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:
Aug. 22, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 17, 1996
Robert Alan Flavin, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
Perwaiz Nihal, Fishkill, NY (US);
Geoffrey Hale Purdy, Roxbury, CT (US);
Norbert George Vogl, Mahopac, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
One or more novel switch controllers are used in a network of network devices to connect and disconnect to one another. The switch can be any general purpose computer that has one or more communication links that connect one or more outputs of the computer to one or more of the network devices. In the computer, the network is represented by a directed graph that has two or more nodes and one or more directional edges connecting one or more pairs of the nodes. Each node in the pair represents a device that is connected/disconnected (represented by the edge of the directed graph.) One or more commands are associated with each edge that is used to connect the network devices represented by the nodes that the edge connects. When connecting the connected source to the connected sink, the computer executes a routing process that searches the directed graph to find the nodes associated with both the connected source and the connected sink and a path between the connected source and the connected sink through the directed graph (network). The computer executes a connection process that traverses the path and performs each command associated with each of the edges along the path so that the network devices operate to form a connection between the connected source and the connected sink along the path.