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:
Mar. 05, 1996
Filed:
Jun. 20, 1994
Warren D Bailey, Pittsboro, NC (US);
Erik L Dixon, Durham, NC (US);
Michele M Ferris, Cary, NC (US);
Henry M Garrett, Raleigh, NC (US);
Gregory F Paussa, Cary, NC (US);
Anthony D Walker, Durham, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system (such as a multiprotocol LAN adapter) for use in a workstation or other processing machine automatically determines the type of network to which the workstation is connected and for automatically determines the type of physical medium to which the workstation is attached. The system has a plurality of different physical ports for supporting various available physical media over which network data may be transmitted. For example, the system may have a port for connecting to shielded twisted pair (STP) wiring, a port for connecting to unshielded twisted pair (UTP) wiring, a port for connecting to coaxial cable, and a port for supporting the Attachment Unit Interface (AUI). Connected to each of these physical ports are various network interface devices for supporting the various available networking protocols, e.g., token ring, Ethernet, etc. Logic circuitry and control software are connected to the network interface devices. In order to determine the valid network connections to the individual ports, a short interrogation frame is successively transmitted by each of the network interface devices to each of the ports. Depending upon the status of each transmission, the system determines what type of network (if any) is connected to and by which type of physical medium. Based upon these two determinations, the workstation can be automatically configured without user intervention.