Techniques for interfacing between web services and interface description language (IDL)-based remote procedure call (RPC) services and an optical communication system implementing same
An embodiment of the present disclosure includes an RPC architecture that includes a central manager gateway with a client-facing side that allows for client access via web services protocols such as SOAP and REST. The central manager gateway further includes a server-facing side that can communicate with a plurality of network elements, with each network element implementing a common IDL architecture and RPC manager instance. Each of the network elements, and in particular their RPC manager instance, may communicate with other RPC manager instances to ‘learn’ the network topology for the system and maintain a topology database for purposes of exposing a naming service, e.g., a CORBA naming service. The network elements may elect one master element while the others remain as slaves. The central manager gateway may automatically locate the master network element and forward client requests to the same for servicing.
1. A network management system comprising:
a memory;
a controller to:
receive a user request from a remote computing device, the user request including at least one network element address and an identifier of an operation to perform on the at least one network element address;
extract the at least one network element address and the identifier of the operation to perform on the at least one network element address;
select a precompiled interface description language (IDL) adapter associated with the at least one network element address from the memory;
select at least one remote procedure call (RPC) function to satisfy the user request based on the selected precompiled IDL adapter;
execute the at least one RPC function by sending at least one IDL-based message to one or more network elements associated with the at least one network element address; and
send a response message to the remote computing device based on a response from the executed at least one RPC function, the response message being a same format as the user request.
2. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein the user request is a self-descriptive message that comports with a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) standard or a Representative State Transfer (REST) standard.
3. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one RPC function is executed based on a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) architecture.
4. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one network element address includes at least one of an identifier of a cable landing station, an element type, an element identifier (ID), and/or a subcomponent ID.
5. The network management system of claim 4 , wherein the memory further includes a topology table stored therein, and wherein the topology table includes a plurality of network element addresses that each correspond with a different network element within an optical communication system.
6. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein the memory further includes an IDL adapter table stored therein, and wherein the IDL adapter table includes a plurality of precompiled IDL adapters, each of the precompiled IDL adapters being associated with one or more network elements within an optical communication system.
7. The network management system of claim 6 , wherein selecting the precompiled interface description language (IDL) adapter associated with the at least one network element address from the memory includes performing a lookup on the IDL adapter table.
8. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein selecting a precompiled interface description language (IDL) adapter associated with the at least one network element address from the memory includes identifying at least a first and a second precompiled IDL adapter, the first precompiled IDL adapter including methods for general IDL-based communication and the second precompiled IDL adapter defining stub interfaces for runtime extensibility to provide customized logic for a network element.
9. The network management system of claim 1 implemented in an undersea optical communication system having a communication path extending between at least a first and second cable landing station.
10. A computer-implemented method for servicing remote procedure call requests, the method comprising:
receiving, by a controller, a user request from a remote computing device, the user request including a self-descriptive message that includes at least one network element address and an identifier of an operation to perform on the at least one network element address;
extracting, by the controller, the at least one network element address and the identifier of the operation to perform on the at least one network element address;
selecting, by the controller, a precompiled interface description language (IDL) adapter associated with the at least one network element address from a memory;
selecting, by the controller, at least one remote procedure call (RPC) function to satisfy the user request based on the selected precompiled IDL adapter;
executing, by the controller, the at least one RPC function by sending at least one IDL-based message to one or more network elements associated with the at least one network element address; and
sending, by the controller, a response message to the remote computing device based on a response from the executed at least one RPC function, the response message being a same format as the user request.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the self-descriptive message comports with a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) standard or a Representative State Transfer (REST) standard.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein executing the at least one RPC function includes using a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) architecture.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the at least one network element address includes at least one of an identifier of a cable landing station, an element type, an element identifier (ID), and/or a subcomponent ID.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein selecting the precompiled IDL adapter associated with the at least one network element address from the memory includes performing a lookup on an IDL adapter table, the IDL adapter table including a plurality of associations between network elements and precompiled IDL adapters.
15. The method of claim 10 , wherein selecting an IDL adapter associated with the at least one network element address from the memory includes identifying at least first and second precompiled IDL adapters, the first precompiled IDL adapter including methods for general IDL-based communication and the second precompiled IDL adapter defining stub interfaces for runtime extensibility to provide customized logic for a network element.
16. The method of claim 10 , implemented in an undersea optical communication system having a communication path extending between at least a first and second cable landing station.
17. An optical communication system comprising an optical communication path extending between a plurality of cable landing stations, each of the plurality of cable landing stations being associated with one or more network elements of a plurality of network elements disposed along the optical communication path, the system comprising:
a remote procedure call (RPC) gateway server, the RPC gateway server to:
receive a user request, the user request including a self-descriptive message that includes an identifier of an operation and an identifier of at least one network element to perform the operation on;
identify a network element operating as a master network element; and
send a first message to the identified master network element, the first message to cause the master network element to select a precompiled interface description language (IDL) adapter corresponding with a network element associated with the identifier of the at least one network element, and to cause the master network element to send at least one message to the network element based on the selected IDL adapter and the operation.
18. The optical communication system of claim 17 , wherein the RPC gateway server implements a representative state transfer (REST) server, and wherein the user request is REST request.
19. The optical communication system of claim 17 , wherein the first message sent to the identified master network element is configured to cause the identified master network element to communicate via Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) with the network element associated with the identifier of the at least one network element.
20. The optical communication system of claim 17 , wherein the RPC gateway server is implemented within a network management server (NMS) configured to manage the plurality of network elements in the optical communication system.
21. The optical communication system of claim 17 , wherein the network element associated with the identifier of the at least one network element comprises a branching unit (BU), network management system, a reprogrammable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADM), a repeater, power feed equipment (PFE), or line monitoring equipment (LME).