Ciena Corporation

Kevin D Snow

Darryl Black

James R Perry

Thomas R Perry

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for granular management of network resources by accessing network device resources through associated references. In one embodiment, the references are group names, and one or more resources (i.e., a resource collection) within each network device in a telecommunications network may be linked with one or more group names. Group names (or other types of references) may then be used to limit a user's access to particular network device resources. That is, a user may only have access to those resources associated with group names to which the user has access. Over time, network device resources may be associated or disassociated with particular group names. As a result, group names provide users with dynamic access to network device resources. In one embodiment, the groups to which a user has access are defined within a user profile associated with the user. Grouping network device resources, therefore, allows for a granular view of each network device in the network by limiting a user's access to those resources corresponding to group names listed in their user profile. As one example, grouping may allow for customer network management&#x2014;that is a customer's view is limited to only those network device resources for which they have subscribed.

Granular management of network resources

The present invention provides a method for managing telecommunications networks through user profiles that establish management capabilities and lists of network devices capable of being managed through each user profile. Through profiles, users may be given controlled access to configure network devices, provision services or simply view the network devices, services or portions thereof. For example, customers may be enabled to view services dedicated to their particular networks while being simultaneously prevented from viewing services particular to other customer's networks. This provides security while enabling controlled customer network management. In addition, profiles may be used to limit the management capabilities of network managers to only those network devices and capabilities for which each network manager is responsible and authorized. This controlled access again provides security and may prevent network outages due to inexperienced network management errors as well as simplify network management for each level of network manager. The user profiles may also be used to customize the user interface each user accesses to improve efficiency and ease of network management. Profiles may also be used to establish local network connections and set up appropriate network communication channels to improve the efficiency of user access.

Providing network management access through user profiles

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing distributed user management information in telecommunications networks. At least a portion of a user's management information is stored in a team session file that is accessible by a network management system (NMS) client. For example, the team session file may be saved in memory that is local to the NMS client or, if a user logs in through a remote system using a web browser, the team session file may be saved as a cookie in memory local to the remote system. The NMS client may then utilize the user management information in the team session file while the user is logged into the NMS client. In one embodiment, the user management information stored within the team session file includes NMS server connection information. Thus, when a user logs into an NMS client, the NMS client uses the NMS server connection information to connect to an NMS server. The user management information stored within the team session file may be retrieved from user profile information corresponding to the user and stored in a central data repository, and since the user profile data is stored in a central repository, changes may be easily made to the user profile data and consequently pushed out to the team session files accessible by one or more NMS clients. Consequently, a user's management data may widely distributed for access by NMS clients located anywhere in the network.

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Amherst, NH, United States of America

Kevin D Snow