Abstract: Mechanisms for operating a network element in an optical network are disclosed. A network element has a plurality of ports, each port including a respective receive input for receiving an optical signal from another network element and a respective transmit output for transmitting an optical signal to the other network element. Each port is configured with a respective fault detection mode of a plurality of fault detection modes.

Abstract: The mode of operation in which a port is configured to operate may be selected so that the manner in which the port will interpret a loss of signal on a receive fiber may be specified. In an immediate mode, the port will interpret a loss of signal on a receive fiber as an indication of a fault on the transmit fiber (or interfaces associated with the transmit fiber) and will immediately shut its transmit interface down. In a multiple cycle detection mode, the port will not immediately interpret a loss of signal on a receive fiber as an indication of a fault on the transmit fiber, but rather will begin monitoring the receive fiber to look for a specified loss of signal pattern on the receive fiber. In this mode the port will interpret a repetitive loss of signal on the receive fiber as an indication of a fault on the transmit fiber. By providing a mode selector, the manner in which the ports are configured to operate may be adjusted individually, as a group, or globally.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a plurality of output files based on a Management Information Base (MIB) specification is provided. The system includes one or more MIB compilers designed to produce outputs based on a MIB specification. Each of the MIB compilers reads a set of directives that are maintained separate from the MIB specification. The set of directives indicate which of the modules and items defined in the MIB specification are to be processed during a given MIB compilation operation. The set of directives may also specify MIB additional attributes and values for items that are defined in the MIB specification. The set of directives may also specify that, for the purposes of the MIB compilation operation, a MIB item is to be treated as though it had a different attribute than an attribute specified for the MIB item in the MIB specification.

Abstract: An apparatus for acquiring a plurality of values from an agent on a network is provided. The apparatus may be accessed through a predefined interface by various network management station applications. Because the apparatus is independent from the network management applications, the functionality provided by the apparatus need not be duplicated in each network management station application. The apparatus generally includes an agent identification unit, a display mechanism, a database access unit, a storage device and an information retrieval unit. The storage device stores a database containing data representing agents, management information bases, objects and attribute groups. When a network management station application requires values from an agent, the network management station application sends the apparatus a signal identifying the agent and specifying an information category, such as performance, status, or diagnostic. The agent identification unit identifies the type of the agent.