System, method, and computer program product for obtaining vendor identification of a remote device of merged companies

• US 7,533,086 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2006
• Issued: 05/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Hung Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Spieler; William
• Application Number:
  US11/517,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20080065584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 977 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 709/219, 705/1, 705/38, 370/389
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

There is provided a method, system, and computer program product for extracting information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network using an HTTP communication protocol. The method includes: retrieving, from a first memory, vendor and model information of the monitored device; determining vendor and model through the web page from the monitored device; obtaining the device state information; and storing, in a second memory, the device information obtained in the accessing step, in association with the vendor and model information.

Claims

1. A method for transforming a vendor name of a monitored device, comprising:

accessing, by a monitoring device, the monitored device using a first communication protocol, of a plurality of different communication protocols, to obtain information from the monitored device;

determining, by the monitoring device, a vendor name of the monitored device based on the information obtained from the monitored device to form a determined vendor name;

accessing, by the monitoring device, a database that maps a plurality of vendor names to a single normalized vendor name, wherein a key of the database is one of the plurality of vendor names and the respective value of the key is the single normalized vendor name, wherein the plurality of vendor names are obtained from the plurality of different communication protocols and the single normalized vendor name is used by the plurality of different communication protocols to refer to the monitored device;

determining, by the monitoring device using the determined vendor name, a normalized vendor name of the monitored device based on a mapping between the determined vendor name and normalized vendor names in the database, wherein the determined vendor name is used as a key for mapping; and

updating the monitoring device with the obtained information, wherein all the plurality of different communication protocols use the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device as an identifier of the monitored device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the normalized vendor name of the monitored device further comprises:

determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps individual names of the at least two companies to the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the normalized vendor name of the monitored device further comprises:

determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps a plurality of combinations of the names of the at least two companies to the normalized vendor name.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing, by the monitoring device, the monitored device using a second communication protocol of the plurality of different communication protocols to determine a vendor name of the monitored device corresponding to the second communication protocol,

wherein the vendor names obtained by the first and second of communication protocols differ in at least one of capitalization, spacing, punctuation, and hyphenation.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

accessing, by the monitoring device, the database that maps the determined vendor names obtained by the first and second communication protocols to the single normalized vendor name.

6. A computer program product having a computer readable medium for transforming a vendor name of a monitored device, comprising:

instructions for accessing, by a monitoring device, the monitored device using a first communication protocol, of a plurality of different communication protocols, to obtain information from the monitored device;

instructions for determining, by the monitoring device, a vendor name of the monitored device based on the information obtained from the monitored device to form a determined vendor name;

instructions for accessing, by the monitoring device, a database that maps a plurality of vendor names to a single normalized vendor name, wherein a key of the database is one of the plurality of vendor names and the respective value of the key is the single normalized vendor name, wherein the plurality of vendor names are obtained from the plurality of different communication protocols and the single normalized vendor name is used by tile plurality of different communication protocols to refer to the monitored device;

instructions for determining, by the monitoring device using the determined vendor name, a normalized vendor name of the monitored device based on a mapping between the determined vendor name and normalized vendor names in the database, wherein the determined vendor name is used as a key for mapping; and

instructions for updating the monitoring device with the obtained information, wherein all the plurality of different communication protocols use the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device as an identifier of the monitored device.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the instructions for determining the normalized vendor name comprises:

instructions for determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

instructions for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps individual names of the at least two companies to the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the instructions for determining the normalized vendor name comprises:

instructions for determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

instructions for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps a plurality of combinations of the names of the at least two companies to the normalized vendor name.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising:

instructions for accessing, by the monitoring device, the monitored device using a second communication protocol of the plurality of different communication protocols to determine a vendor name of the monitored device,

wherein the vendor names obtained by the first and second of communication protocols differ in at least one of capitalization, spacing, punctuation, and hyphenation.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

instructions for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database that maps the determined vendor names obtained by the first and second communication protocols to the single normalized vendor name.

11. A system for transforming a vendor name of a monitored device, comprising:

a processor; and

an application program, executed by the processor, wherein the executing application program comprises;

means for accessing, by a monitoring device, the monitored device using a first communication protocol, of a plurality of different communication protocols, to obtain information from the monitored device;

means for determining, by the monitoring device, a vendor name of the monitored device based on the information obtained from the monitored device to form a determined vendor name;

means for accessing, by the monitoring device, a database that maps a plurality of vendor names to a single normalized vendor name, wherein a key of the database is one of the plurality of vendor names and the respective value of the key is the single normalized vendor name, wherein the plurality of vendor names are obtained from the plurality of different communication potocols and the single normalized vendor name is used by the plurality of different communication protocols to refer to the monitored device;

means for determining, by the monitoring device using the determined vendor name, a normalized vendor name of the monitored device based on a mapping between the determined vendor name and normalized vendor names in the database, wherein the determined vendor name is used as a key for mapping; and

means for updating the monitoring device with the obtained information, wherein all the plurality of different communication protocols use the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device as an identifier of the monitored device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for determining the normalized vendor name further comprises:

means for determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

means for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps individual names of the at least two companies to the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for determining the normalized vendor name further comprises:

means for determining, by the monitoring device, that the determined normalized vendor name of the monitored device is a combination of names of at least two companies; and

means for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database, wherein the database maps a plurality of combinations of the names of the at least two companies to the normalized vendor name.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the executing application program further comprises:

means for accessing, by the monitoring device, the monitored device using a second communication protocol of the plurality of different communication protocols to determine a vendor name of the monitored device corresponding to the second communication protocol,

wherein the vendor names obtained by the first and second of communication protocols differ in at least one of capitalization, spacing, punctuation, and hyphenation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the executing application program further comprises:

means for accessing, by the monitoring device, the database that maps the determined vendor names obtained by the first and second communication protocols to the single normalized vendor name.