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. 13, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 16, 1998
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method whereby local area network (LAN) multicast traffic flows are defined and set up by the network management system (NMS). Network efficiency is maximized and performance degradation of the network and workstations connected thereto is reduced. The method utilizes standard 802.1D bridging infrastructure built into conventional level 2 network switching devices to permit a administrator to define a multicast flow, otherwise known as a virtual LAN (VLAN) or a 'Session VLAN,' as a multicast application that can be mapped to a multicast MAC address. The multicast MAC address is then utilized in the transmission of the multicast messages. The NMS declares a session VLAN across all the level 2 devices in the network utilizing standard SNMP and members of the session VLAN can be added and removed. Each device then translates the SNMP requests to an operation on its standard 802.1D static addresses.