving and returning additionally parts of management related information associated with said identified nodes, and

instructions for adding said additionally retrieved parts of management related information to said response,

wherein said response is for transmission to said requesting electronic device.

24. The device according to claim 23, wherein said computer program codes further comprises a common gateway interface script decoding program codes for decoding an instructional sequence based on a common gateway interface script instruction, wherein said instructional sequence contains said information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node.

26. Method for obtaining at least a part of management related information of an electronic device, wherein said management related information is distributed among a plurality of nodes arranged as a hierarchical structure, where at least one of said nodes is associated with a certain part of said management related information, wherein said method comprises:

generating a request for obtaining said part of management related information by coding an address information of a selected node of said plurality of nodes

coding a command for instructing retrieval and return of said part of management related information, wherein said request additionally contains information relating to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node,

generating a response containing management related information associated with said selected node identified by the address information provided by said request,

identifying nodes relative to said selected node on the basis of information related to said hierarchical structure of said plurality of nodes connected to said selected node, wherein said nodes are identified by exploring said hierarchical structure starting from said selected node and includes a defined number of hierarchical levels,

retrieving parts of management related information associated with said identified nodes, and

adding said additionally retrieved parts of management related information to said response.