US Patent 7162523 Enforcing a communication architecture in a communication network

A control interface enforces a network architecture in a communication network by utilizing states and state transitions for logical elements and network devices. The control interface includes states of logical elements, maps of the logical elements, states of network devices, and maps of the network devices. The logical elements represent sets of network device functions. The control interface receives an event. The control interface processes the event to identify one of the logical elements and at least one of the network devices. The control interface then updates the first state for the identified logical element based on the event and one of the first maps of the identified logical element. The control interface updates the second state for the identified network device based on the event and one of the second maps of the identified network device.