System and method for rapid deployment of network appliances and infrastructure devices

• US 20070027964A1
• Filed: 07/28/2005
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Aker, Wynn, Herrod, Allan, Pang, Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/191,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20070027964A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0889 Techniques to speed-up the configuration process

Abstract

Described is a system having a receiving element to receive configuration information for a network appliance and a generation element to generate codes for a readable element. The readable element is configured to be read by a reading element of the network appliance and the configuration information configures the network appliance for operation on a network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a receiving element to receive configuration information for a network appliance; and

a generation element to generate codes for a readable element, the readable element configured to be read by a reading element of the network appliance, wherein the configuration information configures the network appliance for operation on a network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the readable element is one of a linear bar code, a two-dimensional bar code and an RFID tag.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the receiving element includes a graphical user input for a user to enter the configuration information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes one of device information, network settings, wireless settings, provisioning information and licensing information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the readable element includes executable codes.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the readable element is encrypted.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the encryption is one of a system password encryption and a user-supplied password encryption.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the readable element includes a plurality of readable elements and each of the plurality of readable elements includes information which uniquely identifies each of the plurality of readable elements.

9. A network appliance, comprising:

a scanning device to scan a readable element, the readable element including configuration information for the network appliance; and

an application to process the configuration information and configure the network appliance for operation on a network.

10. The network appliance of claim 9, wherein the readable element is one of a linear bar code, a two-dimensional bar code and an RFID tag.

11. The network appliance of claim 9, wherein the application transmits the configuration information to a network server to verify the configuration information is correct.

12. The network appliance of claim 9, wherein the configuration of the network appliance includes connecting to a provisioning server and downloading one of a further application and a configuration to the network appliance.

13. The network appliance of claim 9, wherein the scanning device includes one of a barcode reader, a camera, an optical character recognition element and an RFID reader.

14. The network appliance of claim 9, wherein the network appliance is one of an access point, a wired switch, a wireless switch, a management appliance, a management server and a router.

15. A method, comprising the steps of:

scanning a readable element with a reading element of a network appliance; and

configuring the network appliance for operation on a network using configuration information stored in the readable element.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of:

verifying the readable element is valid before configuring the network appliance.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the readable element is a plurality of readable elements, the method further comprising the step of:

aggregating the configuration information from the plurality of readable elements.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of:

decrypting the readable element.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of:

rolling back the network appliance to previous configuration settings when the configuration using the configuration information in the readable element is unsuccessful

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the reading element of the network appliance includes one of a barcode reader, a camera, an optical character recognition element and an RFID reader.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the network appliance is one of an access point, a wired switch, a wireless switch, a management appliance, a management server and a router.