Message processor for a passenger entertainment system, method and article of manufacture

Abstract

A computer is used to manage communication over a network between one or more network addressable units and a plurality of physical devices of a passenger entertainment system. The system is configured and operated using software to provide passenger entertainment services including audio and video on-demand, information dissemination, product and service order processing, video teleconferencing and data communication services. The system includes a system server and a network supporting multiple computer processors. The processors and the server comprise application software that control telephony applications and network services. The server is coupled by way of the network to physical devices of the system. The server comprises software for instantiating a dispatch object to open a framework for one or more network addressable unit objects, for instantiating one or more virtual line replaceable unit objects to manage communication between a network address unit and one or more physical devices, and for instantiating a message processor for moving messages to the one or more network addressable unit objects for delivery to the one or more physical devices. The message processor receives messages containing network routing address from one or more device drivers. The message processor utilizes the network routing address to and a physical device type to access a table and determine the ultimate destination for the message. The message processor has at least one input named pipe and one output named pipe, and utilizes the named pipes to translate messages from a first format to a second format. The message processor logs invalid destination addresses in a storage medium. The message processor instantiates each device driver from a device handler class member.