Cabletron Systems, Inc.

Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Aprisma Management Technologies, Inc.

Eric S Rustici

Walter P Scott

Roger H Dev

Lundy M Lewis

Rajiv Malik

Steve Sycamore

Prasan Kaikini

Suzanne Thebaut

Eric W Gray

Ajay Aggarwal

Dwayne S Wiggin

Howard M Brown

Dale H Emery

Oliver C Ibe

Richard W Bolling

Todd Wohlers

David F Shannon

Wallace E Matthews

Louis P Tychonievich

Geoffrey E Margrave

Deborah A Rhodes

Tim Newhouse

Kelly H Carter

Henry Goldstein

Andrew Haskins

Bill McKinnon

David Bucciero

Apparatus and process for consolidating the visual representation of objects into a &ldquo;rollup&rdquo; visual representation. A set of objects defined in an N-dimensional space and a perspective viewpoint are obtained or pre-defined. Each object in the set is then represented by a new rollup object and each new rollup object is compared with any pre-existing rollup objects to determine if it is &ldquo;near enough&rdquo; to any pre-existing rollup object to be consolidated with the pre-existing object. If so, they are consolidated and the new rollup object is removed. The &ldquo;near-enough&rdquo; determination may be made based upon a threshold minimum area of occlusion between the two rollup objects, a threshold minimum pixel distance, or a threshold minimum spatial distance between the two rollup objects. In a preferred embodiment, the rollup objects represent managed network entities (devices and/or applications) in a computer network and the rollup process provides a convenient way to consolidate information regarding a plurality of managed network entities into a subset of rollup entities which visually represent a simplified network, within a network management software application.

Method and apparatus for representing objects as visually discernable entities based on spatial definition and perspective

Method and apparatus for determining an enforceable policy applicable to one or more network devices. The method includes attaching one or more rule elements to one or more domain elements to create policies, the domain elements representing network devices and groups of network devices, and the rule elements defining actions, a method for determining whether a conflict exists between the polices, and a method for resolving the conflicts to produce one or more enforceable policies.

Policy management and conflict resolution in computer networks

A network management system includes a user interface, a virtual network and a device communication manager. The virtual network includes models which represent network entities and model relations which represent relations between network entities. Each model includes network data relating to a corresponding network entity and one or more inference handlers for processing the network data to provide user information. The system performs a fault isolation technique wherein the fault status of a network device is suppressed when it is determined that the device is not defective. User displays include hierarchical location views and topological views of the network configuration. Network devices are represented on the displays by multifunction icons which permit the user to select additional displays showing detailed information regarding different aspects of the corresponding network device.

Network management system using model-based intelligence

Apparatus and method for monitoring parameters that govern the operational characteristics of a network device, including the use of templates for generating configuration records of network devices of a selected model type. A database of models is provided, each model representing an associated network device and including attribute values for the parameters of the associated network device. Templates are used to screen a model in order to retrieve values for each of the attributes and create a configuration record. The configuration records may be stored in the configuration manager or other storage device, and/or transferred to the pre-existing model database for use by a network management system in reconfiguring the associated network devices. Additionally, a method and apparatus is provided that defines network groups, defines network policies for groups, determines conflicts, and resolves conflicts among groups and devices. This system for configuration management is less time consuming, expensive, and error prone than prior systems.

Method and apparatus for defining and enforcing policies for configuration management in communications networks

Method and apparatus for defining and enforcing policies for

Method and apparatus for determining a communications path between a source and a destination in an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The method determines a path list of next-hop routers between the source and destination by selecting between a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) query of a current router on the path, and by sending a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) probe packet having a destination field with a destination IP address and a Time-to-Live (TTL) field with a value of one greater than the number of hops to the current router. The steps are iterated until the next router is determined to be the destination. Preferably, the UDP probe packets are loose-source routed through the source. In addition, a topology information database may be accessed to resolve an unknown router, and/or resolve intrarouter devices on the path.

Method and apparatus for determining a communications path between two

Network management system using status suppression to isolate network

Network management system using interconnected hierarchies to represent

A network management system includes a user interface, a virtual network and a device communication manager. The virtual network includes models which represent network entities and model relations which represent relations between network entities. Each model includes network data relating to a corresponding network device and one or more inference handlers for processing the network data to provide user information. The system performs a fault isolation technique wherein the fault status of a network device is suppressed when it is determined that the device is not defective. User displays include hierarchical location views and topological views of the network configuration. Network devices are represented on the displays by multifunction icons which permit the user to select additional displays showing detailed information regarding different aspects of the corresponding network device.

Network management system using multifunction icons for information

A document generation system which employs a definition-based expert system and an editor to produce an output document from a template document and expert system responses. The knowledge base of the expert system consists of a hierarchy of terms and their definitions. To produce an expert response, an inference engine component of the expert system evaluates a term by evaluating all of the definitions for the terms which are in that term's hierarchy of definitions. In the document generation system, the terms include fragment terms which are defined as portions of the template document.

Document generation apparatus and methods

A definition-based expert system and expert system shell. The expert system shell creates a knowledge base consisting of terms and their definitions, the definitions making up a hierarchy of definitions in which each definition depends only on terms defined at lower levels in the hierarchy or on term-independent values. Expert responses are obtained from the system by evaluating the terms. When a term is evaluated, all of the term-independent values and the values of all of the terms in its definition are obtained. The definitions include operators specifying operations which are to be performed when the defined term is evaluated. The operators include causing other systems operable in the digital computer system in which the expert system is operating to operate. The definitions further include table operators. Base table operators define terms representing tables and columns in the tables and permit loading of the tables. Query table operators define terms representing tables defined from base tables or other query tables. Column operators permit operations involving all of the fields of a column. The expert system is further able to respond to 'don't know' values in a fashion which depends on the significance of the 'don' t know' value for the definition of the term.

Expert system with knowledge base having term definition hierarchy

A computer system in which multiple processes may run concurrently includes a window manager for displaying windows associated with different processes. One of the processes represented by a window may be designated as active. Keystrokes are translated by a keyboard driver to events represented by keycodes. The keycodes are routed to processes with which they are associated by reference to a routing table. Unless otherwise indicated, a keycode is routed to the active process. Where a keycode is associated with and transferred to the window manager, subsequent keycodes are stored in a typeahead buffer. The window manager may modify the routing table. After completion of the window manager operation, all keycodes remaining in the buffer are routed to their associated processes as determined by the modified routing table.

Method for routing events from key strokes in a multi-processing

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Londonderry, NH, United States of America

Eric S Rustici