Representing, configuring, administering, monitoring, and/or modeling connections using catalogs and matrixes

• US 7,277,931 B1
• Filed: 06/08/1999
• Issued: 10/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Temoshenko, Leo, Rajan, Rajendran, Metz, Walter Cade, Lingafelt, Charles Steven, Kamat, Sanjay Damodar, Harrison, Bret Elliott, Dillon, Charles Bruce, Booth, Earl Hardin
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mirza, Adnan M.
• Application Number:
  US09/327,708
• Time in Patent Office: 3,038 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238, 709/242, 709/239, 709/227, 709/228, 709/220, 709/219, 370/216, 370/236, 370/230, 370/352
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A method, apparatus, computer product and structure is presented for representing and managing large amounts of information concerning networks of elements. While being useful for communication networks, it can be also usefully deployed in the context of other networks such as distribution and transportation networks. The method uses a hierarchical construct called “catalog”—a set of elements (which could be “atomic” elements or catalogs themselves)—to organize information about physical or abstract entities relevant for modeling the network. A matrix construct whose rows and columns constitute such elements are used to model connections at different levels of abstraction. A common framework and representation provided using these two constructs is shown to be useful for visualization, administration, configuration, modeling, monitoring and manipulation of the network.

Claims

1. A method for representing interconnection of a plurality of elements on a network, the method comprising:

providing a first catalog for a first subset of said elements, and providing a second catalog for a second subset of said elements;

creating a matrix of connection cells formed by an intersection of a pair of elements, wherein a first element of each pair is taken from the first catalog and a second element of each pair is taken from the second catalog; and

forming a connection representation for at least a subset of the pairs.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one element is a catalog of sub-elements, and the method further comprises the step of including all sub-elements in the matrix.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the network is a communications network and at least a subset of the elements includes routers.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the network is an IP network and at least a subset of said elements have an IP protocol stack.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one particular element in the first catalog is the same as a particular element in the second catalog.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the catalogs includes a plurality of sub-catalogs.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network is a computer network.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network is a virtual network.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network is a network implemented using a layer above a physical layer.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network is an overlay network.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the overlay network is an IPSec network.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the overlay network provides Quality of Service.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the overlay network is an MPLS network.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the network includes VLANs.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of configuring at least a portion of the network employing the representation.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of one catalog is formed using combinatorial operations upon elements of other catalogs.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising associating at least one task with at least one connection.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, further comprising triggering at least said one task as a result of a change of a state of said one connection.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the elements is an abstract entity.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein an element embodies the attributes of Quality of Service.

21. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein an element embodies the attributes of security.

22. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the elements is a physical entity.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying at least one portion of the matrix.

24. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising monitoring at least one portion of the matrix.

25. A method of claim 1, wherein the matrix is structured such that elements of a row are different from elements of a column.

26. A method of claim 25, wherein at a least a portion of the connections form a star network.

27. A method of claim 1, wherein the matrix is structured such that elements on a the row are identical to elements on a column.

28. A method of claim 27, wherein at a least a portion of the connections form a mesh network.

29. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein at least another element is a second catalog of sub-elements and the method further comprises the step of forming a sub-matrix of said one element with said another element.

30. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising employing a wizard to form at least a subset of the elements.

31. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising initializing all connections to a connected state.

32. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising employing a wizard to determine which connections to be brought to a connected state.

33. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising initializing all connections to a non-connected state.

34. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising choosing at least one pair upon which a manipulation is performed.

35. A method as recited in claim 34, further comprising modifying at least one changeable attribute of the connection.

36. A method as recited in claim 35, further comprising causing an inheritable change to be inherited by a group of inheritors.

37. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein a first element is a first gateway, a second element is a second gateway, and the attribute is setting a security policy, and the step of causing causes the security policy to be set at all elements included in the first and second gateway.

38. A method as recited in claim 36, wherein a first element is a catalog of sub-elements, and the attribute is setting a Quality of Service policy, and the step of causing causes the Quality of Service policy to be set at all sub-elements of the first element.

39. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein a sub-catalog includes other sub-catalogs.

40. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising monitoring at least a portion of a network state in accordance with the representation.

41. A method as recited in claim 40, further comprising displaying at least a portion of the network state.

42. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the step of displaying includes employing color codes for showing attributes.

43. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of modeling connections.

44. A method as recited in claim 41, further comprising indicating changes in performance in response to an occurrence.

45. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein a least one element of a particular pair is a sub-catalog, the method further comprising expanding elements of the pair into a sub-matrix.

46. A method for representing on a display a connection representation, the method comprising:

forming at least one catalog of data elements;

creating a matrix of catalog elements for the data elements of at least one of said at least one data catalog;

forming a connection representation between pairs of elements in each said at least one data catalog;

instantiating connections in the connection representation; and

employing the matrix in a network action.

47. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the network action includes an action taken from a group of actions including monitoring, problem determination, tuning and modeling.

48. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein at least one catalog of is a catalog of elements considered for interconnection by themselves.

49. A method as recited in claim 46, further comprising manipulating catalog elements to create at least one new catalog from a union of existing catalogs.

50. A method as recited in claim 46, further comprising employing an operation taken from a group of operations consisting of:

typing, ordering, adding, moving and deleting to and from one or more catalogs.

51. A method as recited in claim 47, wherein the operation of typing is a catalog class taken from a group of classes consisting of:

Endpoint catalog;

Tunnel catalog;

Encryption methods catalog;

Validity catalog;

Action catalog; and

Traffic Loading catalog.