System and method for virtual router enabled electronic documents

• US 7,360,154 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gale, Nicholas John
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Maikhanh
• Application Number:
  US10/990,710
• Publication Number:
  US 20060107194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 715/510, 715/500, 715/511, 715/513, 715/764, 713/1, 709/220, 709/223, 709/238
• US Class Current: 715/228
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements

Abstract

A system and method provide for producing and/or implementing a virtual device enabled electronic document. The electronic document includes documentary information and one or more virtual device initiators corresponding to the same or different target devices, or further, to device systems. At least a portion of the documentary information and a corresponding virtual device initiator, in one embodiment, correspond to at least one device operation of the device. A user invoking a virtual device initiator, in one embodiment, causes a document system to configure and initiate a virtual device, or further, other system devices with which the virtual device may interact.

Claims

1. An electronic document processing method, comprising:

presenting to a user an electronic document including documentation and a virtual device initiator corresponding to a device operation of a target device;

receiving from the user an invocation of the virtual device initiator;

determining a device configuration corresponding to the virtual device initiator; and

operating at least one target virtual device corresponding to the target device according to the determined device configuration.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic document comprises a separately stored electronic document.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual device initiator is embedded within the documentation.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the virtual device initiator comprises a visually presented control presented in such a manner as to indicate a correspondence between the virtual device initiator and a particular portion of the documentation.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the virtual device initiator is positioned near the particular portion of the documentation.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein the virtual device initiator comprises a hyperlink.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the determining a device configuration comprises selecting, from among a plurality of predetermined configurations, a configuration indicated by the virtual device initiator.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises receiving a user device configuration and modifying the user device configuration according to the device operation.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises presenting to a user a virtual device interface and responding to user operation of the virtual device interface by at least one of selecting a predetermined configuration, receiving a user device configuration and determining a configuration combining the predetermined configuration and the user device configuration.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the operating comprises instantiating the at least one target virtual device, configuring the at least one target virtual device according to the configuration and initiating a scenario corresponding to the at least one target device operation.

11. A method according to claim 1, further comprising determining a virtual device system configuration including the at least one target virtual device and at least one other system device with which the device operation will cause the at least one target virtual device to interact.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one other system device includes a virtual other system device.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one other system device includes a remote other system device coupled to the virtual device.

14. A method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one other system device includes a user other system device coupled to the at least one target virtual device.

15. A method according to claim 1, further comprising transferring the device configuration to a user device.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one target device comprises a router.

17. An electronic document processing method, comprising:

presenting to a user an electronic document including documentation describing a plurality of target device operations and a plurality of virtual device initiators corresponding to respective ones of the target device operations;

receiving from the user an invocation of one of the virtual device initiators;

determining a virtual device system configuration corresponding to the invoked virtual device initiator, wherein the virtual device system configuration comprises;

at least one virtual device;

a configuration of the at least one virtual device; and

one or more other system devices with which the at least one virtual device interacts if the virtual device system configuration causes the at least one virtual device to interact with the one or more other system devices;

determining virtual device input corresponding to the virtual device initiator; and

initiating operation of the at least one virtual device according to the virtual device system configuration and the determined virtual device input.

18. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for:

presenting to a user an electronic document including documentation and a virtual device initiator corresponding to a device operation of a target device;

receiving from the user an invocation of the virtual device initiator;

determining a device configuration corresponding to the virtual device initiator; and

operating at least one target virtual device corresponding to the target device according to the determined device configuration.

19. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the electronic document comprises a separately stored electronic document.

20. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the virtual device initiator is embedded within the documentation.

21. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the virtual device initiator comprises a visually presented control presented in such a manner as to indicate a correspondence between the virtual device initiator and a particular portion of the documentation.

22. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 21, wherein the virtual device initiator is positioned near the particular portion of the documentation.

23. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 21, wherein the virtual device initiator comprises a hyperlink.

24. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the determining a device configuration comprises selecting, from among a plurality of predetermined configurations, a configuration indicated by the virtual device initiator.

25. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the determining comprises receiving a user device configuration and modifying the user device configuration according to the device operation.

26. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the determining comprises presenting to a user a virtual device interface and responding to user operation of the virtual device interface by at least one of selecting a predetermined configuration, receiving a user device configuration and determining a configuration combining the predetermined configuration and the user device configuration.

27. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the operating comprises instantiating the at least one target virtual device, configuring the at least one target virtual device according to the configuration and initiating a scenario corresponding to the at least one target device operation.

28. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 18, further comprising determining a virtual device system configuration including the at least one target virtual device and at least one other system device with which the device operation will cause the at least one target virtual device to interact.

29. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the at least one other system device includes a virtual other system device.

30. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the at least one other system device includes a remote other system device coupled to the virtual device.

31. A machine-readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the at least one other system device includes a user other system device coupled to the at least one target virtual device.

32. A method according to claim 18, further comprising transferring the device configuration to a user device.

33. An apparatus for processing an electronic document, comprising:

a processor;

means for presenting to a user, using the processor, an electronic document including documentation and a virtual device initiator corresponding to a device operation of a target device;

means for receiving from the user an invocation of the virtual device initiator;

means for determining a device configuration corresponding to the virtual device initiator; and

means for operating at least one target virtual device corresponding to the target device according to the determined device configuration.

34. An apparatus for processing an electronic document, comprising:

a network interface that is coupled to a data network for receiving one or more packet flows therefrom;

a processor; and

one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of;

presenting to a user an electronic document including documentation and a virtual device initiator corresponding to a device operation of a target device;

receiving from the user an invocation of the virtual device initiator;

determining a device configuration corresponding to the virtual device initiator; and

operating at least one target virtual device corresponding to the target device according to the determined device configuration.