Multiplex communications – Diagnostic testing – Determination of communication parameters
Reexamination Certificate
1998-01-28
2001-05-29
Chin, Wellington (Department: 2664)
Multiplex communications
Diagnostic testing
Determination of communication parameters
C370S254000, C370S343000, C370S344000, C370S447000, C709S221000, C709S224000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240068
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to network systems, and in particular to a method for determining the hierarchical organization of objects connected in such systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many existing systems can display data from object orientated databases. The data in these databases may be automatically collected but the types of objects in the databases are defined by humans. In complex connected graphs, such as communication networks, it has been very difficult to represent the network as a whole. Invariably the operator has had to manually create abstractions and place objects in a hierarchy. On a big network of perhaps a thousand nodes the operator will take one or two days to produce a useful representation. Bigger networks take longer. This is costly and is prone to human error.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to methods for determining the hierarchical organization of the objects in systems. Applied to the problem of determining how to represent even very large data communications networks (i.e. complex connected graphs) it automatically generates such a hierarchy in a few seconds, using a database with the topology. This lets operators to be presented with a reasonable view of the important objects in the network, how these are connected, while allowing examination of more detail on demand. Applied to other problems it allows the determination of models of topologies of objects, determination of how these change and comparison of models of systems with previous known and operator labelled models as well as with other new models. This enables new forms of diagnosis and categorization.
Many systems have more objects and relationships than can be conveniently represented or displayed on a computer screen. The method described here automatically aggregates the objects and displays the relationships between these aggregated objects. These aggregates are termed packages. The complexity hidden by the packaging can be seen by exploding the contents of one or more of the packages. The invention automatically creates the abstraction levels, and its application to the problem of displayed connected graphs and to the problems of automatic model creation and subsequent model comparison.
In this invention the types of objects can be defined by humans but also, on the fly, by the method.
On a computer network of over 2000 nodes the method described here created new, appropriate abstractions and allocated the nodes to them in less than 6 seconds of cpu. The result was reasonable, and within five minutes of minor manipulations by the operator in a gui, was similarly useful to the result which previously took days to produce.
Reference is made to patent applications describing an automatic and reliable method of discovering the topology of a network of objects, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/558,729 filed Nov. 16, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,462 granted Jul. 20, 1999 Ser. No. 08/599,310 filed Feb. 9, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,416 granted Aug. 3, 1999 and Ser. No. 09/749,671 filed Nov. 15, 1996 all of which are owned by the assignee of the present application incorporated herein by reference.
Some objects are more important than others to the operator. Furthermore, the operator does not want to see more than a certain number of objects in any graph, unless they specifically request it. The method therefore starts by allocating a priority (numerical measure of importance) to objects with known importance. The method then examines objects of the lowest priority. Any object of unknown priority which has a relationship of sufficient significance with an object of the current priority is allocated a priority=current priority+1. The current level is raised and the algorithm repeated. When all objects have been allocated priority or no more levels are permitted, any remaining unprioritized objects are allocated the median priority.
In an aspect of the invention, a method involves letting only a number M objects be displayed in any view of this set of objects. Starting from the maximum level of priority of any object, add to the display all objects at this level, and then reduce the level and add all from the next level and so on until adding the objects from the next level down would cause M to be exceeded. At this point, define the current level to be the level of packaging. For every object at this level (all of which will be in the display), create a package. Into this package place the object itself and all objects of lower priority that would have been displayed related to it. Do not insert any object into more than one package.
Now apply the above method to the set of objects in the first package, then to the set in the second and so on. More packages may be created in turn until all packages contain fewer than M objects.
The objects operated on by this method can be physical (e.g. communications devices of parts of a biological system) or more abstract (e.g. software objects of components). Since the method produces a hierarchical abstraction of the objects, it could also be considered as creating a model of the system. Coupled with the method of discovering the topology of a network of objects, this provides an automatic method of producing models of objects for whom previously even the topology was unknown.
The invention provides, a method for automatically aggregating objects and determining a hierarchical organization of these objects and aggregates by exploiting known or computer priorities and correlations.
In another aspect, a method for automatically aggregating objects connected in a network comprises determining numerical measures of importance objects in the network, establishing a hierarchy of the objects based on their measures of importance and displaying the objects in accordance with the hierarchy.
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Chin Wellington
Loran Network Management Ltd.
Pascal & Associates
Phan M.
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