Vendor-Agnostic API for Wireless Network Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network management techniques are sub-optimal due to exponential growth in network demand, heterogeneous vendor systems, and inefficient capacity planning, leading to complex and error-prone implementation and maintenance of network applications.
Innovation Solution
A vendor-agnostic application programming interface (API) that provides a catalog of predefined pipelines for network management tasks, allowing applications to select and execute actions on managed objects in a logical order, with simulation and live modes for testing and validation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If vendor-specific network management systems are used, then network management functionality is provided, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase due to heterogeneous vendor systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a common service interface as an intermediary layer between network management applications and vendor-specific network elements. This interface translates vendor-specific managed objects into a unified data model, enabling applications to interact with multiple vendors' systems through a single standardized API without needing to understand each vendor's specific protocols or data structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal network management interface that can manage diverse network elements from different vendors through a single unified data model. The common service interface provides multi-functional capabilities including read, write, and delete operations on managed objects, serving multiple vendor ecosystems simultaneously through one standardized approach.
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom network management applications are developed for each vendor, then vendor-specific requirements are met, but implementation and maintenance become tedious and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments network management functionality into two independent parts: vendor-specific managed objects (data layer) and application-level operations (service layer). This segmentation allows applications to be written once against the unified common service interface and automatically adapt to different vendors through the data model translation layer, eliminating the need for custom implementation for each vendor.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the concept of copying by creating virtual representations of vendor-specific managed objects through the unified data model. Instead of directly interacting with each vendor's proprietary data structures, applications work with standardized copies of managed objects that are translated to the appropriate vendor-specific formats at execution time.
3Reliability
If network management tasks are performed through multiple vendor-specific interfaces, then detailed control is achieved, but task execution time increases due to sequential operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple vendor-specific managed objects into a single unified data model structure. This allows network management tasks that would traditionally require sequential operations across multiple vendor interfaces to be executed as a single atomic operation through the common service interface, significantly reducing execution time while maintaining detailed control through the unified model.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary translation of managed objects into the unified data model format before execution. By pre-translating and preparing the data structures in advance, the system eliminates repeated translation overhead during task execution, improving performance while maintaining the precision needed for reliable network management.
Data Source
AI summary
A processing system may obtain, from a requesting system, a request for a network management task associated with at least one managed object in the communication network. The at least one managed object may be of a first vendor of a plurality of vendors. In addition, the processing system may comprise an application programming interface to process network management task requests associated with managed objects of a plurality of different vendors. The processing system may next select a pipeline of functions associated with the network management task, where the pipeline of functions is specific to the first vendor and to the network management task, gather network state information relating to the pipeline of functions, and execute the pipeline of functions based upon the network state information to perform the network management task. The processing system may then report to the requesting system a result of the network management task.