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:
Jul. 31, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 22, 1998
Daniel G. Douglas, San Jose, CA (US);
Thomas E. Guinane, Sr., Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Vinh-Thuan Nguyen-Phuc, San Jose, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for automatic discovery and registration of available agents on a distributed network using universally accepted protocols is disclosed. In particular, the present invention takes advantage of the situation that TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) are open protocols that have been widely accepted for a variety of applications including the immensely popular and universal Internet as well as intranets. Many devices and/or services from various vendors now conform to TCP/IP and provide an HTTP (web) server with their devices and/or services. The present invention provides a method that generates a list of addresses from a set of given criteria identifying the possible addresses for the available agents, detects for the availability of agents at those addresses, and receives and compiles the returned information (if any) from the agents at the respective addresses.