3com Corporation

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Christopher Robert Linzell

Simon Peter Valentine

Lee Anthony Walker

Robert Duncan

David James Stevenson

Mark Douglas Cook

Russell Kennett Bulmer

Hamish Donald Stuart Martin

Paul J Moran

Iain Hogg

Andrew Hunter Gray

Andrew Peter White

Hamish D S Martin

Ronan François Daniel Grandin

Brendan Boulter

Richard J Artes

Peter Wai Lam

The topology of a computer network may be by the process of discovery in which each of the devices of the network is interrogated to thereby produce details of the network and its operation, preferably in the form of a network map which may be displayed on a visual display unit showing the devices and links between the devices. At its simplest, and where the device is a 'managed' device, this information is usually provided by interrogation using a known protocol, such as the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), of the so-called 'agent' of each device which stores the device's unique MAC address, the type of device and the MAC addresses embedded in the data passing into a particular port which thereby gives the MAC addresses of the origin of the data and hence the MAC address of the devices which are connected to the ports directly or indirectly. However, many devices are not SNMP enabled and so the discovery or interrogation of the network produces a result which indicates that these non SNMP enabled devices are displayed as 'generic' devices. There is described a device for use in a network, said device including information identifying the device, which information is made accessible during HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) authentication procedure.

Discovering non managed devices in a network such as a LAN using HTTP

A method and processing device for controlling the communication of data associated with a user on a networkis described, in which the communication of data to and from a user is controlled according to user profile information. In a preferred embodiment, the user profile information is maintained in a databaseaccessible to processing devicesproviding access to the network, and includes a volume allowance for a predetermined time period, a maximum transmission rate and current usage information for the user. Each time a user connects to the network, the method determines whether the user is within the volume allowance, and if so, permits access to the network. The communication of data is controlled according to the maximum transmission rate. The method may be implemented in software.

Method and apparatus for managing data traffic associated with a user on a network

A network management apparatus and method processes network management data received during the monitoring of a network and generates events for presentation in an event list to a user when certain event conditions are detected. Network management data received in relation to an event condition is processed to determine whether it represents a recurring event condition. A recurring event condition is determined if a predetermined number of equivalent events have been generated, and appear in the event list, in an immediately preceding time period. In the described embodiment, if a recurring event condition occurs, a recurring event is generated, and subsequent occurrences of the event condition are not included in the event list presented to the user.

Apparatus and method for processing data relating to events on a network

A network management apparatus and method for determining the topology of a networkis described. The present invention uses data relating to discovered devices on the networktypically network management address table data, to build a network tree. Due to the presence of unsupported or unmanaged connecting network devices, some branches of the resulting tree may not be resolved. In order to address this, for each unresolved branch of the network tree, the present invention attempts to determine the type of each of the discovered network devices on the branch, and if the type of every discovered network device on the branch is determined to be an endstation type, the present invention determines that an undiscovered connecting device is present on the branch.

Method and apparatus for determining unmanaged network devices in the topology of a network

A method and program for checking for misconfigurations and inefficiencies in the configuration of devices and links on a network. Information relating to the configuration of components on the network is stored in a database. The configuration information is accessed for each device, and interrogated for each port and its associated link and connected remote port. The interrogation determines whether the ports and links have matched configuration and whether they are running at optimum capability, such as at full duplex (both ends permitting), at maximum speed or with maximum numbers of ports assigned to a trunk.

Optimisation of network configuration

A method and apparatus for determining a time interval for periodically polling a device on a networkis described. The method determines the most restrictive link on the path to the network device, the level of restrictiveness of a link being dependent on the nature of the link, such as the link speed and link type. The time interval between polling is determined based on the nature of the most restrictive link. Thus, the time interval can be determined according to the type and speed of the links between the polling device, which in a preferred embodiment is a network management station, and the polled device on the network

Method and apparatus for determining a polling interval in a network management system

In a computer network, a process of discovery of the network, including discovery of network phones, and means for retrieving an icon relating to the phones and displaying a network map including network phones in the network map.

Display of phones on a map of a network

A network management apparatus and method reduces the number of events presented in an event list to a user. In particular, the apparatus and method reduces the number of events, which are generated during the monitoring of a network and may be due to rebooting of a device on the network, presented to the user by determining, upon receiving an event relating to a device, whether a more significant event already appears in the event list relating to the device, and if so, preventing the received event from being presented in the event list to the user.

Network management apparatus and method for processing events associated with device reboot

In a network of managed devices, a method of processing network events to reduce the number of events to be displayed in an event log, comprising receiving information relating to network events, passing information regarding a network event to an event processor, determining if the information passed to the event processor relates to a type of event processed by that event processor, and if it is of such a type, processing said information if information on a related event has already been received by that event processor. The method also includes passing said information on to a further event processor if the information received does not relate to a type of event processed by said first event processor. A set of event processors for carrying out the method is described together with a computer program, or a program on a computer readable medium loadable into a digital computer, or embodied in a carrier wave, which computer program operates in accordance with the method.

System using a series of event processors for processing network events to reduce number of events to be displayed

A technique for discovering the topology of a computer network and which relies on initially resolving the positions of end stations on the network and subsequently resolving the topology of remaining devices. This technique specifically involves querying a port of a managed device for a first address of any packet which it received; querying the same port for a second address of any other packet which the device received; if there is no such second packet, then returning data to a manager and determining if there is another port on the device; if there is such a second address, determining if there is another port on the device; repeating the preceding steps for the other port of the device; and if no such other port exists, repeating all the preceding steps for another managed device on the network.

Efficient method of deducing network topology including endstations

In a computer network, a process for discovering devices in the network, including network phones, and constructing a topological map of the network; and associated apparatus for retrieving an icon relating to the phones and displaying the map including the phones therein.

Discovery of phones on a network, such as a LAN

Graphically distinguishing a path between two points on a network

Use of remote poll to facilitate determining network topology

Network supervising apparatus comprising a store ( ), in use, storing information relating to the components ( ) of the network, the links ( ) between those components, and the type of each link, a visual display apparatus ( ) connectable with said store and including processor apparatus ( ) to convert the information in said store into a visual display on said visual display apparatus, the visual display representing the physical relationship between the components and the links of the network, said processor apparatus processing the signals to said visual display to visually distinguish at least some of said links according to type.

Graphical representation of the connections between network devices and their configuration

A network management apparatus is described which includes a port for connecting to a network for receiving management data from network devices on the network. The network management apparatus includes a processor for processing the received management data and for determining substantially a complete topology of the network and providing image data representative of the network topology. The apparatus further includes a display for receiving the image data and displaying a graphical representation of the network. The processor is adapted to process the received management data to obtain object data for each network object (i.e. device or link) on the network. The object data is provided to the display, for display in graphical form by means of an object tip or tool tip, when the user points to a predetermined part of the graphical representation of the corresponding network object on the display.

Growing community of inventors

St. Albans, United Kingdom

Christopher Robert Linzell