Abstract: A network information management system includes, among other elements, a traffic reporting system, a switch shell, and a scheduling mechanism. The traffic reporting includes a database which holds traffic-related data collected from a network switch. The switch shell facilitates communication between the traffic reporting system and multiple digital telecommunications switch types. More specifically, the switch shell translates between a high layer generic interface protocol which defines a common set of switch interaction functions to unique portions of code uniquely compatible with the various switch types. The high layer generic interface protocol may comprise a set of query and response subsets, including a query and response subset for submitting an inventory request and for receiving in response to the submitted request, inventory information from the switch.