1. A method of importing data from an edge router including a plurality of interface types to a network management system, comprising:
configuring the edge router to export a flat file containing the data at a designated time to a designated network device communicatively coupled to the edge router, wherein the flat file includes data associated with a plurality of different ones of the interface types;
receiving the flat file at the designated network device;
parsing the data from the flat file to a format to be imported by the network management system at the designated network device; and
providing the data that was parsed to the network management system.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the edge router comprises a broadband remote access server.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the parsed data is preceded by configuring the network management system to receive the data that was parsed in a data base associated with the network management system.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein configuring the network management system comprises:
generating a management information base that characterizes the data that was parsed; and
providing the generated management information base to the network management system.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein configuring the edge router comprises:
generating a configuration file having a format specified for the edge router, the configuration file including a plurality of schema associated with respective ones of the different interface types that specify data to be collected for the different interface types for export in the flat file; and
providing the configuration file to the edge router.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein configuring the edge router further comprises configuring the edge router to export the flat file at a data export interval.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein configuring the edge router further comprises configuring the edge router to collect data specified by the plurality of schema at a data sampling interval that is more frequent than the data export interval and wherein the flat file includes data collected at a plurality of different times on the edge router.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein parsing the data includes executing a program provided by the network management server that executes network management system type specific parsing operations.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the designated network device is to parse data for export to a plurality of different network management server types and wherein parsing the data includes executing programs provided by the plurality of different network management server types that execute network management server type specific parsing operations to provide a plurality of parsed data for export to respective ones of the different network management systems.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein configuring the edge router comprises configuring a plurality of different types of edge routers to export a flat file including generating different configuration files for respective ones of the different types of edge routers and receiving flat files from the respective ones of the different types of edge routers.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the designated network device comprises a file transport protocol server.
12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the following carried out at the edge router:
acquiring network traffic data associated with respective ones of the plurality of different interface types and having an associated subscriber identification at a time associated with the data based on the configuration file;
formatting the network traffic data to provide the flat file; and
exporting the flat file to the designated network device at a time specified by the data export interval.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the following carried out by a network management server associated with the network management system:
receiving the data that was parsed in the data base associated with the network management system based on the management information base; and
accessing the data received in the data base and generating a report based on the data received in the data base responsive to a user request to the network management system.
14. A network device, comprising
a network interface communicatively coupled to an edge router including a plurality of interface types and to a network management system;
a parsing module coupled to the network interface and to receive a flat file containing data from the edge router at a designated time and to generate parsed data from the flat file that has a format to be imported by the network management system, wherein the flat file includes data associated with a plurality of different ones of the interface types of the edge router; and
an export module to provide the data that was parsed to the network management system.
15. A system including the network device of claim 14, the system further comprising:
the edge router, wherein the edge router includes a configuration file having a format specified for the edge router, the configuration file including a plurality of schema associated with respective ones of the different interface types that specify data to be collected for the different interface types for export in the flat file; and
the network management system, wherein the network management system includes a management information base that characterizes the parsed data.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the edge router comprises a broadband remote access server.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the network device comprises a file transfer protocol server.
18. A computer program product for importing data from an edge router including a plurality of interface types to a network management system, the edge router being configured to export a flat file containing the data at a designated time to a designated network device communicatively coupled to the edge router, wherein the flat file includes data associated with a plurality of different ones of the interface types; the computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code comprising:
computer-readable program code to receive the flat file at the designated network device;
computer-readable program code to parse the data from the flat file to a format to be imported by the network management system at the designated network device; and
computer-readable program code to provide the data that was parsed to the network management system.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A coated substrate, which comprises:
a) a substrate of a conductive metal; and
b) a coating of at least a ruthenium-containing compound provided on a surface of the substrate, wherein the coating is characterized as comprising particles having been formed from an ultrasonically generated aerosol of the ruthenium-containing compound dissolved in a solvent substantially devoid of alcohol contacted with the substrate.
2. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the ruthenium-containing compound is a ruthenium-containing oxide, or a precursor thereof.
3. The coated substrate of claim 2 wherein the precursor of the ruthenium-containing oxide is selected from the group consisting of a nitrate, a sulfate, a phosphate and a chloride.
4. The coated substrate of claim 2 wherein the precursor is either ruthenium nitrosyl nitrate or ruthenium chloride.
5. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein a majority of the particles have diameters of less than about 10 microns.
6. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein an internal surface area of the coating is about 10 m2gram to about 1,500 m2gram.
7. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the coating includes a second metal.
8. The coated substrate of claim 7 wherein the second metal is selected from the group consisting of tantalum, titanium, nickel, iridium, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, cobalt, molybdenum, niobium, ruthenium, manganese, tungsten, iron, zirconium, hafnium, rhodium, vanadium, osmium, and mixtures thereof.
9. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the coating is comprised of ruthenium and tantalum.
10. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the coating has a thickness of about a hundred Angstroms to about 0.1 millimeters.
11. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of tantalum, titanium, nickel, molybdenum, niobium, cobalt, stainless steel, tungsten, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, copper, chromium, vanadium, aluminum, zirconium, hafnium, zinc, iron, and mixtures thereof.
12. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the substrate has a thickness of about 0.001 to 2 millimeters.
13. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the substrate is characterized as having had its surface area increased prior to being coated.
14. The coated substrate of claim 13 wherein the increased surface area is characterized as having been formed by contacting the substrate with an acid.
15. The coated substrate of claim 13 wherein the increased surface area is characterized as having been formed by mechanical means including rough threading, grit blasting, scraping, plasma etching, abrading and wire brushing the substrate.
16. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the substrate is characterized as having been cleaned by one of the group consisting of an aqueous degreasing solution, a non-aqueous degreasing solution and plasma cleaning prior to being coated.
17. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the substrate is characterized as having had its surface increased in electrical conductivity.
18. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the aerosol is characterized as having been formed by subjecting the solution to ultrasonic sound waves at a frequency of about 20,000 hertz and above.
19. The coated substrate of claim 1 wherein the aerosol is characterized as having been formed by subjecting the solution to ultrasonic sound waves at a substantially atmospheric pressure of at least about 600 millimeters of mercury.
20. A method for providing a coated substrate, comprising the steps of:
a) providing the substrate having a surface to be coated;
b) providing a solution comprised of a solvent substantially devoid of alcohol and having a ruthenium-containing compound dissolved therein;
c) heating the substrate;
d) subjecting the solution to ultrasonic sound waves thereby causing the solution to form into an aerosol;
e) contacting the heated substrate with the aerosol thereby forming a coating of ultrasonically generated particles of the ruthenium-containing compound on the substrate, wherein the substrate is heated to a first temperature of at least about 100 C. and sufficient to at least partially evaporate the solvent from the substrate; and
f) further heating the ultrasonically coated substrate to a second temperature of at least about 300 C. to cause the ruthenium-containing compound to completely form and adhere to the substrate.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the ruthenium-containing compound is a ruthenium-containing oxide or a precursor thereof.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein the precursor of the ruthenium-containing oxide is selected from the group consisting of a nitrate, a sulfate, a phosphate and a chloride.
23. The method of claim 21 including providing the precursor as either ruthenium nitrosyl nitrate or ruthenium chloride.
24. The method of claim 20 including providing a majority of the particles having diameters of less than about 10 microns.
25. The method of claim 20 including providing an internal surface area of the coating of about 10 m2gram to about 1,500 m2gram.
26. The method of claim 20 including providing the coating having a thickness of about a hundred Angstroms to about 0.1 millimeters.
27. The method of claim 20 including providing a second metal in the solution.
28. The method of claim 27 including selecting the second metal from the group consisting of tantalum, titanium, nickel, iridium, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, cobalt, molybdenum, ruthenium, manganese, tungsten, iron, zirconium, hafnium, rhodium, vanadium, osmium, niobium, and mixtures thereof.
29. The method of claim 20 including providing a second metal in the solution and wherein the solution includes a mixture of ruthenium and tantalum.
30. The method of claim 20 including selecting the substrate from the group consisting of tantalum, titanium, nickel, molybdenum, niobium, cobalt, stainless steel, tungsten, platinum, palladium, gold, silver, copper, chromium, vanadium, aluminum, zirconium, hafnium, zinc, iron, and mixtures thereof.
31. The method of claim 20 including increasing the surface area of the substrate prior to contacting the aerosol.
32. The method of claim 19 including increasing the substrate surface area by contacting the substrate with an acid.
33. The method of claim 31 including increasing the substrate surface area by a mechanical process selected from the group consisting of rough threading, grit blasting, scraping, plasma etching, abrading and wire brushing.
34. The method of claim 20 including cleaning the substrate by one of the group selected from an aqueous degreasing solution, a non-aqueous degreasing solution and a plasma cleaning process prior to being coated.
35. The method of claim 20 including increasing the electrical surface conductivity of the substrate prior to contacting the substrate with the aerosol.
36. The method of claim 20 including providing the substrate having a thickness of about 0.001 to about 2 millimeters.
37. A method for providing a coated substrate, comprising the steps of:
a) providing the substrate having a surface to be coated;
b) providing a solution comprised of a solvent substantially devoid of alcohol and having a ruthenium-containing oxide compound or a precursor thereof dissolved therein;
c) heating the substrate to a first temperature of at least about 100 C.;
d) subjecting the solution to ultrasonic sound waves, thereby causing the solution to form into an aerosol;
e) contacting the heated substrate with the aerosol, thereby at least partially evaporating the solvent from the substrate and forming a coating of ultrasonically generated particles of the ruthenium-containing oxide or precursor thereof on the substrate; and
f) further heating the ultrasonically coated substrate to a second temperature of at least about 300 C. to cause the ruthenium-containing oxide compound to completely form and adhere to the substrate or to convert the precursor thereof to the ruthenium-containing oxide compound adhered to the substrate.
38. A method for providing a coated substrate, comprising the steps of:
a) providing the substrate having a surface to be coated;
b) providing a solution comprised of a solvent substantially devoid of alcohol and having a ruthenium-containing oxide compound or a precursor thereof dissolved therein;
c) heating the substrate to a first temperature of at least about 100 C.;
d) subjecting the solution to ultrasonic sound waves, thereby causing the solution to form into an aerosol;
e) contacting the heated substrate with the aerosol, thereby at least partially evaporating the solvent from the substrate and beginning forming a coating of ultrasonically generated particles on the substrate; and
f) further heating the ultrasonically coated substrate to at least a second temperature of at least about 300 C. at a rate of about 1 C.minute to about 6 C.minute to cause the ruthenium-containing oxide compound to completely form and adhere to the substrate or to convert the precursor thereof to the ruthenium-containing oxide compound adhered to the substrate.