Patent US6131117A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US6131117A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Technique for correlating logical names with IP addresses on internetworking platforms
Assignee: Cisco Technology Inc
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Filing: 1997-12-29
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Granted: 2000-10-10
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Expires: 2017-12-29
Abstract
Abstract Heterogeneous resources of an integrated network environment are managed from a single network management station by correlating information pertaining to those resources. The integrated network environment generally comprises SNA and NetBIOS entities coupled to IP routers. Address information pertaining to selected IP routers and SNA entities are acquired by the routers through a series of SNA message flows. Similarly, a series of NetBIOS message flows among those IP routers coupled to the NetBIOS entities result in the acquisition of IP and NetBIOS address information of these resources at the routers. This information is used to create an IP-centric map of the network. In addition, the SNMP agents provide name information pertaining to the SNA-specific and NetBIOS-specific resources to the console using an SNMP protocol. The name information are overlaid on the map to facilitate monitoring of those specific resources by the SNMP tool.
Inventors
- 👤 Wayne Clark
- 👤 Ravi Periasamy
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-02 16:12
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L41/00; H04L41/02; H04L41/0213; H04L41/04; H04L41/046; H04L41/12; H04L61/00; H04L61/35
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim
246 words
A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of first message flows among the first group of routers and first protocol-specific resources; acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of second message flows among the second group of routers and the second protocol-specific resources; transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers, the first address information used to generate an application-centric map of the network specifying information pertaining to routers; transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers; and overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
246 words
A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of first message flows among the first group of routers and first protocol-specific resources; acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of second message flows among the second group of routers and the second protocol-specific resources; transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers, the first address information used to generate an application-centric map of the network specifying information pertaining to routers; transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers; and overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the routers are Internet Protocol (IP) routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) tool configured to generate an IP-centric map specifying topology information.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 2 wherein the first protocol-specific resources are System Network Architecture (SNA) entities and wherein the series of first message flows comprises SNA message flows.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 3 wherein the first address information acquired through the SNA message flows comprises IP addresses of the first group of IP routers along with control point (CP) names of the SNA entities.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of loading the first address information into first management information blocks (MIBs) stored at the first group of IP routers.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 5 wherein wherein the second protocol-specific resources are NetBIOS entities and wherein the series of second message flows comprises NetBIOS message flows.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
34 words
The method of claim 6 wherein the second address information acquired through the NetBIOS message flows comprises IP addresses of the second group of IP routers along with NetBIOS names of the NetBIOS entities.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of loading the second address information into second MIBs stored at the second group of IP routers.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 8 wherein the step of transferring the first address information comprises the step of transferring the IP addresses and CP names stored in the first MIBs to the management station in accordance with the SNMP tool.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 9 wherein the step of transferring the second address information comprises the step of transferring the IP addresses and NetBIOS names stored in the second MIBs to the management station in accordance with the SNMP tool.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
211 words
A system for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the system comprising: means for acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers; means for acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers; means for transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers; means for transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers; an application tool executing on the network management station for generating an application-centric map of the network using the first address information; and means for correlating the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol-specific resources at the network management station to enable management of the network heterogeneous resources from the management station.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
211 words
A system for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the system comprising: means for acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers; means for acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers; means for transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers; means for transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers; an application tool executing on the network management station for generating an application-centric map of the network using the first address information; and means for correlating the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol-specific resources at the network management station to enable management of the network heterogeneous resources from the management station.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 11 wherein the means for acquiring first address information comprises a series of first message flows among the first group of routers and first protocol-specific resources.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
32 words
The system of claim 12 wherein the means for acquiring the second address information comprises a series of second message flows among the second group of routers and the second protocol-specific resources.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
35 words
The system of claim 13 wherein the routers are Internet Protocol (IP) routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) tool configured to generate an IP-centric map specifying topology information.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
28 words
The system of claim 14 wherein the routers include SNMP agents that are queried by the network management station using a SNMP protocol to create the application-centric map.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
28 words
The system of claim 15 wherein the first protocol-specific resources are System Network Architecture (SNA) entities and wherein the series of first message flows comprises SNA message flows.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
25 words
The system of claim 16 wherein the second protocol-specific resources are NetBIOS entities and wherein the series of second message flows comprises NetBIOS message flows.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
36 words
The system of claim 17 wherein the first address information acquired through the SNA message flows comprises IP addresses of the first group of IP routers along with control point (CP) names of the SNA entities.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
34 words
The system of claim 18 wherein the second address information acquired through the NetBIOS message flows comprises IP addresses of the second group of IP routers along with NetBIOS names of the NetBIOS entities.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 19 further comprising management information blocks (MIBs) stored at the routers for storing the first and second address information.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
160 words
A network management station for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the network management station comprising: a processor; an application tool executing on the processor for generating an application-centric map of the network; means for receiving first address information from a first group of routers, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map; means for receiving second address information from a second group of routers, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and means for overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
160 words
A network management station for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the network management station comprising: a processor; an application tool executing on the processor for generating an application-centric map of the network; means for receiving first address information from a first group of routers, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map; means for receiving second address information from a second group of routers, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and means for overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
167 words
A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of: generating an application-centric map of the network at the management station using an application tool; receiving first address information from a first group of routers at the management station, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map; receiving second address information from a second group of routers at the management station, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
Claim 26
Independent Claim
167 words
A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of: generating an application-centric map of the network at the management station using an application tool; receiving first address information from a first group of routers at the management station, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map; receiving second address information from a second group of routers at the management station, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2003-10-10 | 2004-04-10 | 2004-10-10 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2007-10-10 | 2008-04-10 | 2008-10-10 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2011-10-10 | 2012-04-10 | 2012-10-10 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |