(19) United States
(12) Patent Application Publication (io) Pub. No.: US 2005/0198247 Al
Perry et al. (43) Pub. Date: Sep. 8,2005
(54) GRANULAR MANAGEMENT OF NETWORK RESOURCES
(75) Inventors: Thomas R. Perry, Groton, MA (US);
James R. Perry, Merrimack, NH (US);
Kevin D. Snow, Amherst, NH (US);
Darryl Black, Hollis, NH (US)
Correspondence Address:
NUTTER MCCLENNEN & FISH LLP
WORLD TRADE CENTER WEST
155 SEAPORT BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MA 02210-2604 (US)
(73) Assignee: CIENA CORPORATION, Linthicum, MD
(21) Appl. No.: 10/938,160
(22) Filed: Sep. 10, 2004
Related U.S. Application Data
(63) Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/614,187, filed on Jul. 11, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,876,652. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/613,682, filed on Jul. 11, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,868,092. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/613,965, filed on Jul. 11, 2000.
Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/625,101, filed on Jul. 24, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/653,700, filed on Aug. 31, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/653,417, filed on Aug. 31, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/651,915, filed on Aug. 31, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/669,861, filed on Sep. 26, 2000.
Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/687,002, filed on Oct. 12, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/703,598, filed on Nov. 1, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/703,531, filed on Nov. 1, 2000.
Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/703,600, filed on Nov. 1, 2000, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/756,936, filed on Jan. 9, 2001, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/789,665, filed on Feb. 21, 2001, now abandoned. Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/803,783, filed on Mar. 12, 2001.
Continuation-in-part of application No. 09/838,310, filed on Apr. 19, 2001, now abandoned.
Publication Classification
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 15/173
(52) U.S. C I 709/223
(57) ABSTRACT
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—that is a customer's view is limited to only those network device resources for which they have subscribed.
