Switch management system and method
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- providing a network operating system (NOS) on each processor element (PE) of a plurality of PEs of a switch in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider, the NOS including an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects;
establishing an object-to-object channel between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects;
performing, by the OM, management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls;
performing, by the OM, data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels;
provisioning the switch with a first network-based managed IP service for a first customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a first discrete and customized software object, specific to the first customer of the plurality of customers, representing a first network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel; and
provisioning the switch with a second network-based managed IP service for a second customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a second discrete and customized software object, specific to the second customer of the plurality of customers, representing a second network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems for managing a service provider switch are provided. According to one embodiment, a method is provided for provisioning a switch with a network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service. A network operating system (NOS) is provided on each processor element (PE) of the switch. The NOS includes an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects. The OM performs management plane communications among software objects by way of system calls. The OM performs data plane communications among software objects by way of object-to-object channels. The switch is provisioned with a network-based managed IP service for a particular customer by pushing discrete and customized software objects representing the network-based managed IP service onto an object-to-object channel established between two of the software objects.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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providing a network operating system (NOS) on each processor element (PE) of a plurality of PEs of a switch in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider, the NOS including an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects; establishing an object-to-object channel between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects; performing, by the OM, management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls; performing, by the OM, data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; provisioning the switch with a first network-based managed IP service for a first customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a first discrete and customized software object, specific to the first customer of the plurality of customers, representing a first network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel; and provisioning the switch with a second network-based managed IP service for a second customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a second discrete and customized software object, specific to the second customer of the plurality of customers, representing a second network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A switch comprising:
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a plurality of processor elements upon which a network operating system (NOS), in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider, is executing; wherein the NOS includes an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects; wherein an object-to-object channel is established between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects; wherein the OM performs management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls; wherein the OM performs data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; wherein the switch is provisioned with a first network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service for a first customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a first discrete and customized software object, specific to the first customer of the plurality of customers, representing the first network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel; and wherein the switch is provisioned with a second network-based managed IP service for a second customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a second discrete and customized software object, specific to the second customer of the plurality of customers, representing the second network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel. - View Dependent Claims (11, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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- 12. The switch of 10, wherein the first discrete and customized software object comprises a managed security service object.
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19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of a switch tangibly embodying a set of instructions representing a network operating system (NOS) for a plurality of processor elements (PEs) of the switch in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider and which when executed by the plurality of PEs cause the PEs to perform a method comprising:
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instantiating an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects; establishing an object-to-object channel between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects; performing, by the OM, management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls; performing, by the OM, data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; provisioning the switch with a first network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service for a first customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a first discrete and customized software object, specific to the first customer of the plurality of customers, representing the first network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel; and provisioning the switch with a second network-based managed IP service for a second customer of the plurality of customers by pushing a second discrete and customized software object, specific to the second customer of the plurality of customers, representing the second network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification