Methods, computer systems, and computer readable media for generating displays of sets of network addresses with status indicators

• US 20070011297A1
• Filed: 09/12/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infoblox Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Internet Associates, LLC (Infoblox Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lee, John, Schneider, Angela, Drun, Sean, Boylan, Dennis, Burroughs, Kenneth
• Granted Patent: US 7,523,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming

Abstract

Methods, computer systems, and computer readable media generate displays of networking addresses. The display may provide a map containing individually selectable grid spaces representing networking addresses of a set. The networking addresses of the set have at least one attribute and the value of the attribute is indicated in the display. The value of the attribute may be indicated by a color for the networking addresses of the set having the attribute. Furthermore, the networking addresses of a block may be represented by rectangles defining the blocks within the display. Additionally, the display may provide utilization of the networking addresses through pie charts where the size of each pie piece represents the relative number of networking addresses with that particular indicated attribute value. The display may provide additional features as well, such as the ability to zoom in and out and select areas within the displayed map. Furthermore, the hierarchy of the networking address space may be represented in a tree structure that can be expanded and collapsed to show relationships between the various networks and to allow for selection of a network to map within the map display.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of illustrating networking addresses, comprising:

accessing definitional information of a set of the networking addresses, the definitional information defining one or more attributes for the networking addresses of the set; and

rendering a display of the set of networking addresses wherein the display provides a first visual indicator for networking addresses having a first value of a first attribute and a second visual indicator for networking addresses having a second value of the first attribute.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an origin and mask size of the set of the networking addresses to be displayed; and

when rendering the display, using the origin and mask size to set the boundary of the display.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining an origin and mask size of the set comprises receiving a user selection to zoom out of a current displayed set of the networking addresses to display a set containing a larger number of addresses.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining an origin and mask size of the set comprises receiving a user selection to zoom in on a current displayed set of the networking addresses.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein rendering the display comprises rendering a grid space representing the set of the networking addresses, and wherein at least one rectangle is rendered within the grid space to represent a block of networking addresses with the at least one rectangle being provided with the first visual indicator.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein a second rectangle is rendered within the grid space to represent a second block of network address with the second rectangle being provided with the first visual indicator.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein a second rectangle is rendered within the grid space to represent a second block of network address with the second rectangle being provided with the second visual indicator.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the at least one rectangle is provided with the second visual indicator in addition to the first visual indicator.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the area of each of the blocks is representative of the number of networking addresses within the blocks.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein rendering the display comprises rendering a first shape representative of ranges of networking addresses of the set having a status attribute that is defined as free and rendering a second shape representative of ranges of networking addresses of the set having the status attribute that is defined as allocated, and wherein the relative areas of the first and second shapes are representative of the size of the range of networking addresses represented by the first and second shapes.

10-12. -12. (canceled)

15-33. -33. (canceled)

34. A computer readable medium containing instructions that when performed by a computer perform the steps of:

determining values of an attribute for a plurality of networking addresses;

rendering a display of the plurality of networking addresses wherein the display includes a first indicator for networking addresses having a first value for the attribute and includes a second indicator for networking addresses having a second value for the attribute.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 34, wherein determining values of an attribute for a plurality of networking addresses comprises referencing a definitional list for the plurality of networking addresses that lists the values of the attribute for the plurality of networking addresses.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 34, wherein rendering a display of the plurality of networking addresses comprises displaying a grid space including rectangles representing blocks of networking addresses of the set wherein a rectangle is displayed with the first indicator where the block for the rectangle contains networking addresses having the first value for the attribute and wherein the rectangle is displayed with the second indicator where the block for the rectangle contains networking addresses having the second value for the attribute.

37. A computer-implemented method of illustrating networking address structure, comprising:

accessing definitional information of a set of the networking addresses, the definitional information defining at least one parent network and at least one subordinate network of the parent network for the networking addresses of the set; and

rendering a display of the at least one parent network and at least one subordinate network of the parent network, wherein the display is a tree illustrating a hierarchical structure of the parent and subordinate networks.

38. The computer-implemented method of claim 37, wherein the tree lists a name assigned to each of the parent and subordinate networks of the hierarchical structure according to the definitional information.

39. The computer-implemented method of claim 37, wherein the tree provides an indicator of the type of networking addresses used for the parent and subordinate networks according to the definitional information.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 37, wherein the tree provides an indicator of whether the subordinate networks are aggregated with the parent network according to the definitional information.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 37, wherein the tree further provides selections for expanding and collapsing the display of the subordinate networks of a parent network.

42-43. -43. (canceled)