Method and system for a set of network appliances which can be connected to provide enhanced collaboration, scalability, and reliability

• US 7,529,838 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2006
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: American Power Conversion Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: American Power Conversion Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Faulkner, Gary, Primm, Michael, Fowler, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US11/548,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20070220141A1
• Time in Patent Office: 937 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The invention is directed to a network-enabled appliance. The appliance may aid the remote monitoring of various measured data. The device may monitor a variable or set of variables and output the data upon request. In addition, the appliance may issue alarms, alerts, warning and other notifications when a variable matches a setpoint or undergoes a specified change, deviation, and/or fluctuation. Further the appliance may be operable to communicate with other appliances. The communication may comprise periodic pinging of peer appliances. In this manner, a peer appliance may detect a failure in other network-enabled appliances when an anticipated ping is not received. Further, the communication may enable the establishment of a directory of capabilities of various appliances. In this manner, a group of appliances may perform more complex behaviors by grouping resources. Further, a group of appliances may act to reestablish the behavior of a failed device.

Claims

1. A method of peer-to-peer review between first and second network appliances, the first and second network appliances being connected to an interconnected network, the method comprising:

determining the address of the second network appliance using the first network appliance, the address of the second network appliance being associated with the interconnected network;

sending a ping message to the second network appliance from the first network appliance through the interconnected network;

selectively responding to the ping message from the first network appliance using the second network appliance;

establishing a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages based at least in part on information provided to the first network appliance by the second network appliance; and

sending subsequent ping messages from the first network appliance to the second network appliance through the interconnected network at time intervals based at least in part on the established periodicity,

wherein selectively responding to the ping message includes determining that the second network appliance has adequate resources to establish a peer-to-peer review process.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein sending the ping message comprises performing an HTTP POST method.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein sending the ping message comprises performing an FTP method.

4. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising sending a notification message in the event that an expected periodic ping is not received.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the notification message is sent to a remote location.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the notification message is sent to another network appliance connected to the interconnected network.

7. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

determine an address of a second network appliance using a first network appliance, the address of the second network appliance being associated with an interconnected network;

send a ping message to the second network appliance from the first network appliance through the interconnected network;

selectively respond, as a function of a number of active peer-to-peer review relationships in which the second network appliance is engaged, to the ping message from the first network appliance using the second network appliance;

establish a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages based at least in part on information provided to the first network appliance by the second network appliance; and

send subsequent ping messages from the first network appliance to the second network appliance through the interconnected network at time intervals based at least in part on the established periodicity.

8. A network appliance configured to operate in a peer-to-peer review relationship, the network appliance comprising:

a processor;

a network interface coupled to the processor, the network interface connected to an interconnected network; and

a storage medium coupled to the processor, the storage medium including an instruction set for implementing a peer-to-peer review relationship with at least one other network appliance, the instruction set including instructions that will to cause the processor to;

determine an address of the at least one other network appliance, the address of the at least one other network appliance being associated with the interconnect network;

send a ping message to the at least one other network appliance through the interconnected network;

establish a periodicity between the sending of subsequent periodic ping messages based at least in part on information provided by the at least one other network appliance; and

send subsequent periodic ping messages to the at least one other network appliance through the interconnected network at time intervals based at least in part on the establish periodicity,

wherein the information provided by the at least one other network appliance includes a number of active peer-to-peer review relationships in which the at least one other network appliance is engaged.

9. The network appliance according to claim 8, wherein the instructions will cause the processor to send the ping message using an HTTP POST method.

10. The network appliance according to claim 8, wherein the instructions will cause the processor to send the ping message using an FTP method.

11. The network appliance according to claim 8, wherein the processor is a Java-based processor.

12. The network appliance according to claim 8, wherein the network appliance further comprises at least one sensor coupled to the processor.

13. The network appliance according to claim 12, wherein the storage medium further comprises at least one threshold associated with at least one variable measured by the at least one sensor.

14. The network appliance according to claim 13, wherein the storage medium further comprises an instruction set that will cause the processor to send a notification in response to the at least one threshold being met by the at least one variable measured by the at least one sensor.

15. A cluster of network appliances comprising:

a plurality of network appliances being grouped according to a characteristic, each of the plurality of network appliances being connected to an interconnected network, at least one first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances being operable to communicate with a remote system,

wherein each network appliance of the plurality of network appliances is operable to establish at least one peer-to-peer review relationship with at least one other network appliance of the plurality of network appliances, the at least one peer-to-peer relationship being based at least in part on a number of active peer-to-peer relationships in which the at least one other network appliance is engaged, and

wherein the plurality of network appliances is operable to act as a logical entity.

16. The cluster according to claim 15, wherein the characteristic is at least one of location, responsible user, purpose, network region or responsible party.

17. The cluster according to claim 15, wherein the at least one first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances acts as an intermediary between the remote system and the plurality of network appliances.

18. The cluster according to claim 17, further comprising:

a second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances, the second network appliance being coupled to a sensor and engaged in a peer-to-peer review relationship with the first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances;

a third network appliance of the plurality of network appliances, the third network appliance being coupled to the sensor and engaged in a peer-to-peer review relationship with the first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances,

wherein the first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances is configured to gather sensor information from the sensor by requesting the sensor information from the third network appliance of the plurality of network appliances in the event that the second network appliance fails.

19. The cluster according to claim 17, further comprising at least one second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances, the at least one second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances being operable to communicate with the remote system and engaged in a peer-to-peer review relationship with the at least one first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances.

20. The cluster according to claim 18, wherein the at least one second network appliance of the plurality of network appliances assumes a network address of the at least one first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances in the event that the at least one first network appliance of the plurality of network appliances fails.