International Business Machines Corporation

Bret Elliott Harrison

Leo Temoshenko

William Donald Reed

Charles Steven Lingafelt

Brett G King

Rajendran Rajan

Timothy James Smith

Aaron J Tarter

Sanjay Damodar Kamat

Walter Cade Metz

Earl Hardin Booth

David E Taber

Charles Bruce Dillon

A mediation server assigns customized 'plug-ins' to particular network access servers (NAS) that allow a service provider application to use a single interface to communicate with multiple types of NASs. Vendor specific details of NAS transaction processing are hidden in the customized plug-ins implementations in which a service provider application has no knowledge of such transaction processing information. The mediation server extracts a user identifier from a call request, and uses the user identifier to select a mediation handler plug-in. The mediation server then uses the mediation handler plug-in to communicate with a particular NAS. In addition, a RADIUS server uses a NAS identifier to assign a RADIUS handler plug-in to a NAS session, and uses the assigned RADIUS handler plug-in to communicate with the NAS.

Multi-vendor mediation for subscription services

A method, apparatus, computer product and structure is presented for representing and managing large amounts of information concerning networks of elements. While being useful for communication networks, it can be also usefully deployed in the context of other networks such as distribution and transportation networks. The method uses a hierarchical construct called 'catalog'&#x2014;a set of elements (which could be 'atomic' elements or catalogs themselves)&#x2014;to organize information about physical or abstract entities relevant for modeling the network. A matrix construct whose rows and columns constitute such elements are used to model connections at different levels of abstraction. A common framework and representation provided using these two constructs is shown to be useful for visualization, administration, configuration, modeling, monitoring and manipulation of the network.

Representing, configuring, administering, monitoring, and/or modeling connections using catalogs and matrixes

A system and method for DEN/LDAP client database access with backoff capability. A current tree of directory information maintained at an LDAP server is used by LDAP clients to retrieve policy configuration information. When an LDAP client wishes to update policy configuration information, a new tree is created by cloning the current or a previous tree or by building a new tree. When the LDAP client is finished updating the new tree, the path for using LDAP clients is set to the new tree and the clients are requested to read LDAP policy configuration information using the new path. If the new tree of policy configuration information is found to be unsuitable, the clients' path is reset to the original tree and the clients are requested to read LDAP information policies using the reset path.

System and method for DEN/LDAP client database access with a backoff capability

A system, method and program product for defining a Virtual Private Network (VPN) by the sum of a plurality of policy segments. Each policy segment is composed of a policy segment name, a policy segment type, a VPN device list, a policy template, a quality of service template and a connection type. The policy segment type can include Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), Differential Services (DiffServ) or Reservation Protocol (RSVP). The group of devices in a policy segment are it specified in a device list which is a collection of other device lists and/or device interface profiles. The group of common policy components are specified in a policy template. Policy templates contain the condition and action references that are used to generate policies for the policy segment. The condition reference includes a validity period and a traffic profile. The action reference includes at least one of an IPsec action, a DiffServ action or an RSVP action. The device list, connection type, and policy template are combined to generate all of the policies for a policy segment.

System and method for generation VPN network policies

A system and method for a multiple manager to multiple server Internet Protocol (IP) locking application in a directory-enabled network. The IP locking application is a component of a network management application and runs on each server device. The IP locking application processes requests from a network management application on two user-defined TCP/IP port numbers. The first port is designated as the status port and can be accessed by multiple network management applications and/or multiple users to determine the identification of the network management application and/or user that has control of the second port which is designated as the lock port. The status port is used to determine whether or not the server directory is currently being updated by another network management application or user. The lock port is used to actually lock the server device by forming a connection to the port and passing the user and network management application identifiers of the lock requester. Since the lock port is a TCP/IP port, only one connection can be active at a given time. The lock is normally released by disconnecting from the port.

Growing community of inventors

Clayton, NC, United States of America

Bret Elliott Harrison