Using syslog and SNMP for scalable monitoring of networked devices

• US 8,604,910 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Champagne, Luna
• Application Number:
  US11/304,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20060091999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,919 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• 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 by a network device each one of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon detection of the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers by the corresponding one of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein instructing is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein sending a command includes sending one or more command packets, wherein the command specifies the one or more triggers;

receiving by the network device a message transmitted from each of one or more of the plurality of RFID devices, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) of a transmitting RFID device and a time stamp of the transmitting RFID device; and

processing by the network device the messages according to a first rule set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more triggers for transmitting a message comprises the passage of a predetermined time interval, thereby instructing each of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message upon the occurrence of the predetermined time interval until additional instructions are received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more triggers comprises the passage of a first time interval.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein status information included in the message consists of device status change information of the transmitting RFID device.

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

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

11. 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.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is in one of a plurality of predetermined message formats, and wherein instructing includes specifying one of the plurality of predetermined message formats via which to transmit the message, wherein the message formats include a heartbeat format, a status message format, a partial statistics format and a full statistics format.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising instructing the transmitting RFID device that transmitted the message to transmit subsequent messages to the second destination.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising validating the message according to the authentication information.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is in one of a plurality of predetermined message formats, and wherein instructing includes specifying one of the plurality of predetermined message formats via which to transmit the message, wherein instructing each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers comprises;

instructing one of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message conforming to one of the plurality of predetermined message formats; and

instructing a second one of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message conforming to one of the plurality of predetermined message formats.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers comprises;

instructing one of the plurality of RFID devices to set one or more triggers including the passage of a first time interval; and

instructing a second one of the plurality of RFID devices to set one or more triggers including the passage of a second time interval.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers comprises;

instructing a first one of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message upon the occurrence of a first set of one or more triggers, wherein instructing includes specifying the first set of one or more triggers; and

instructing a second one of the plurality of RFID devices to transmit a message upon the occurrence of a second set of one or more triggers, wherein instructing includes specifying the second set of one or more triggers.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more triggers comprises a predetermined change of at least one criterion.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein a type of the message that is transmitted corresponds to a type of a corresponding one of the set of one or more triggers.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the first set of one or more triggers includes a passage of a first time period, and wherein the second set of one or more triggers includes a passage of a second time period.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein instructing is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices during a provisioning or reprovisioning process.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is in one of a plurality of predetermined message formats, and wherein instructing includes specifying one of the plurality of predetermined message formats via which to transmit the message.

15. 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 one of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon detection by the one of the plurality of RFID devices of the occurrence of at least one of the one or more triggers such that the message is transmitted, wherein instructing is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein sending a command includes sending one or more command packets, wherein the command specifies the one or more triggers;

receive a message transmitted from each of one or more of the plurality of RFID devices, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) of a transmitting RFID device and a time stamp of the transmitting RFID device; and

process the messages according to a first rule set.

16. 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, each of the messages comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

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

means for instructing each one of a plurality of RFID devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message to a first server upon detection by the one of the plurality of RFID devices of the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers such that the message is transmitted, wherein instructing is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein sending a command includes sending one or more command packets, wherein the command specifies the one or more triggers.

17. The RFID network of claim 16, wherein the first server is further configured to determine whether a message indicates a potentially abnormal condition.

18. The RFID network of claim 17, 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.

31. The RFID network of claim 16, wherein the message is in one of a plurality of predetermined message formats, and wherein instructing includes specifying one of the plurality of predetermined message formats via which to transmit the message.

19. A network device, comprising:

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

RFID”

) devices, each one of the plurality of RFID devices being configured to transmit a message upon detection by the one of the plurality of RFID devices of the occurrence of at least one of a corresponding set of one or more triggers, wherein each of the RFID devices has received the corresponding set of one or more triggers during provisioning of the RFID devices, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) of a transmitting RFID device, a time stamp provided by the transmitting RFID device, and device status change information associated with the transmitting RFID device, wherein the provisioning of the RFID devices is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein sending the command includes sending one or more command packets, wherein the command specifies the one or more triggers; and

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

determine a message format of a message from an RFID device, the message format being one of a plurality of message formats;

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 at least one of the corresponding set of one or more triggers.

20. The network device of claim 19, 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 at least one of the corresponding set of one or more triggers.

21. The network device of claim 19, wherein the message is formatted in conformity with the Simple Network Management Protocol.

22. The network device of claim 20, wherein the logic device is further configured to instruct the RFID device to provide the additional information to another network device.

32. An apparatus for determining the status of a device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being configured for;

instructing by a network device each one of a plurality of radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

) devices to set one or more triggers for transmitting a message and to transmit a message upon detection of the occurrence of at least one of the set of one or more triggers by the corresponding one of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein instructing is performed by sending a command to each of the plurality of RFID devices, wherein sending a command includes sending one or more command packets, wherein the one or more triggers are specified in the command;

receiving by the network device a message transmitted from each of one or more of the plurality of RFID devices, the message comprising an Electronic Product Code (“

EPC”

) of a transmitting RFID device and a time stamp of the transmitting RFID device; and

processing by the network device the messages according to a first rule set.