CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT DEVICE, CONFIGURATION INTERFACE DEVICE AND METHOD FOR VENDOR-INDEPENDENT NETWORK DEVICE CONFIGURATION

摘要

A configuration management device (1) for vendor-independent network device configuration comprises a network interface unit (2) for communicating with network devices (5, 6) over a communications network (4)and a data storage unit (3). The data storage unit (3) is arranged to store at least one device profile (17, 18, 19) containing a name and vendor-independent configuration parameters (7, 8) of a corresponding network device type, where the network device type is defined to provide a pre-defined functionality within the communications network (4). The network interface unit (2) comprises a unified device network interface (9) and at least one device-specific driver unit (10, 11), where the unified device network interface (9) is arranged to retrieve the at least one device profile (17, 18, 9), to identify at least one network device (5, 6) which belongs to the network device type corresponding to the at least one device profile (17, 18, 19), to retrieve an information on a device-specific configuration protocol (12, 13) to be used during configuration of the at least one network device (5, 6), and to download values for the vendor-independent configuration parameters (7, 8) to the at least one network device (5, 6) via a corresponding of the at least one device-specific driver units (10, 11) which is arranged to apply the device-specific configuration protocol (12, 13). Instead of being implemented in the configuration management device, the downloading functionality of the unified device network interface (9) and the device-specific driver unit or units (10, 11) could be integrated in a configuration interface device (21).