Networking / Beginners

Interface Definition Language

Each managed object (e.g., a device, a line card, or a connection) is represented in COBRA by a COBRA object. The object is defined by an object interface, which (much as in an object-oriented programming language) indicates the accessible fields within an object, the operations that can be performed on the object, and the relationship between the object and other objects. Relationships with other objects are defined through inheritance.

The Interface Definition Language (IDL) is an object-oriented language specified by the OMG to describe object interfaces. IDL uses a subset of the C++ programming language, but extends it with a small set of additional constructs to support the type of object management that is needed in the context of network management. The most notable extension is the any data type, which can be used to represent an unknown or unspecified data type.

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In this tutorial:

  1. IP Network Management
  2. Choosing to Manage your Network
  3. Choosing a Configuration Method
  4. Command Line Interfaces
  5. Graphical User Interfaces
  6. Standardized Data Representations and Access
  7. Making the Choice
  8. Management Information Base
  9. Representing Managed Objects
  10. Simple Network Management Protocol
  11. Requests, Responses, and Notifications
  12. SNMP Versions and Security
  13. Choosing an SNMP Version
  14. Extensible Markup Language
  15. Extensibility and Domains of Applicability
  16. XML Remote Procedure Calls
  17. Simple Object Access Protocol
  18. XML Applicability to Network Management
  19. Common Object Request Broker Architecture
  20. Interface Definition Language
  21. The Architecture
  22. CORBA Communications
  23. Choosing a Configuration Protocol
  24. Choosing to Collect Statistics
  25. Policy Control
  26. Choosing to Apply Policy
  27. Policy Information Base