Method and system for a set of network appliances which can be connected to provide enhanced collaboration, scalability, and reliability

• US 20020124081A1
• Filed: 01/25/2002
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Power Conversion Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: NetBotz, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Faulkner, Gary, Primm, Michael, Fowler, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,159,022 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The invention is directed to a network-enabled appliance. The appliance may aid the remote monitoring of various measured data. The device may monitor a variable or set of variables and output the data upon request. In addition, the appliance may issue alarms, alerts, warning and other notifications when a variable matches a setpoint or undergoes a specified change, deviation, and/or fluctuation. Further the appliance may be operable to communicate with other appliances. The communication may comprise periodic pinging of peer appliances. In this manner, a peer appliance may detect a failure in other network-enabled appliances when an anticipated ping is not received. Further, the communication may enable the establishment of a directory of capabilities of various appliances. In this manner, a group of appliances may perform more complex behaviors by grouping resources. Further, a group of appliances may act to reestablish the behavior of a failed device.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a peer-to-peer review relationship between a first and a second network-enabled appliance, the first and the second network-enabled appliances being connected to an interconnected network, the method comprising:

determining the address of the second network-enabled appliance with the first network-enabled appliance, the address of the second network-enabled appliance being associated with the interconnected network;

sending a ping message to the second network-enabled appliance from the first network-enabled appliance through the interconnected network;

selectively responding to the ping message from the first network-enabled appliance with the second network-enabled appliance;

selectively establishing a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages; and

periodically selectively sending subsequent periodic ping messages from the first network-enabled appliance to the second network-enabled appliance through the interconnected network and where the time interval between the subsequent periodic ping messages is associated with the established periodicity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the ping message uses an HTTP POST method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the ping message uses an FTP method.

4. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

selectively sending a notification message in the event that an expected periodic ping is not received.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the notification method is sent to a remote location.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the notification method is sent to another network-enabled appliance connected to the interconnected network.

7. A network-enabled appliance operable to establish a peer-to-peer review relationship, the network-enabled appliance comprising:

a processor;

a network interface communicatively coupled to the processor, the network interface connected to an interconnected network;

a storage medium communicatively coupled to the processor, the storage medium operable to store instruction sets; and

an instruction set for establishing a peer-to-peer review relationship with one or more other network-enabled appliances.

8. The network-enabled appliance of claim 7 wherein the processor is a Java-based processor.

9. The network-enabled appliance of claim 7, the network-enabled appliance further comprising:

a means for communicating with a remote system.

10. The network-enabled appliance of claim 7, the network-enabled appliance further comprising:

at least one sensor communicatively coupled to the processor.

11. The network-enabled appliance of claim 10, the network-enabled appliance further comprising:

at least one threshold, the at least one threshold associated with values measured by the at least one sensor.

12. The network-enabled appliance of claim 11, the network-enabled appliance further comprising:

an instruction set for sending a notification in response to the at least one threshold being met by the values measured by the at least one sensor.

14. The cluster of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the two or more network-enabled appliances within the cluster is operable to communicate with the remote system using an HTTP POST method.

15. The cluster of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the two or more network-enabled appliances within the cluster is operable to communicate with the remote system using an FTP method.

16. The cluster of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the two or more of the network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with the remote system acts as an intermediary between the remote system and the other network-enabled appliances within the cluster.

17. The cluster of claim 16 wherein a second of the two or more network-enabled appliances within the cluster is operable to communicate with the remote system and establishes a peer-to-peer review relationship with the at least one of the two or more of the network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with the remote system and acting as the intermediary.

18. The cluster of claim 17 wherein the second of the two or more of the network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with the remote system selectively assumes a network address of the first of the two or more of the network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with the remote system acting as the intermediary in the event that the first of the one or more of the network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with the remote system fails.

13. A cluster of two or more network-enabled appliances, the cluster comprising:

the two or more network-enabled appliances, each connected to an interconnected network, at least one of the two or more network-enabled appliances within the cluster operable to communicate with a remote system; and

each of the two or more network-enabled appliances operable to establish one or more peer-to-peer review relationships with one or more other network-enabled appliances within the cluster.

19. A network-enabled appliance operable to establish a peer-to-peer review relationship, the network-enabled appliance comprising:

a processor;

a network interface communicatively coupled to the processor, the network interface connected to an interconnected network;

a storage medium communicatively coupled to the processor, the storage medium operable to store instruction sets;

an instruction set for establishing a peer-to-peer review relationship with one or more other network-enabled appliances;

an instruction set for communicating with a remote system;

at least one sensor communicatively coupled to the processor;

at least one stored threshold value, the at least one stored threshold value associated with values measured by the at least one sensor; and

an instruction set for sending a notification in response to the at least one stored threshold value being met by the values measured by the at least one sensor.

20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform methods steps for establishing a peer-to-peer relationship between a first and a second network-enabled appliance, the method steps comprising:

determining the address of the second network-enabled appliance with the first network enabled appliance, the address of the second network-enabled appliance being associated with the interconnected network;

sending a ping message to the second network-enabled appliance from the first network-enabled appliance through the interconnected network;

selectively responding to the ping message from the first network-enabled appliance with the second network-enabled appliance;

selectively establishing a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages; and

periodically selectively sending subsequent periodic ping messages from the first network-enabled appliance to the second network-enabled appliance through the interconnected network where a time interval between the subsequent periodic ping messages is associated with the established periodicity.

21. A method for utilizing a resource associated with a network appliance, the resource being cataloged in a directory, the method comprising:

querying the directory to determine an address location of the network appliance associated with the resource;

commanding the network appliance associated with the resource to perform a function associated with the resource; and

the network appliance performing the function associated with the resource.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the steps of querying and commanding are performed by a network appliance.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the directory is associated with a server.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the directory is associated with a directory network appliance.

26. The directory of claim 25 wherein the directory is associated with a server.

27. The directory of claim 25 wherein the directory is associated with a network appliance.

28. The directory of claim 25, the directory further comprising:

at least one shared data object associated with one or more of the one or more network appliances.

29. The directory of claim 25, the directory further comprising:

at least one shared configuration object associated with one or more of the one or more network appliances.

30. The directory of claim 25, the directory further comprising:

at least one email notification list, the email notification list comprising one or more email addresses.

31. The directory of claim 25, the directory further comprising:

at least one SNMP trap notification list.

25. A directory for cataloging resources available to a cluster of one or more network appliances, the directory being accessible by the one or more network appliances, the directory comprising:

at least one record, the at least one record storing data associated with a network appliance and data associated with a resource associated with the network appliance, the directory operable to receive and respond to queries from the one or more network appliances, the queries requesting the data stored in the at least one record.