Using syslog and SNMP for scalable monitoring of networked devices

• US 20060091999A1
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Howarth, Arthur G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,604,910 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13095 PIN / Access code, authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 5/22 the subordinate centre not permitting interconnection of subscribers connected thereto

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided for determining the status of a networked device. Messages from such devices may include information indicating the health, accuracy and/or reliability of a device and/or of the network that includes the device. Multiple message formats may be supported, e.g., heartbeat only, partial statistics, full statistics, etc. Transmission of such messages may be triggered by the occurrence of various conditions, such as the passage of a predetermined time interval, a predetermined change in one or more criteria, etc. In some implementations, a time-based message throttle establishes a minimum time interval between messages. Messages may be created in a format that is compatible with SNMP. Messages may be transmitted in more than one packet, if necessary. Messages may be sent to one or more devices, e.g., to one or more servers, according to various criteria.

Claims

1. A method of determining the status of a device, the method comprising:

instructing each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least a first condition, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) and a time stamp of a transmitting RFID device;

receiving messages transmitted from the RFID devices; and

processing the messages according to a first rule set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first condition comprises a predetermined change of at least one criterion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first condition comprises the passage of a first time interval.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages are in one of a plurality of predetermined message formats.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein status information included in a message consists of device status change information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a message comprises a plurality of packets.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of RFID devices is configured to transmit a message to one of a plurality of servers depending upon a second rule set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing step comprises:

determining that a message indicates a potentially abnormal condition; and

routing the message to a second destination for diagnosis of the potentially abnormal condition.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a message comprises at least one of the following:

information regarding utilization of the transmitting RFID device;

information regarding a radio frequency interface of the transmitting RFID device;

information specified by a vendor of the transmitting RFID device;

information regarding a local area network that includes the transmitting RFID device; and

information regarding Internet Protocol packet statistics.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message further comprises encrypted authentication information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is formatted in a manner consistent with the Simple Network Management Protocol.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of RFID devices is configured with a time-based message throttle that sets a minimum time interval for message transmissions from the RFID device.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the message formats include a heartbeat format, a status message format, a partial statistics format and a full statistics format.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising instructing the RFID device that transmitted the message to transmit subsequent messages to the second destination.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising validating the message according to the authentication information.

16. A computer program embodied in a machine-readable medium, the computer program including instructions for controlling at least one device in a network to perform the following steps:

instruct each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least a first condition, the first condition comprising a predetermined minimum change of at least one criterion, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) and a time stamp of a transmitting RFID device;

receive messages transmitted from the RFID devices; and

process the messages according to a first rule set.

17. A radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) network, comprising;

a plurality of RFID devices;

a first server configured to receive messages transmitted from the RFID devices and for processing the messages according to a first rule set; and

means for instructing each of a plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message to a first server upon the occurrence of at least a first condition, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) a time stamp of a transmitting RFID device and device status change information.

18. The RFID network of claim 17, wherein the first server is further configured to determine whether a message indicates a potentially abnormal condition.

19. The RFID network of claim 18, further comprising a second server, wherein the first server is further configured to route a message indicating a potentially abnormal condition to the second server and wherein the second server is configured to evaluate potentially abnormal conditions according to a second rule set.

20. A network device, comprising:

a plurality of interfaces configured for communication with a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices, the RFID devices configured to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least a first condition, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

), a time stamp of a transmitting RFID device, version information and device status change information; and

at least one logic device configured to perform the following steps;

determine a message format of a message from an RFID device;

parse the message according to the determined message format; and

determine whether the message includes sufficient information to determine a reason for the occurrence of the first condition.

21. The network device of claim 20, wherein the logic device is further configured to instruct the RFID device to provide additional information when the logic device determines that the message does not include sufficient information to determine a reason for the occurrence of the first condition.

22. The network device of claim 20, wherein the message is formatted in conformity with the Simple Network Management Protocol.

23. The network device of claim 21, wherein the logic device is further configured to instruct the RFID device to provide the additional information to another network device.