METHOD AND APPARATUS TO MAINTAIN SERVICE INTEROPERABILITY DURING SOFTWARE REPLACEMENT

摘要

A method and apparatus for maintaining service interoperability in a communications network during software replacement in a component of the communications network having a cluster of devices 30-36. The method and apparatus generally involve the use of a name service 96-102 in the devices to control the binding of client applications requesting logically de-centralized services to corresponding local services on the devices operating under the same software version. The name services utilize a database or registry of information relating to the logically de-centralized local services and logically centralized global services to determine the appropriate local or global service to which to bind the requesting client application. The database or registry may include information indicating the software release under which a local service is operating for use in binding the requesting client application to the appropriate local service.