Unified Interface for Multi-Media Network Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing number of available media types in computing devices burdens system administrators with the task of installing, configuring, and maintaining hardware and software, as conventional systems require multiple media managers with different configuration mechanisms, making it difficult to restore or replicate settings across devices.
Innovation Solution
A unified configuration interface and network and connection provisioning framework that enables administrators to configure multiple media types through a single interface, using a standardized API for media managers to handle and store configuration information uniformly, facilitating the creation of a single configuration file for multiple media types and global policies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple media managers with different configuration mechanisms are used to support various media types, then the system can handle diverse networking technologies, but the complexity of installing, configuring, and maintaining hardware and software increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a unified configuration interface that serves multiple media types (wireless, wired, virtual private networks) through a single interface. This allows the system to maintain support for diverse networking technologies while reducing the complexity of installation and configuration by eliminating the need to manage separate configuration mechanisms for each media type.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the configuration functions of multiple media managers into a single unified configuration interface. This consolidation combines the previously separate configuration mechanisms into one integrated system, thereby reducing the overall complexity of managing multiple media types while preserving the ability to handle wireless, wired, and virtual network connections.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple media managers handle and store configuration information differently in several places, then each media type can be configured with its specific settings, but it becomes difficult and time consuming to restore settings or replicate settings from one computing device to another
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the configuration information storage locations of multiple media managers into a single centralized storage location. This unified storage approach allows all configuration settings for different media types to be consolidated in one place, thereby eliminating the time-consuming task of manually restoring or replicating settings across multiple separate configuration locations when migrating between computing devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified configuration interface provides a universal mechanism that handles configuration information for all media types through a single standardized approach. This universal interface and storage system enables consistent configuration management across different media types, simplifying the restoration and replication processes while maintaining the flexibility to configure each media type with its specific settings.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional media managers are configured with dedicated interfaces, then each media manager can be optimized for its specific function, but it becomes difficult to specify policies that involve multiple media types
Solution Approach 1:
The unified configuration interface provides a universal platform that maintains the optimized, dedicated functionality of individual media managers while adding the capability to specify and manage policies that span multiple media types. This universal interface allows administrators to create cross-media policies without compromising the specialized optimization of each media manager.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the configuration system into a unified interface layer that handles cross-media policies and a separate media manager layer that maintains specialized optimization for each media type. This segmentation allows the unified interface to provide broad policy management capabilities while each media manager retains its optimized, dedicated configuration functions.
Data Source
AI summary
A network and connection provisioning framework for configuring and provisioning multiple aspects of network connectivity (e.g., multiple networks, media types, and/or connections). The framework may comprise a unified configuration interface that enables an administrator to configure multiple different types of network connectivity. A single configuration file comprising settings for multiple aspects of network connectivity may be generated based on preferences entered by a system administrator, or by exporting current settings from a particular computing device. Global configuration policies or other configuration settings that span multiple types of network connectivity may be also created and stored in one or more configuration files. Stand-alone media managers and/or plug-in modules may implement one or more standardized application programming interface functions so that they may interoperate with the network and connection provisioning framework. The standardized API may be used to ensure that configuration information is handled and stored in a standardized manner by different media managers and/or plug-in modules.