Scalable and Robust Mechanism for Remote IP Device Monitoring With Changing IP Address Assignment

• US 20100150170A1
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chao, Chin-Wang, Papritz, Ronald E., Brotz, Richard A., Lee, Herman H., Johnson, Drew D., Ji, Wenwen, Pedder, Gregory S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,898,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A method is provided for monitoring devices with changing IP addresses. SNMP trap is received from a device at a first IP address to notify that a connection is up, and a SNMP poll is transmitted to the device to obtain an identifier. Predetermined consecutive SNMP GET requests are transmitted to the device in intervals. Responsive to failing to receive from the device predetermined consecutive SNMP GET responses equal to the predetermined consecutive SNMP GET requests, it is determined that there is a connection failure or a device failure and checked whether the device is in a maintenance window. If not in maintenance window, a trouble ticket is generated. Responsive to the failure, there is a predetermined waiting period for another SNMP trap from the device with a second IP address and the same identifier notifying that a connection is back up, and no trouble ticket is generated.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring devices with changing Internet protocol (IP) addresses, comprising:

receiving SNMP trap from a remote device at a first IP address to notify that a connection is up;

in response to receiving the SNMP trap from the device, transmitting an SNMP poll to the device to obtain an identifier for the device;

corresponding the first IP address to the identifier for the device;

transmitting a sequence of SNMP GET requests at predetermined time periods to the device, wherein a corresponding sequence of SNMP GET responses are transmitted back from the device;

in response to failing to receive from the device a predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses equal to a predetermined threshold, determining that there is a connection failure or a device failure;

in response to determining that there is the failure, checking whether the device is in a maintenance window; and

in response to determining that there is the failure, waiting a predetermined and tunable window for the device to reconnect to a network and to send another SNMP trap from the device notifying that a connection is back up, wherein the device has a second IP address and the same identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to failing to receive from the device the predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses, recognizing a preliminary failure of the device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recognizing that the same device is reconnected to the network by checking the identifier for the device received during the predetermined and tunable waiting window against the previous identifier for the device to determine that both are the same identifier;

recognizing that the first IP address of the device is different from the second IP address; and

corresponding the identifier to the second IP address for the device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

in response to determining that the device is in the maintenance window or is back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generating no trouble ticket;

in response to determining that the device is not in the maintenance window and is not back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generating a trouble ticket for the device; and

in response to determining that the device having the same identifier is reconnected to the network within the predetermined and tunable time window, causing no trouble ticket to be generated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein if a monitoring session is interrupted, the device is configured to notify a monitoring module that the connection is back up.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the monitoring module represents a plurality of monitoring modules distributed across a network;

and

wherein the plurality of monitoring modules are respectively responsible to monitor a plurality of devices.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein if any of the plurality of monitoring modules are down, backup monitoring modules are responsible to monitor the plurality of devices in place of any of the down plurality of monitoring modules.

8. A server for monitoring devices with changing Internet protocol (IP) addresses comprising:

memory for storing a program for monitoring devices with changing Internet protocol (IP) addresses; and

a processor, functionally coupled to the memory, the processor being responsive to computer-executable instructions contained in the program and operative to;

receive SNMP trap from a remote device at a first IP address to notify that a connection is up;

in response to receiving the SNMP trap from the device, transmit an SNMP poll to the device to obtain an identifier for the device;

correspond the first IP address to the identifier for the device;

transmit a sequence of SNMP GET requests at predetermined time periods to the device, wherein a corresponding sequence of SNMP GET responses are transmitted back from the device;

in response to failing to receive from the device a predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses equal to a predetermined threshold, determine that there is a connection failure or a device failure;

in response to determining that there is the failure, check whether the device is in a maintenance window; and

in response to determining that there is the failure, wait a predetermined and tunable window for the device to reconnect to a network and to send another SNMP trap from the device notifying that a connection is back up, wherein the device has a second IP address and the same identifier.

9. The server of claim 8, wherein in response to failing to receive from the device the predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses, the processor is operative to recognize a preliminary failure of the device.

10. The server of claim 8, wherein the processor is operative to:

recognize that the same device is reconnected to the network by checking the identifier for the device received during the predetermined and tunable waiting window against the previous identifier for the device to determine that both are the same identifier;

recognize that the first IP address of the device is different from the second IP address; and

correspond the identifier to the second IP address for the device.

11. The server of claim 8, wherein the processor is operative to at least one of:

in response to determining that the device is in the maintenance window or is back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generate no trouble ticket;

in response to determining that the device is not in the maintenance window and is not back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generate a trouble ticket for the device; and

in response to determining that the device having the same identifier is reconnected to the network within the predetermined and tunable window, cause no trouble ticket to be generated.

12. The server of claim 8, wherein if a monitoring session is interrupted, the device is configured to notify a monitoring module that the connection is back up.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the monitoring module represents a plurality of monitoring modules distributed across a network;

and

wherein the plurality of monitoring modules are respectively responsible to monitor a plurality of devices.

14. The server of claim 12, wherein if any of the plurality of monitoring modules are down, backup monitoring modules are responsible to monitor the plurality of devices in place of any of the down plurality of monitoring modules.

15. A computer program product, tangibly embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program product including instructions for causing a computer to execute a method for monitoring devices with changing Internet protocol (IP) addresses, comprising:

receiving SNMP trap from a remote device at a first IP address to notify that a connection is up;

in response to receiving the SNMP trap from the device, transmitting an SNMP poll to the device to obtain an identifier for the device;

corresponding the first IP address to the identifier for the device;

transmitting a sequence of SNMP GET requests at predetermined time periods to the device, wherein a corresponding sequence of SNMP GET responses are transmitted back from the device;

in response to failing to receive from the device a predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses equal to a predetermined threshold, determining that there is a connection failure or a device failure;

in response to determining that there is the failure, checking whether the device is in a maintenance window; and

in response to determining that there is the failure, waiting a predetermined and tunable window for the device to reconnect to a network and to send another SNMP trap from the device notifying that a connection is back up, wherein the device has a second IP address and the same identifier.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein in response to failing to receive from the device the predetermined and tunable number of consecutive SNMP GET responses, recognizing a preliminary failure of the device.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

recognizing that the same device is reconnect to the network by checking the identifier for the device received during the predetermined and tunable waiting window against the previous identifier for the device to determine that both are the same identifier;

recognizing that the first IP address of the device is different from the second IP address; and

corresponding the identifier to the second IP address for the device.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising at least one of:

in response to determining that the device is in the maintenance window or is back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generating no trouble ticket; and

in response to determining that the device is not in the maintenance window and is not back up within the predetermined and tunable time window, generating a trouble ticket for the device; and

in response to determining that the device having the same identifier is reconnected to the network within the predetermined and tunable window, causing no trouble ticket to be generated.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein if a monitoring session is interrupted, the device is configured to notify a monitoring module that the connection is back up.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the monitoring module represents a plurality of monitoring modules distributed across a network;

and

wherein the plurality of monitoring modules are respectively responsible to monitor a plurality of devices.