Apparatus and method for unilateral topology discovery in network management
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for reducing the cost of network managment by using a proxy agent and subchannel communications so fewer SNMP licenses and fewer protocol stacks are needed. Subchannel communication is achieved in a plurality of different embodiments. Embodiments having single subchannel transceivers, multiple transceivers, single multiplexer and multiple multiplexers are disclosed. An NMS process using routing table CRC to automatically detect when the NMS topology information is incorrect and automated topology discovery is disclosed. A process for automated discovery of redundant cables during automated topology discovery is disclosed.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1-19. -19. (Canceled)
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20. An apparatus comprising:
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a data network comprised of one or more hubs coupled to one or more nodes, said one or more hubs and nodes containing network objects to be managed;
a computer programmed to carry out a network management process which functions to receive requests for network management type data from one or more of said network objects and requests to write management type data to the one or more of said network objects, said computer converting said requests into management packets including data identifying the hub or slave which contains a network object to be operated upon;
a master hub coupled to said data network and to said network management process and functioning to convert management packets received from said management process into subchannel packets, said master hub further comprising a subchannel transceiver configured to send reply data from network objects thereto; and
in each of said one or more hubs and one or more nodes of said network, a programmable computer programmed to carry out a subchannel communication protocol, said subchannel transceiver in every hub and node coupled so as to transmit said subchannel packets to the network objects identified in said subchannel packets. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A process comprising:
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receiving a management command identifying an object in a network to perform a management task with;
using the object identification as a search key to search a mapping table to look up a function call;
making the function call so as to invoke into execution a computer program associated with said function call; and
executing said program and performing all necessary operations to carry out the management task wherein said step of executing comprises transmitting a subchannel packet to a target object using a subchannel communication protocol and a portion of the Fourier spectrum of the high speed data transfer on said network other than management data and commands which does not contain substantial Fourier components from said high speed data. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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27. An apparatus comprising:
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a microprocessor programmed with a proxy agent program which controls said computer to receive one or more management commands, that allows an identification of an appropriate program which is capable of carrying out a desired management operation on the network object identified in said one or more management commands;
wherein at least some of said computer programs control said microprocessor to build subchannel packets for at least some of said management commands, each subchannel packet including at least information codifying the desired management function and the network object on which the management function is to be performed, and wherein said microprocessor is coupled to a plurality of nodes in said network, each said hub, switch and node including a subchannel transceiver for every port coupled to another node in said network, each subchannel transceiver for receiving said subchannel packets and transmitting subchannel packets out an output port such that the subchannel packet ultimately reaches the network object to which data is to be written or from which data is to be read from. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. An apparatus comprising:
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a data network functioning to transmit payload data between one or more nodes and one or more hubs containing network objects to be managed;
a computer programmed to carry out a network management process which functions to receive requests for network management type data from one or more of said network objects and requests to write management type data to the one or more of said network objects, said computer, under control of said network management process, functioning to convert said requests into management packets further including data identifying the hub or slave which contains a network object to be operated upon; and
a master hub coupled to said media of said data network and to said network management process via an interprocess data transport mechanism functioning to convert management packets received from said management process into subchannel packets.
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31. A process for automatic topology discovery in a hierarchical network comprised of a master node and one or more slave nodes organized as a plurality of levels, said master node having one or more downlink ports coupled to one or more slave nodes, each of said slave nodes having one uplink port coupled to a parent node which may be a slave node or said master node and one or more downlink ports which may or may not be coupled to a child slave node, comprising:
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transmitting from said master node hello messages which include data giving the identification number of said master node to said one or more downlink ports of said master node;
in each slave node which received a hello packet, recording the port number on which the hello packet arrived as the uplink port for that slave node and transmitting a confirmation message out its uplink port giving the identification number of the child slave-node which sent said confirmation message and the uplink port number of the child slave node sending said confirmation message and beginning transmitting hello packets or messages out each other port other than its uplink port, each hello packet or message giving the identification number of the slave node which transmitted it;
in each slave node which has discovered its uplink port, monitoring said uplink port for messages from the slave'"'"'s parent node;
in each slave node which has received a confirmation message from a child slave node, recording the identification number of said child slave node and its uplink port number;
each slave node which has received a confirmation message stores the downlink port number upon which the confirmation message was received and either replies to a polling query packet received from the master node by sending a message out its uplink port containing its ID number and its uplink port number and the downlink port number or port numbers connected to child slave node to the master node or transmitting a message to the master node in response to the query packet providing its uplink port number and its identification number and storing the downlink port number or numbers connected to child slave nodes in memory locations that the master node can read;
determining the down link port numbers of each slave node coupled to child slave nodes, and generating polling query packets in said master node for each newly discovered child slave node using said downlink port numbers of the slave nodes in the hierarchy to build routing instructions in each query packet and sending said query packet to each newly discovered child slave node whereupon the child slave node replies with its own confirmation messages and carries out its own topology discovery process to discover any child slave nodes it is connected to such that the entire topology of said network is discovered, and building a routing table from the information sent to said master node during said topology discovery process. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33)
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Specification