Methods and apparatus for remote configuration of an appliance on a network
First Claim
1. An system for booting an appliance, comprising:
- appliance; and
a local network of computers;
the appliance being programmed to transmit a message over the local network to obtain a source of booting parameters; and
if the appliance receives the message containing booting parameters, to test the parameters by attempting to send and receive network messages over the local network; and
if the appliance fails to receive a message containing acceptable parameters, to observe the local network passively, to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use on the network, and to test the candidate parameters by sending and receiving packets in the local network.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A network appliance is capable of remote booting and obtaining its configuration information from a source located far away. The network appliance can be shipped to a business location or office environment without requiring a local boot server in that location or environment and without requiring the presence of a person who is familiar with and highly skilled in configuring the appliance. The invention allows for booting and the obtaining of configuration information, and therefore allows for the functioning of the appliance, regardless of whether there is a local server in the local network environment, such as a DHCP server or a boot server, that has been set up and configured to provide to the appliance the booting and configuration information it requires. Self-organizing distributed appliances (SODAs) according to the invention augment the Internet by providing a self-organizing network that efficiently distributes big data items, i.e., data items that cannot be downloaded timely (on demand) over today'"'"'s networks. One application of self-organizing distributed appliances is the distribution of high-quality video (a half-hour MPEG-1 movies is about one Gbyte). The SODA network alleviates network bottlenecks.
475 Citations
57 Claims
-
1. An system for booting an appliance, comprising:
-
appliance; and
a local network of computers;
the appliance being programmed to transmit a message over the local network to obtain a source of booting parameters; and
if the appliance receives the message containing booting parameters, to test the parameters by attempting to send and receive network messages over the local network; and
if the appliance fails to receive a message containing acceptable parameters, to observe the local network passively, to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use on the network, and to test the candidate parameters by sending and receiving packets in the local network.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A system for obtaining configuration information for an appliance, comprising:
-
an appliance having a unique global identifier; and
an appliance registry;
the appliance being programmed to transmit a boot status message from the appliance using its global identifier, in a local network, to an appliance registry located outside of the local network;
the appliance registry being programmed to store boot status information from the boot status message in a database at the appliance registry, the boot status information including information pertaining to the local network as observed by the appliance; and
the appliance registry being programmed to transmit configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance based on the global identifier of the appliance. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A system for obtaining configuration information for an appliance, comprising:
-
an appliance; and
an appliance registry;
the appliance being programmed to transmit a boot status message from the appliance in a local network to an appliance registry located outside of the local network using a plurality of redundant transmission protocols; and
the appliance registry being programmed to transmit configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance using a plurality of redundant transmission protocols. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. A system for configuring an appliance, comprising:
-
an appliance; and
a Web browser at a computer;
the appliance being programmed to display information at the appliance;
the Web browser being programmed to receive the information displayed by the appliance;
to receive configuration data; and
to transmit the configuration data from the Web browser to the appliance when the Web browser and the appliance are on a common local network.- View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
-
39. A system for obtaining configuration information for an appliance, comprising:
-
an appliance;
an appliance registry; and
a registry database;
the appliance registry being programmed to store ownership information for the appliance in the registry database the appliance being programmed to transmit a boot status message from the appliance to the appliance registry while the appliance registry is located outside of a local network of the appliance, the boot status message including information pertaining to the local network as observed by the appliance;
the appliance registry being programmed to transmit configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance in response to the boot status message. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
-
-
49. A method of obtaining configuration information for an appliance located in a local network, comprising the steps of:
-
transmitting a boot status message from the appliance to an appliance registry located outside of the local network using a plurality of redundant transmission protocols; and
transmitting configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance using a plurality of redundant transmission protocols. - View Dependent Claims (50)
observing the local network to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use; and
using the candidate parameters for communicating with the appliance registry for transmission of the boot status message.
-
-
51. A method of obtaining configuration information for an appliance located in a local network, comprising the steps of:
-
transmitting a boot status message from the appliance to an appliance registry located outside of the local network, the boot status message including information pertaining to the local network as observed by the appliance;
storing the boot status information from the boot status message in a database at the appliance registry; and
transmitting configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance. - View Dependent Claims (52)
observing the local network to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use; and
using the candidate parameters for communicating with the appliance registry for transmission of the boot status message.
-
-
53. A method of obtaining configuration information for an appliance located in a local network, comprising the steps of:
-
storing ownership information for the appliance at a registry database of an appliance registry located outside of the local network;
transmitting a boot status message from the appliance to the appliance registry, the boot status message including information pertaining to the local network as observed by the appliance;
transmitting configuration information from the appliance registry to the appliance in response to the boot status message. - View Dependent Claims (54)
observing the local network to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use; and
using the candidate parameters for communicating with the appliance registry for transmission of the boot status message.
-
-
55. A method of booting an appliance in a local network, comprising the steps of:
-
transmitting a message over the local network to obtain a source of booting parameters;
attempting to receive, in response to the message transmitted by the appliance, a message that contains booting parameters for the appliance;
if the appliance receives the message containing booting parameters, testing the parameters by attempting to send and receive network messages over the local network; and
if the appliance fails to receive a message containing acceptable parameters, observing the local network passively, developing candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use on the network, and testing the candidate parameters by sending and receiving packets in the local network.
-
-
56. A method of configuring an appliance in a local network, comprising the steps of:
-
displaying information at the appliance;
entering the information at a Web browser at a computer on the local network;
receiving configuration data at the Web browser; and
transmitting the configuration data from the Web browser to the appliance.
-
-
57. An appliance programmed to transmit a message over a local area network to obtain a source of booting parameters, and being programmed to determine if the appliance receives a message containing booting parameters, to test the parameters by attempting to send and receive network message over the local network;
- and if the appliance fails to receive a message containing acceptable parameters, to observe the local network passively, to develop candidate parameters based on network traffic and network addresses in use on the network, and to test the candidate parameters by sending and receive packets in the local network.
Specification