Network device management system

A network management system for communicating network management information between a managing network device and a managed network device interconnected by a network;

• comprising:
• a manager residing on the managing network device for monitoring and managing network management information across the network;
• a management module residing on the managed network device for responding to requests for network management information from said manager, said management module having a plurality of internal functions that provide access to network management information available to said management module;
• a secondary dispatch table associated with said management module for establishing a link between a plurality of application-specific functions and said management module;
• an application residing on the managed network device for registering at least one application-specific function in said secondary dispatch table, whereby said application-specific function provides access to network management information available to said application;
• and
• said management module being operative, in response to a request from said manager, to call at least one of said plurality of internal functions and said plurality of application-specific functions, thereby providing said manager module access to network management information.

A method for communicating network management information between at least two network devices interconnected by a network, comprising the steps of:

• providing a manager module for monitoring and managing network management information across the network, said manager module residing on a managing network device;
• providing a management agent for responding to requests for network management information from said manager module, said management agent residing on a managed network device;
• registering a function with said management agent by an application residing on said managed network device, whereby said function being associated with said application to provide access to network management information associated with said first application;
• receiving a request at said management agent to access network management information associated with said application;
• and
• responding to said request through the use of said function by said management agent, thereby providing said manager module access to network management information associated with said first application.

A method for communicating network management information between a managed network device and a managing network device interconnected by a network, comprising the steps of:

• providing a manager module for monitoring and managing network management information across the network, said manager module residing on the managing network device;
• providing a management agent for responding to requests for network management information from said manager module, said management agent residing on the managed network device;
• registering a function with said management agent by an application residing on the managed network device, whereby said function being associated with said application to provide access to network management information available to said first application;
• receiving a request to access network management information;
• searching for said request in a primary dispatch table associated with said management agent;
• responding to said request when said request being found in said primary dispatch table, thereby providing said manager module access to network management information available to said management agent;
• searching for said request in a secondary dispatch table when said request not found in said primary dispatch table, said secondary dispatch table being associated with said management agent to establish a link between said function and said management agent;
• and
• responding to said request through the use of said function when said request corresponds to said function in said secondary dispatch table, thereby providing said manager module access to network management information available to said application.