Proxy agent for providing remote management of equipment in a communication network
View Patent ↗In one aspect a method for remotely managing a non-compliant Internet Gateway Device (IGD) residing in a Local Area Network (LAN) is provided. The method includes providing a proxy agent that resides on a computer in the LAN. The proxy agent receives from a Wide Area Network (WAN) configuration device a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) WAN Management Protocol (CWMP) request message, converts the request message to a protocol that is used by the IGD and communicates the converted request message upstream toward the IGD. The proxy agent receives a response from the IGD, converts the response from a first protocol to the CWMP, and sends the converted response upstream toward the WAN configuration device.
1. A method for remotely managing a non-compliant Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) residing at an edge of a Local Area Network (LAN), comprising the steps of:
providing a proxy agent that resides on an entity in the LAN, which proxy agent is receiving from a Wide Area Network (WAN) configuration device a CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP) request message, which request message passes through the non-compliant CPE;
converting the request message to a first protocol that is used by the non-compliant CPE;
communicating the converted request message upstream toward the non-compliant CPE;
receiving a response from the non-compliant CPE;
converting the response from the first protocol to the CWMP;
sending the converted response upstream toward the WAN configuration device,
wherein the non-compliant CPE is non-compliant in accordance with the CWMP, and
managing the non-compliant CPE from the WAN configuration device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said proxy agent providing step comprises providing a proxy agent which resides on a computer in the LAN.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the proxy agent avoids allowing the request message.
4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the avoided message is a command to alter a WAN routing table in the non-compliant CPE.
5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising using a non-compliant CPE which is a layer 2 device without an interface for Internet Protocol (IP).
6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
discovering the first protocol prior to converting the request message; and
saving the discovered protocol.
7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
discovering a second protocol supported by the non-compliant CPE prior to converting the request message; and
saving the discovered protocol.
8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
discovering a supported command by the first protocol; and
discovering a supported command by the second protocol.
9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein converting the request message includes using the discovered protocol and command support to determine which protocol handles the command.
10. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising selecting the first protocol from the group consisting of: Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Terminal emulation program (Telnet), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), L2XP, and LAN-Side DSL CPE Configuration TR-064.
11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the entity in the LAN is a computer and further comprising remotely managing the computer via the proxy agent.
12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the proxy agent comprises a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client, an HTTP server, Simple Remote Procedure Call (RPC) methods and a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the proxy agent providing step further comprises providing a Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Through Network Address Translators (NATs) per TR-111 (STUN).
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-compliant CPE residing at the edge of the LAN is an Internet Gateway Device (IGD) of the LAN.