A computer is used to manage communication over a network between one or more
network
addressable units and a plurality of physical devices of a passenger entertainment
system. The system is configured and operated using software to provide passenger
entertainment services including audio and video on-demand, information dissemination,
product and service order processing, video teleconferencing and data communication
services. The system includes a system server and a network supporting multiple
computer processors. The processors and the server comprise application software
that control telephony applications and network services. The server is coupled
by way of the network to physical devices of the system. The server comprises software
for instantiating a dispatch object to open a framework for one or more network
addressable unit objects, for instantiating one or more virtual line replaceable
unit objects to manage communication between a network address unit and one or
more physical devices, and for instantiating a message processor for moving messages
to the one or more network addressable unit objects for delivery to the one or
more physical devices. The message processor receives messages containing network
routing address from one or more device drivers. The message processor utilizes
the network routing address to and a physical device type to access a table and
determine the ultimate destination for the message. The message processor has at
least one input named pipe and one output named pipe, and utilizes the named pipes
to translate messages from a first format to a second format. The message processor
logs invalid destination addresses in a storage medium. The message processor instantiates
each device driver from a device handler class member.