SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING FUNCTIONS AND DATA WITH RESPECT TO A SERVICE AND A SUBSCRIBER AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EMPLOYING THE SAME
Various systems and methods for identifying functions and data with respect to a service. One aspect provides a method of exposing a service-specific function associated with a subscriber. In one embodiment, the method includes: (1) determining services to which the subscriber has subscriptions, (2) retrieving service descriptions associated with the services and (3) retrieving at least one function associated with the service descriptions as a whole.
1 . A method of exposing a service-specific function associated with a subscriber, comprising:
determining services to which said subscriber has subscriptions;
retrieving service descriptions associated with said services; and
retrieving at least one function associated with said service descriptions as a whole.
2 . The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising causing said at least one function to be executed.
3 . The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said at least one function is dissociated from particular roles in said service descriptions.
4 . The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said at least one function includes a function configured to determine whether a service has necessary roles fulfilled by end points.
5 . The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising carrying out said retrieving by making a call into a device normalization application programming interface.
6 . A method of exposing service-specific functions associated with a subscriber, comprising:
identifying at least one end point associated with said subscriber;
identifying at least one service to which said subscriber has a subscription;
retrieving at least one service description associated with said at least one service;
mapping said at least one end point to at least one role in said at least one service description; and
collecting at least one function for at least one of said roles.
7 . The method as recited in claim 6 further comprising causing said at least one function to be executed.
8 . The method as recited in claim 6 wherein said collecting comprises collecting said at least one function for all of said roles.
9 . The method as recited in claim 6 wherein said at least one function includes a function configured to provide functions that can be called with respect to a particular service.
10 . A method of collecting key/value pairs for a service, comprising:
identifying end points associated with said service;
collecting said key/value pairs from said end points; and
categorizing said key/value pairs by role with respect to said service.
11 . The method as recited in claim 10 further comprising carrying out said retrieving by making a call into a device normalization application programming interface.
12 . A method of collecting a service-level view of an end point relative to a service, comprising:
obtaining end points associated with a particular subscriber;
obtaining a service description associated with said subscriber from a service repository; and
repeating, for each end point in said service description:
mapping said end point into said service description to determine whether said end point fits a role therein,
retrieving at least one key/value pair for said current end point based on said role, and
retrieving key/value pairs relating to said current end point.
13 . The method as recited in claim 12 further comprising collecting optimal values of key/value pairs for said end points.
14 . The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising returning said optimal values to an application.
15 . The method as recited in claim 14 wherein said returning further comprises returning roles and relationships between said end points.
16 . The method as recited in claim 12 wherein said end points are selected from the group consisting of:
devices, and
systems.
17 . The method as recited in claim 12 further comprising carrying out said retrieving by making a call into a device normalization application programming interface.