Detecting nearby devices in a network environment

• US 20030033389A1
• Filed: 08/10/2001
• Published: 02/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Simpson, Shell Sterling
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,173 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

In a networked environment, an inferred proximity of one or devices to another device is determined. The inferred proximity is determined, for a particular one of the one or more devices, based at least in part on which port of a network switch the particular device and the other device are coupled to.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a device proximity detector to determine, for each of one or more devices in a network, an inferred proximity of the device to the system based at least in part on which port of a network switch the system is coupled to and which port of the network switch the device is coupled to; and

a network interface, coupled to the device proximity detector, to allow the device proximity detector to communicate with the one or more network switches.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more devices comprises a printer.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device proximity detector includes a switch identification module to detect each of the network switches in the network.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device proximity detector includes a device identification module to detect, from the network switch, which port of the network switch each of the one or more devices is coupled to.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device proximity detector includes a proximity ranking module to rank each of the one or more devices in terms of its proximity to the system.

6. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device proximity detector is to identify the inferred proximity of the device to the system by:

determining, if the device shares the same port on the switch as the system and with a smallest number of other devices also sharing the same port, that the device is one of the closest devices to the system;

otherwise, if the device shares the same port on the switch as the system and with a smaller number of other devices also sharing the same port, then determining that the device is a second closest device to the system;

otherwise, if the device shares the same port on the switch as the system and without regard for a number of other devices also sharing the same port, then determining that the device is a third closest device to the system; and

otherwise, if the device shares the switch with any number of other devices also sharing the switch, then determining that the device is a fourth closest device to the system, and otherwise determining that the device is a fifth closest device to the system.

7. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

identifying one or more devices in a network;

obtaining, for at least one of one or more network switches in the network, an indication of which port of the network switch a computing device is coupled to;

obtaining, for each of the one or more identified devices and for the at least one network switch, an indication of which port of the network switch the identified device is coupled to; and

determining, for at least one of the one or more identified devices, how close the identified device is to the computing device, wherein the determining is based at least in part on the indication of which port of the network switch the computing device is coupled to and the indication of which ports of the network switch the one or more identified devices are coupled to.

8. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein at least one of the identified one or more devices comprises a printer.

9. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein obtaining an indication of which port of the network switch a computing device is coupled to comprises obtaining the indication from the network switch.

10. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein obtaining an indication of which port of the network switch the identified device is coupled to comprises obtaining the indication from the network switch.

11. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the determining comprises generating, for at least one of the one or more identified devices, a ranking indicating a proximity of the identified device to the computing device relative to the other identified devices.

12. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause to one or more processors to perform an additional act comprising:

presenting, to a user, each of the generated rankings.

13. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the computing device comprises both the computer readable media and the one or more processors.

14. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the computing device comprises both the one or more processors and an I/O device to read the one or more computer readable media.

15. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein determining how close the identified device is to the computing device comprises:

checking whether the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with a smallest number of other devices also sharing the same port; and

determining, if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with the smallest number of other devices also sharing the same port, that the identified device is one of the closest devices to the computing device.

16. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein determining how close the identified device is to the computing device further comprises:

checking whether the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with a smaller number of other devices also sharing the same port; and

determining, if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with the smaller number of other devices also sharing the same port, that the identified device is a second closest device to the computing device.

17. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein determining how close the identified device is to the computing device further comprises:

checking whether the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device without regard for a number of other devices also sharing the same port; and

determining, if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device without regard for the number of other devices also sharing the same port, that the identified device is a third closest device to the computing device.

18. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein determining how close the identified device is to the computing device further comprises:

checking whether the identified device shares the switch with any number of other devices also sharing the switch;

determining, if the identified device shares the switch with any number of other devices also sharing the switch, that the identified device is a fourth closest device to the computing device; and

determining, if the identified device does not share the switch with any number of other devices also sharing the switch, that the identified device is a fifth closest device to the computing device.

19. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein determining how close the identified device is to the computing device comprises:

if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with a smallest number of other devices also sharing the same port, then determining the identified device is one of the closest devices to the computing device;

otherwise, if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with a smaller number of other devices also sharing the same port, then determining the identified device is a second closest device to the computing device;

otherwise, if the identified device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and without regard for a number of other devices also sharing the same port, then determining the identified device is a third closest device to the computing device; and

otherwise, if the identified device shares the switch with any number of other devices also sharing the switch, then determining the identified device is a fourth closest device to the computing device, and otherwise determining the identified device is a fifth closest device to the computing device.

20. A method, implemented in a computing device that is part of a network, the method comprising:

detecting one or more network switches in the network;

identifying one or more other devices of a particular type in the network;

obtaining, for each of the identified one or more other devices and for at least one of the one or more network switches, an indication of which port of the network switch the device is coupled to, wherein the indication is obtained from at least one of the one or more network switches; and

ranking, based at least in part on the obtained indications as well as which port of the network switch the computing device is coupled to, the one or more other devices in terms of their inferred proximity to the computing device.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the one or more other devices of a particular type comprises one or more printers.

22. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein identifying one or more other devices of a particular type in the network comprises identifying the one or more other devices in the network by accessing a list of device identifiers.

23. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein identifying one or more other devices of a particular type in the network comprises identifying the one or more other devices in the network by querying a plurality of devices on the network to determine, for each of the plurality of devices, whether the device is of the particular type.

24. A method as recited in claim 20, further comprising presenting, to a user, the ranking of at least one of the one or more other devices.

25. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein ranking a device of the one or more other devices comprises:

checking whether the device shares the same port on a network switch as the computing device and with a smallest number of additional devices also sharing the same port; and

determining, if the device shares the same port on the network switch as the computing device and with the smallest number of additional devices also sharing the same port, that the device is one of the closest devices to the computing device.

26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein ranking the device of the one or more other devices further comprises:

checking whether the device shares the same port on the network switch as the computing device and with a smaller number of the additional devices also sharing the same port;

determining, if the device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device and with the smaller number of the additional devices also sharing the same port, that the device is a second closest device to the computing device.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein ranking the device of the one or more other devices further comprises:

checking whether the device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device without regard for a number of additional devices also sharing the same port;

determining, if the device shares the same port on the switch as the computing device without regard for the number of additional devices also sharing the same port, that the device is a third closest device to the computing device.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein ranking the device of the one or more other devices further comprises:

checking whether the device shares the switch with any number of additional devices also sharing the switch;

determining, if the device shares the switch with any number of additional devices also sharing the switch, that the device is a fourth closest device to the computing device; and

determining, if the device does not share the switch with any number of additional devices also sharing the switch, that the device is a fifth closest device to the computing device.