Portable Distributed Application Framework for Router Protocol Testing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current router testing systems require extensive hard-coding and customization for each new protocol, leading to complex and costly maintenance, especially due to the need for unique graphical user interfaces and extensive application programming interfaces (APIs), which complicates the process of adapting to new or modified protocols.
Innovation Solution
A generic protocol framework that uses external definition files to interface with and control protocol emulations, allowing for a generic graphical user interface, control, and command host component, and protocol housing on embedded devices, enabling support for multiple protocols without the need for extensive reworking of the framework or custom code.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If hard-coding is used for each protocol implementation, then protocol-specific functionality is achieved, but system complexity and maintenance cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal protocol handler that can process multiple protocols through a single interface. The handler uses configuration files to define protocol-specific behaviors while maintaining a common processing framework, allowing one component to serve multiple protocol functions without requiring separate hard-coded implementations for each protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses configuration files that serve as templates or copies of protocol specifications. These files contain protocol definitions that can be loaded and instantiated without modifying the underlying code, allowing protocol behavior to be copied and adapted through configuration rather than through creating new code for each protocol.
2Ease of operation
If unique graphical user interfaces are created for each protocol, then protocol-specific control is achieved, but development time and maintenance effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a single graphical user interface that can control multiple protocols through a unified design. The GUI uses the same configuration files and handler mechanisms to adapt its behavior based on the selected protocol, eliminating the need to create and maintain separate GUI implementations for each protocol while still providing protocol-specific control capabilities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If extensive APIs are developed for each protocol, then protocol functionality is accessible, but API maintenance becomes prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts protocol-specific logic from the API layer and places it in configuration files. The API itself becomes protocol-agnostic, containing only the common interface definitions and processing logic. Protocol-specific behaviors are extracted into external configuration files that can be modified without touching the API code, significantly reducing maintenance costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces configuration files as an intermediary layer between the API and protocol implementations. This intermediary allows the API to remain stable and simple while protocol-specific details are handled through the configuration layer, reducing the complexity and maintenance burden of the API itself.
Data Source
AI summary
A portable distributed application framework that uses a definition file describing a structure of data and commands to be used by the framework to interface with an application. A proxy, responsive to a definition file, creates and receives messages based on the definition file. The created messages contain data and commands used to control the application while the received messages contain data from the application. A control, responsive to the definition file, relays messages between the proxy and the application. A housing, responsive to the definition file and the messages from the proxy, provides the application with configuration information and receives data from the application.