Network management
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- discovering agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting discovery messages to network devices, the discovery messages having a first portion with a first common format and second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the discovery message, wherein the discovery messages include tags indicating that reply messages are to be delayed by random amounts of time;
receiving the reply messages from the agents, the reply messages having a first portion with a second common format and a second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the reply message; and
at least one of the first and the second common formats being configured to permit the inclusion of unknown types of data within the messages without changing the at least one format.
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Abstract
A method for discovering agents operative on devices configured in a network by broadcasting discovery messages having a common format and containing data to the network devices and receiving reply messages having the same common format and containing data from the agents, and permitting new types of data within the messages without changing the common format.
57 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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discovering agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting discovery messages to network devices, the discovery messages having a first portion with a first common format and second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the discovery message, wherein the discovery messages include tags indicating that reply messages are to be delayed by random amounts of time; receiving the reply messages from the agents, the reply messages having a first portion with a second common format and a second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the reply message; and at least one of the first and the second common formats being configured to permit the inclusion of unknown types of data within the messages without changing the at least one format. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method comprising:
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packing data within a message configured to be read by remote agents in a network of devices, the data being organized without regard to data formats and data alignment standards of the devices or operating systems of the devices; broadcasting the message on the network to multiple remote agents; receiving the message at the remote agents; and at a specific remote agent, receiving the message, organizing data within the message in accordance with a specific data format and data alignment standard of a specific device and operating system, determining that the message includes a tag indicating that the reply is to be delayed by a randomly selected amount of time, randomly selecting the amount of time, and delaying sending a reply to the message by the randomly selected amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method comprising:
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discovering remote agents operative on remote network devices by broadcasting discovery messages from a local network device to the remote network devices and receiving reply messages from the agents, wherein the discovery messages include tags indicating that reply messages are to be delayed by random amounts of time; at a remote network device, after receipt of a discovery message, forwarding the message to an application o the remote network device; and in response to the forwarded discovery message, randomly selecting an amount of time and delaying sending a reply message configured to contain information about the application to the local network device by the randomly selected amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32)
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33. An article comprising a machine-readable medium which stores instructions that execute:
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a listening module of an agent discovery service to listen for discovery requests at a device in a network of devices; a collection module of the agent discovery service for collecting information about the device to be included in response to discovery requests; a registration module of the agent discovery service fro registering applications operative on the device that want to be discovered; a tag recognition module of the agent discovery service for determining that discovery requests include tags indicating that the replies are to be delayed by random amounts of time; and a time selection module of the agents discovery service for selecting the random amounts of time by which replies to the discovery requests are to be delayed; wherein one or more of the modules of the agent discovery serve are configured to be hosted by an application operative on the device. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An article comprising:
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a machine-readable medium which stores machine-executable instructions, the instructions being operable to cause a machine to; discover agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting discovery messages to the network devices, the discovery messages having a first portion with a first common format and a second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the discovery message, wherein the discovery messages include tags indicating that reply messages are to be delayed by random amounts of time; and receive the reply messages from the agents, the reply messages having a first portion with a second common format and a second portion containing data, the first portion identifying a type of the data contained in the second portion of the reply message; and wherein at least one of the first and the second common formats is configured to permit the inclusion of unknown types of data within the messages without changing the at least one format. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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Specification