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:
Feb. 09, 1993
Filed:
May. 03, 1990
Jeff C Wu, Ft. Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a computer network node discovery system that provides a general way of discovering network elements, or nodes, connected to a computer network, and a specific algorithm for discovering nodes connected to a TCP/IP network, using the SNMP protocol available within the TCP/IP network software. Some nodes on a network, called discovery agents, can convey knowledge of the existence of other nodes on the network. The network discovery system queries these agents and obtains the information they have about other nodes on the network. It then queries each of the nodes obtained to determine if that node is also a discovery agent. In this manner, most of the nodes on a network can be discovered. The process of querying discovery agents to obtain a list of nodes known to the discovery agents is repeated at timed intervals to obtain information about nodes that are not always active. In a TCP/IP network, discovery agents are nodes that respond to queries for an address translation table which translates internet protocol (IP) addresses to physical addresses. The data from each node's address translation table is used to obtain both the IP and the physical address of other nodes on the network. These nodes are then queried to obtain additional information. After all the nodes on a network are discovered, the list of nodes is written to a database where it can be displayed by the network manager or other users of the network.