Hardware abstraction interfacing system and method

A hardware modification method by way of providing an interface between hardware and application software in an equipment, comprising the steps of:

• maintaining a hardware profile structure having a plurality of hardware profile entities, each corresponding to a particular hardware component, wherein a hardware profile entity includes address information and masking information associated with a corresponding hardware component;
• maintaining a searchable data structure operable to store a set of functional profile entities, wherein each functional profile entity includes a particular function supported by one or more hardware profile entities;
• and
• updating said hardware profile structure and said searchable data structure by a profile engine when a hardware-based modification takes place in said equipment.

A hardware abstraction interfacing system for providing an interface between hardware and application software in a network element, comprising:

• means for storing hardware profile entities of each hardware component of said hardware, each hardware profile entity including address information and masking information associated with a corresponding hardware component;
• means for assigning functional profile entities to said hardware, each functional profile entity including a particular function supported by one or more hardware components and a reference pointing to address information of at least one said hardware profile entity;
• means for storing said functional profile entities in a searchable database structure;
• and
• means for searching said searchable database structure for a particular function called by said application software.