Common management information base (MIB)

Claim 1

A network element, comprising: a first subsystem operable to receive first management transactions in a first management protocol and to map the first management transactions to a common management protocol; a second subsystem operable to receive second management transactions in a second management protocol and to map the second management transactions to the common management protocol; a common management information base (MIB) comprising a dataset and a common interface to the dataset, the common interface comprising software stored in a computer-readable medium and operable to access the dataset to process the first and second management transactions from the first and second subsystems in the common management protocol; the dataset comprising data structures, each data structure storing data for a managed entity type; the common management information base (MIB) further comprising a set of managed entity classes, each managed entity class comprising specific functionality for a managed entity type; the common management information base (MIB) further comprising an interface object comprising base functionality for the managed entity types; and the common interface operable to generate a managed entity interface by loading the interface object with a managed entity class for a managed entity type and to access the data structure for the managed entity type using the managed entity interface.

Claim 12

A method for storing data, comprising: storing data for each of a plurality of entity types in a data structure; encapsulating specific functionality for each of the entity types in an entity class; encapsulating base functionality for the entity types in an interface object; in response to a request to access data for an entity type, generating an entity interface by loading the interface object with the entity class for the entity type; and accessing the data structure for the entity type using the entity interface.

Claim 13

A method for storing data, comprising: storing data for each of a plurality of entity types in a data structure; encapsulating specific functionality for each of the entity types in an entity class; encapsulating base functionality for the entity types in an interface object; in response to a request to access data for an entity type, generating an entity interface by loading the interface object with the entity class for the entity type; and accessing the data structure for the entity type using the entity interface.