Abstract: An approach to affinity-based network configuration is disclosed. In one approach, an apparatus for configuring a network based on affinity is described. The apparatus includes a set of business rules describing the order of importance of a plurality applications, an affinity analysis module that receives the set of business rules and a plurality of application requests and detects affinities between the application requests and an infrastructure of the network based on the set of business rules, an affinity computation module coupled to the affinity analysis module that determines a new network configuration based on the detected affinities, and a network management module that configures the network based on the new network configuration.

Abstract: A system and a method are provided for using dynamic object modeling and one or more types of policy rules to dynamically specify and modify system behavior at various levels of abstraction, including business, system, and device implementation. The system and method allow for specifying, instantiating, managing, and removing sets of temporary or permanent additions and/or modifications to the attributes or behavior of a set of objects, relationships, scripts, and/or applications of a device, module, subsystem, or system, without having to change the underlying code of these objects, relationships, scripts, and/or applications. The systems and methods enable attributes, methods and/or relationships (e.g., associations, aggregations, and/or compositions), as well as constraints on any of these elements, to be dynamically added or changed at runtime without changing any underlying code of the components being managed by instantiating and manipulating object instances in accordance with certain policy rules.

Abstract: An approach to affinity-based network configuration is disclosed. In one approach, an apparatus for configuring a network based on affinity is described. The apparatus includes a set of business rules describing the order of importance of a plurality applications, an affinity analysis module that receives the set of business rules and a plurality of application requests and detects affinities between the application requests and an infrastructure of the network based on the set of business rules, an affinity computation module coupled to the affinity analysis module that determines a new network configuration based on the detected affinities, and a network management module that configures the network based on the new network configuration.

Abstract: A system and a method are provided for using dynamic object modeling and one or more types of policy rules to dynamically specify and modify system behavior at various levels of abstraction, including business, system, and device implementation. The system and method allow for specifying, instantiating, managing, and removing sets of temporary or permanent additions and/or modifications to the attributes or behavior of a set of objects, relationships, scripts, and/or applications of a device, module, subsystem, or system, without having to change the underlying code of these objects, relationships, scripts, and/or applications. The systems and methods enable attributes, methods and/or relationships (e.g., associations, aggregations, and/or compositions), as well as constraints on any of these elements, to be dynamically added or changed at runtime without changing any underlying code of the components being managed by instantiating and manipulating object instances in accordance with certain policy rules.

Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of the invention provide for obtaining information from different devices in a computer network. Data representing the information from each of the different devices is received, the data is in a specific form relating to each of the different devices. The data from each of the different devices is assigned to one or more entities as defined by an information model. The data from each of the different devices is grouped using an adaptation layer before assigning the data from that device to one or more entities.

Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of the invention provide for obtaining information from different devices in a computer network. Data representing the information from each of the different devices is received, the data is in a specific form relating to each of the different devices. The data from each of the different devices is assigned to one or more entities as defined by an information model. The data from each of the different devices is grouped using an adaptation layer before assigning the data from that device to one or more entities.

Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of the invention provide for managing a computer network. One illustrative embodiment forms a first representation of a network element as a physical entity in an information model, the first representation having a form independent of an implementation defined by a vendor; and maps a portion of the first representation from the information model to a second representation in a vendor-independent data model residing in a first repository, the second representation having a form suitable for use with the first repository.

Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems for managing a computer network. One illustrative embodiment forms a first representation of a network element as a physical entity in an information model, the first representation having a form independent of an implementation defined by a vendor; and maps a portion of the first representation from the information model to a second representation in a vendor-independent data model residing in a first repository, the second representation having a form suitable for use with the first repository.

Abstract: A stored model is comprised of a plurality of candidate contextually-described states along with state-to-state transitions between at least some of this plurality of candidate contextually-described states. This stored model can be agnostic with respect to any particular application. One can then access at least one policy as pertains to a particular application to be effected by that platform and apply that policy to modify at least one of the state-to-state transitions to thereby provide a modified version of the stored model that corresponds in particular to the particular application to be effected. By one approach, the aforementioned policy can comprise, at least in part, an indication of a relative preference as pertains to one or more of the state-to-state transitions. This can comprise, for example, a weighting factor to be applied with respect to one or more of the state-to-state transitions.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for configuring and managing networked communication systems. For example, an exemplary system and/or method according to one embodiment uses an information model to map between normalized representations of different network resources having different features. Moreover, the information model can represent different devices, different programming models, and/or different functionalities in a common representation, which is then used to configure and manage different network elements (e.g., different devices).

Abstract: A system and method for managing network device configurations is described. In one embodiment a device configuration is represented by configuration knowledge and configuration data, wherein the configuration knowledge may comprise one or more configuration knowledge instances, and the configuration data may comprise one or more configuration data instances. In preferred forms, the configuration knowledge instances and configuration data instances may comprise one or more schemata, which may be created, modified, or deleted without affecting other portions of a configuration knowledge instance or configuration data instance.

Abstract: A system and method for managing network device configurations is described. In one embodiment a device configuration is represented by configuration knowledge and configuration data, wherein the configuration knowledge may comprise one or more configuration knowledge instances, and the configuration data may comprise one or more configuration data instances. In preferred forms, the configuration knowledge instances and configuration data instances may comprise one or more schemata, which may be created, modified, or deleted without affecting other portions of a configuration knowledge instance or configuration data instance.

Abstract: A system and method for managing network device configurations is described. In one embodiment a device configuration is represented by configuration knowledge and configuration data, wherein the configuration knowledge may comprise one or more configuration knowledge instances, and the configuration data may comprise one or more configuration data instances. In preferred forms, the configuration knowledge instances and configuration data instances may comprise one or more schemata, which may be created, modified, or deleted without affecting other portions of a configuration knowledge instance or configuration data instance.

Abstract: A system and method for managing and performing network configurations is described. In one embodiment, an assembler can look up the customer's account and identify the network devices that are both required for a requested transaction. Using the knowledge data models (KDM) for the identified network devices, the assembler can determine which resources are available. For each relevant resource, the assembler can gather the appropriate configuration schemata from the KDMs. The assembler can then identify the parameters within the network resource's schemata that are configurable, select the correct configuration for those parameters, and build the necessary configuration instructions based upon the business rules defined by the customer. These configuration instructions could then be pushed to the appropriate network devices.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for provisioning services that includes configuring one or more different devices. According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for provisioning a service comprises an information model configured to represent a network resource of said network, to represent said service, and to represent the provisioning of said service, and a processor configured to use a subset of business rules and processes, which can be represented in the same information model, to constrain the implementation of said network resource. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, an exemplary apparatus and method governs the manner in which a configuration of a network device is to be created, verified, approved, and deployed.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for configuring and managing networked communication systems. For example, an exemplary system and/or method according to one embodiment uses an information model to map between normalized representations of different network resources having different features. Moreover, the information model can represent different devices, different programming models, and/or different functionalities in a common representation, which is then used to configure and manage different network elements (e.g., different devices).

Abstract: A system and method for managing network device configurations is described. In one embodiment a device configuration is represented by configuration knowledge and configuration data, wherein the configuration knowledge may comprise one or more configuration knowledge instances, and the configuration data may comprise one or more configuration data instances. In preferred forms, the configuration knowledge instances and configuration data instances may comprise one or more schemata, which may be created, modified, or deleted without affecting other portions of a configuration knowledge instance or configuration data instance.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for storing policies for use in policy-based management of quality of service treatments of network data traffic flows are described. The policies are stored in the form of policy statements. Each policy statement applies to a specific application that runs in the network. Policy statements are stored in a Repository, which may be a Directory Server or an X.500 directory. A policy server may create and store policies in the Repository based on information about the application, the network devices, and the quality of service treatments that the network devices can apply to a traffic flow. An application program and the policy server network device can retrieve the policy information from the Repository using appropriate function calls or an access protocol such as LDAP.

Abstract: A system and method for managing and performing network configurations is described. In one embodiment, an assembler can look up the customer's account and identify the network devices that are both required for a requested transaction. Using the knowledge data models (KDM) for the identified network devices, the assembler can determine which resources are available. For each relevant resource, the assembler can gather the appropriate configuration schemata from the KDMs. The assembler can then identify the parameters within the network resource's schemata that are configurable, select the correct configuration for those parameters, and build the necessary configuration instructions based upon the business rules defined by the customer. These configuration instructions could then be pushed to the appropriate network devices.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for storing policies for use in policy-based management of quality of service treatments of network data traffic flows are described. The policies are stored in the form of policy statements. Each policy statement applies to a specific application that runs in the network. Each policy statement includes a condition and a network service to be applied to all traffic matching the condition. Each condition comprises one or more basic condition components connected by operators. Each basic condition comprises a basic policy parameter identifier, an operator and an operand. Policy statements are stored in a Repository, which may be a Directory Server or an X.500 directory. A policy server may create and store policies in the Repository based on information about the application, the network devices, and the quality of service treatments that the network devices can apply to a traffic flow.