NETWORK DEVICE CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT BY PHYSICAL LOCATION

• US 20100205281A1
• Filed: 02/12/2009
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Dolkas, Gregory D., Porter, Richard H., Fidler, Mark W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,172,612 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 Reducing energy consumption in communication networks

Abstract

A method of managing a network including maintaining a database of network configuration profiles, each network configuration profile corresponding to a network device type and a physical location relative to the network, determining with a network device a physical location of the network device relative to the network upon the network device being initially connected to the network, the network device being of a network device type, and determining a network configuration profile with which to configure the network device from the database based on the physical location and the network device type of the network device.

Claims

1. A method of managing a computer network, the method comprising:

maintaining a database of network configuration profiles, each network configuration profile corresponding to a network device type and a physical location relative to the network;

determining with a network device a physical location of the network device relative to the network upon initial connection of the network device to the network, the network device being of a network device type; and

determining a network configuration profile with which to configure the network device from the database based on the physical location and the network device type of the network device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a physical location includes determining a physical point of connection of the network device to the network.

3. The method of claim 2, including the network device communicating with the network using a vendor neutral protocol to determine its point of connection to the network.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the vendor neutral protocol comprises Link-Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a physical location includes determining geographic location of the network device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the geographic location comprises coordinates obtained using a global positioning system receiver integral to the network device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the geographic location comprises coordinates obtained using triangulation of radio signals from wireless access points or other radio-wave transmitting devices;

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the geographic location comprises using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) receiver integral to the receiver to identify the presence of an RFID tag disposed at a known location relative to the network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device comprises a network infrastructure device.

10. A network infrastructure device comprising:

a device data module including, stored therein, data indicative of the network device type of which the network infrastructure device consists; and

a locator module, upon initial connection of the network infrastructure device to network, configured to determine a physical location of the network infrastructure device relative to the network, and to store data representative of the determined physical location in the device data module.

11. The network infrastructure device of claim 10, wherein the device data module comprises a management information base (MIB).

12. The network infrastructure device of claim 10, wherein the locator module is configured to communicate with the network and determine a physical location of the network infrastructure device relative to the network by determining a physical point of connection of the network infrastructure device to the network.

13. The network infrastructure device of claim 12, wherein the locator module is configured to communicate with the network using a vendor-neutral protocol.

14. The network infrastructure device of claim 13, wherein the vendor-neutral protocol comprises Link-Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).

15. The network infrastructure device of claim 10, wherein the locator module is configured to determine the physical location of the network infrastructure device relative to the network by determining a geographic location of the network infrastructure device.

16. The network infrastructure device of claim 15, wherein the locator module includes a global positioning system receiver to determine geographic coordinates of the network infrastructure device.

17. The network infrastructure device of claim 15, wherein the locator module includes a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) receiver to identify the presence of an RFID tag disposed at a known location relative to the network.

18. The network infrastructure device of claim 10, wherein the network infrastructure device comprises a device selected from a group consisting of a switch, a router, a hub, a wireless access point, a gateway device, a bridge, a repeater, a firewall, a multiplexer, a modem, a line driver, a bridge router, a multilayer switch, and a protocol converter.

19. A configuration management server for a network comprising:

a configuration profile database, a network map module, and a policy store each residing in a memory, the configuration profile database including a plurality of network configuration profiles, each network configuration profile corresponding to a network device type and a physical location relative to the network, the network map module including data mapping a plurality of physical locations relative to the network, and the policy module including a plurality of configuration rules; and

a policy module configured to receive device data from a network device newly connected to the network, the device data being indicative of the network device type and of a physical location relative to the network of the newly connected network device, and configured to determine a network configuration profile from the configuration profile database with which to configure the newly connected network device by applying the configuration rules and network map module data to the device data.

20. The configuration management server of claim 19, wherein the policy manager resides in the memory.