SWITCH INTERACTION SUBSYSTEMS FOR FACILITATING NETWORK INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

A network information management system includes, among other elements, a traffic reporting system, a switch shell, and a scheduling mechanism. The traffic reporting includes a database which holds traffic-related data collected from a network switch. The switch shell facilitates communication between the traffic reporting system and multiple digital telecommunications switch types. More specifically, the switch shell translates between a high layer generic interface protocol which defines a common set of switch interaction functions to unique portions of code uniquely compatible with the various switch types. The high layer generic interface protocol may comprise a set of query and response subsets, including a query and response subset for submitting an inventory request and for receiving in response to the submitted request, inventory information from the switch. The inventory information may include such information as a unique identifier of a network resource, a number of members provided as part of the network resource and information concerning the assignment of the network resource. The scheduling mechanism coordinates switch interactions between the traffic reporting system and the switch shell.