Distributed remote management (dRMON) for networks

• US 6,085,243 A
• Filed: 12/13/1996
• Issued: 07/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Fletcher, Rick, Banthia, Prakash C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Hieu C.
• Application Number:
  US08/766,274
• Time in Patent Office: 1,299 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.54, 395/500, 370/401, 370/241, 370/252, 370/253, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5626 Network management, e.g. Intelligent nets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

A method and apparatus for the distributed monitoring of network traffic deploys end system agents to collect traffic statistics at distributed points in the network. These statistics are forwarded to collectors which compile the statistics to create higher level pictures of network performance. A collector may act as a proxy for a prior art standalone network probe and may interact with network management software as though it were a standalone network probe. The invention is designed to work in accordance with a variety of standard network management protocols including SNMP, RMON, and RMON2 but is not limited to those environments.

Claims

1. A method for the distributed collecting of network data traffic statistics, wherein said network comprises end systems (ES) connected to network segments, the method comprising:

capturing network data at a plurality of said ESs, said network data observed at said ESs;

computing individual network traffic statistics at said plurality of said ESs, said individual traffic statistics being extracted from analysis of said captured network data;

including, in each of the ESs participating in said distributed collecting, an agent, said agent being an executable module invisible to a user for collecting traffic statistics and said agent capturing only network data that its native ES sends or receives;

transmitting data containing said individual traffic statistics to a collector from said plurality of said ESs;

compiling said individual traffic statistics from individual ESs into group network statistics;

providing reports based on said compiled statistics, from said collector, to a network manager;

transmitting data containing compiled statistics from said collector to a domain collector;

compiling statistics from a plurality of collectors at said domain collector; and

providing reports based on said compiled statistics, from said domain collector, to a network manager.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said statistics collected are as defined in a standard defined for the gathering of network-wide performance statistics.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein said statistics collected are as defined by an RMON or RMON2 monitoring protocol.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein said statistics collected are as defined by an RMON or RMON2 monitoring protocol as published in IETF RFC documents, RFC-1271, RFC-1513, RFC-1757 and revisions.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein said collector simulates the behavior of a standalone probe such that said manager interacts with and configures said collector as though said collector was a standalone probe and said collector configures said ESs.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of said ESs communicate using an ethernet protocol.