The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 12, 1993
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1991
Jeffrey Lomicka, Maynard, MA (US);
Willem Engelse, Townsend, MA (US);
Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA (US);
Abstract
Automatic tracking of the topology of an extended local area network by augmenting a station address list kept by a bridge with a list of repeater numbers and repeater port numbers. The bridge periodically iterates through its list of stations to select a station address. The selected address table is forwarded to all of the repeaters connected to the bridge. The repeaters watch for the selected address appearing as a source address in a message on one of their ports. If the address is seen, they report the repeater port number back to the bridge. Because the repeaters are interconnected such that a predetermined port number is always used as the common port between repeaters, any possible ambiguities are eliminated.