System for network device location

• US 6,496,859 B2
• Filed: 11/25/1998
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Majandro LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Roy, Joydeep, Tarr, Stephen F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US09/199,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20020062366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,483 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 709/222, 370/254, 370/255
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A managment station responds to an HTTP request for device discovery by spawning a device discovery task that creates a linked list and first broadcasts UDP based requests out on a subnetwork for devices on the same subnetwork to respond. Device information from responding network devices is stored in a linked list. This process is repeated until a specified length of time has expired. Then a second broadcast request is sent out that includes a list of printers that have responded so that they will nor keep responding. The list is updated by responses until there are no more responses. Any nodes in the linked list that still only have a network address are upadated by sending a unicast SNMP request those network addresses in order to get the additional information. The data from the linked list is sent back to the HTTP client.

Claims

1. A method of locating devices on a network, comprising:

sending a DLP request out on the network to devices in a selected class, wherein the DLP request includes a list of network addresses of devices in the selected class that have previously responded such that only those devices in the selected class and not on the list will respond, wherein the length of each network address is included before each network address in the list;

adding to the list of network addresses, addresses of devices in the selected class that respond to the DLP request; and

repeating the previous two steps until there are no more responses from network devices in the selected class;

wherein the responses from the devices include at least one of a MAC address and an IP address.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to sending the DLP request:

sending a broadcast request out to each device on a network for network devices of a selected class to respond;

receiving a reply identifying a replying device of the selected class; and

adding to the list of network addresses, addresses of devices in the selected class that respond to the first broadcast request.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

from a first device, sending an HTTP request to a device having a DLP client for sending DLP requests and having a known location on the network for a list of addresses of devices in a selected class on the network; and

when there are no more responses from network devices in the selected class, sending the list to the first device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning a web page, wherein the web page includes the list and a link to each device on the list.

5. A system for network device location, comprising:

first device for sending an HTTP request to a device having a known location on the network for a list of addresses of devices on the network; and

a second device having a known location on the network, responsive to the HTTP request, for sending a DLP request to devices on the network, responsive to DLP responses from devices on the network, for generating a list of network addresses of responding devices on the network, and for sending the list of network addresses of devices on the network to the first device;

wherein the DLP request includes a list of network addresses of devices that have previously responded such that only those devices not on the list will respond; and

wherein the length of each network address is included before each network address in the list.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second device, prior to sending the DLP request, sends a non-DLP request to devices on the network and, responsive to a non-DLP response from a device in a selected class, updates the list of network addresses.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the DLP response includes at least one of a MAC address and an IP address of the responding device.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the first device comprises a computer, and the second device comprises a printer.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the first device comprises a printer having an HTTP client, the second device comprises a printer having an HTTP server, a DLP client and a DLP server, and each of the responding devices comprises a printer having an HTTP server, a DLP client and a DLP server.