Control systems employing a data model in a network environment

A method for data driven control of a plurality of components forming a communication network, said plurality of components exhibiting at least some common behavior, said communication network having a network control function, certain ones of said plurality of components having an individual control function exhibiting uncommon behavior, said method comprising the steps of:

• first controlling of network operations using said network control function by transmitting control orders to effectuate the establishment of a network communications connection between at least two of the components in accordance with their common behaviors;
• maintaining information as to uncommon behavior of the individual control functions of said plurality of components within a data model;
• second controlling of network operations using said network control function comprising the steps of:
• accessing said data model to extract the maintained information as to uncommon behavior of said plurality of components;
• and
• interpreting the extracted information to tailor the transmitted control orders to account for the uncommon behavior of the individual control function for a given one of the components and effectuate the establishment of the network communications connection between that given component having uncommon behavior and another one of the components in the network.

A communications system, comprising:

• a plurality of network components, each network component having a component control function, each component control function including common control elements shared by each network component in the plurality of network components, and uncommon control elements not shared by each of the plurality of network components;
• means for storing information relating to the uncommon control elements of the component control function for each of the plurality of network components in an accessible data model;
• and
• a network controller connected to the plurality of network components, said network controller handling the establishment of a network communications connection between at least two of the plurality of network components using the common control elements of the component control functions, and further including:
• means for accessing the means for storing to retrieve the information from the data model relating to the uncommon control elements;
• means for interpreting the retrieved information;
• and
• means for handling the establishment of the network communications connection between a certain one of the plurality of network components and another one of the components using the uncommon control elements of the component control functions for the certain network component in accordance with the interpreted information from the data model.

A method for controlling a communications system, the system including a plurality of network components, each network component having a component control function, each component control function including common control elements shared by each network component in the plurality of network components, and uncommon control elements not shared by each of the plurality of network components, the method comprising the steps of:

• storing a data model comprising information relating to the uncommon control elements of the component control functions for each of the plurality of network components;
• handling the establishment of a network communications connection between at least two of the network components in the communications system using the common control elements of the component control functions for the plurality of network components;
• accessing the data model to retrieve the information from the data model relating to the uncommon control elements;
• interpreting the retrieved information;
• and
• handling the establishment of the network communications connection between a certain one of the network components in the communications system and another one of the components using the uncommon control elements of the component control functions for the network component in accordance with the interpreted information from the data model.