Tracking communication for determining device states
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- observing communication between a plurality of devices;
inferring a respective state of at least one device of the plurality of devices based upon the observing the communication;
the respective state of a first device of the at least one device is determined to be unfulfilled;
the respective state of the first device is determined to be unfulfilled when the observing the communication comprisesobserving an address resolution protocol request comprising a destination address for the first device, andobserving that the first device does not respond to the address resolution protocol request prior to expiration of a time limit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for tracking communication for determining device states. Communication between devices is observed and a respective state of at least one device is inferred. The inference is formed without directly communicating with the device. Various states of the devices include unknown, used, unfulfilled, virtual, omitted, and automatic. The respective state of a device is unknown when the observation shows that the device fails to respond to communication. The respective state of the device is unfulfilled when an ARP request comprising a destination address for the device is observed, and the device does not respond to the ARP request prior to expiration of a time limit. The respective state of a device is determined to be virtual when the observation shows that the device received a packet when its respective state was unfulfilled, and the device did not send a reply to the packet within a time limit.
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Citations
61 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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observing communication between a plurality of devices; inferring a respective state of at least one device of the plurality of devices based upon the observing the communication; the respective state of a first device of the at least one device is determined to be unfulfilled; the respective state of the first device is determined to be unfulfilled when the observing the communication comprises observing an address resolution protocol request comprising a destination address for the first device, and observing that the first device does not respond to the address resolution protocol request prior to expiration of a time limit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A processing system comprising:
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observing means for observing communication between a plurality of devices; and inferring means for inferring a respective state of at least one device of the plurality of devices based upon the observing the communication; determining means for determining that the respective state of the first device is unfulfilled when the observing the communication comprises observing an address resolution protocol request comprising a destination address for the first device, and observing that the first device does not respond to the address resolution protocol request prior to expiration of a time limit. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A system comprising:
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an observing module configured to observe communication between a plurality of devices; and an inferring module configured to infer a respective state of at least one device of the plurality of devices based upon the observing the communication; a determining module configured to determine that the respective state of the first device is unfulfilled when the observing the communication comprises observing an address resolution protocol request comprising a destination address for the first device, and observing that the first device does not respond to the address resolution protocol request prior to expiration of a time limit; and a processor configured to interpret the observing module, inferring module, and determining module. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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51. An article of manufacture comprising:
computer-readable medium encoded with computer interpretable instructions embodied therein including; observing instructions configured to cause a processor to observe communication between a plurality of devices; and inferring instructions configured to cause the processor to infer a respective state of at least one device of the plurality of devices based upon the observing the communication; determining instructions configured to cause the processor to determine that the respective state of the first device is unfulfilled when the observing the communication comprises observing an address resolution protocol request comprising a destination address for the first device, and observing that the first device does not respond to the address resolution protocol request prior to expiration of a time limit. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
Specification