FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example set of components for network management systems 10 and 10 of FIG. 1. In this example, network management system 10 includes control unit 22, network interface 34, and user interface 36. Network interface 34 represents an example interface that may communicatively couple a network device (not shown) to an external device, e.g., one of network devices 14A-14G of FIG. 1. Network interface 34 may represent a wireless and/or wired interface, e.g., an Ethernet interface or a wireless radio configured to communicate according to a wireless standard, such as one or more of the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking protocols (such as 802.11 a/b/g/n or other such wireless protocols). Network management system 10 may include multiple network interfaces in various examples, although only one network interface is illustrated for purposes of example.
Control unit 22 represents any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware for implementing the functionality attributed to control unit 22 and its constituent modules and devices. When control unit 22 includes software or firmware, control unit 22 further includes any necessary hardware for storing and executing the software or firmware, such as one or more processors or processing units. In general, a processing unit may include one or more microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or any other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry, as well as any combinations of such components. Furthermore, a processing unit is generally implemented using fixed and/or programmable logic circuitry.