Method and apparatus for monitoring remote devices through a local monitoring station and communicating with a central station supporting multiple manufacturers

• US 20050246437A1
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Granted Patent: US 7,519,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0213 Modular or universal configuration of the monitoring system, e.g. monitoring system having modules that may be combined to build monitoring program; monitoring system that can be applied to legacy systems; adaptable monitoring system; using different communication protocols

Abstract

A method and apparatus for monitoring at least one network connected device (monitored device) using a controller is disclosed. Initially, the controller/monitoring system attempts to establish communication with the monitored device. If the controller cannot be configured to interface with the monitored device, then configuration information, such as, manufacturer, model, and a unique identifier are obtained from the monitored device. In the process of determining the configuration information, a determination is made to find out if the monitored device is supported by the controller using information from System Support Database (SSD). A device object is created using information from the SSD, thus establishing a communication protocol between the controller and the monitored device Subsequently, configuration information for the monitored device is updated in the System Configuration Database (SCD).

Claims

1. In a network based apparatus having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively coupled via a network, the monitoring system communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a method of monitoring the at least one device comprising the steps of:

(a) determining if the monitoring system is configured to communicate with said at least one device by obtaining configuration information from said at least one device;

(b) communicating with said at least one device using information stored in said first database if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

(c) updating said first database with the configuration information received from said at least one device;

(d) determining if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said second database if said at least one device is not configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said first database; and

(e) enabling said second database to determine what type of status information is obtained from said at least one device for storing in said first database if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining configuration information from said first database comprises:

identifying at least one of (i) manufacturer, (ii) model, and (iii) unique identifier of said at least one device.

3. The method as in claim 2, further comprises:

identifying if said at least one device requires monitoring by using the configuration information only used during an initialization state of the monitoring system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the monitoring system is configured to communicate with said at least one device comprises:

querying the first database with at least one of manufacturer, model, and unique identifier of said at least one device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device comprises querying said at least one device with data stored in the first database.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein the first database is a system configuration database and comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and said at least one device; and

status information related to said at least one device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system for monitoring said at least one device.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the second database is a system support database and comprises information about manufacturers and device models supported by the monitoring system.

8. The method as in claim 5, wherein the step of determining if said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system further comprises obtaining status information of said at least one device if manufacturer and model information of said at least one device are supported by the monitoring system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one device includes hardware components.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one device includes software components.

11. An apparatus for monitoring at least one device in a network based system, comprising:

a monitoring system communicatively coupled to the at least one device via a network;

a first database communicatively coupled to said monitoring system and storing configuration and status information, said configuration information used to configure said monitoring system with said at least one device; and

a second database communicatively coupled to said monitoring system and storing manufacturer and model information of said at least one device, said manufacturer and model information being used to determine if said at least one device is supported by said monitoring system, said second database is enabled to determine what type of status information is obtained from said at least one device for storing in said first database.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein said configuration information includes:

information related to at least one of (i) manufacturer, (ii) model, and (iii) unique identifier of said at least one device.

13. The apparatus as in claim 12, wherein the configuration information only used during initialization of the monitoring system.

14. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein said first database is queried with at least one of manufacturer, model, and unique identifier of said at least one device to determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device.

15. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein data stored in the first database is used for querying said at least one device to determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device.

16. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the first database is a system configuration database to which the status information is added after initialization of the monitoring system.

17. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the second database is a system support database.

18. The apparatus as in claim 16, wherein the status information is used for determining if said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system.

19. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein said at least one device includes hardware components.

20. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein said at least one device includes software components.

21. In a network based apparatus having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively coupled via a network, the monitoring system communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a computer program product having a computer usable medium comprising:

instructions for determining if the monitoring system is configured to communicate with said at least one device by obtaining configuration information from said at least one device;

instructions for communicating with said at least one device using information stored in said first database if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

instructions for updating said first database with the configuration information received from said at least one device;

instructions for determining if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said second database if said at least one device is not configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said first database; and

instructions for enabling said second database to determine what type of status information is obtained from said at least one device for storing in said first database if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system.

22. In a network based apparatus having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively coupled via a network, the monitoring system communicatively coupled to first and second databases, an apparatus for monitoring the at least one device comprising the steps of:

(a) means for determining if the monitoring system is configured to communicate with said at least one device by obtaining configuration information from said at least one device;

(b) means for communicating with said at least one device using information stored in said first database if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

(c) means for updating said first database with the configuration information received from said at least one device;

(d) means for determining if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said second database if said at least one device is not configured to interface with said monitoring system using information from said first database; and

(e) means for enabling said second database to determine what type of status information is obtained from said at least one device for storing in said first database if said at least one device is configured to interface with said monitoring system.

23. A method for monitoring a device connected to a network using a controller, the method comprising:

(a) determining if the controller is configured to communicate with the device by obtaining configuration information from the device;

(b) if the controller is configured to interface with the device, then communicating with the device using information stored in a first database;

(c) updating said first database with configuration information received from the device;

(d) if the device is not configured to interface with said controller using information from said first database, then determining if the device is configured to interface with said controller using information from a second database; and

(e) if the device is configured to interface with said controller, enabling said second database to determine what type of status information is stored in said first database for the device.