Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Computer network monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-22
2001-07-31
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2758)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Computer network monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269400
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to methods for determining accessible devices and/or services on a network, and more particularly, to methods for automatic detection and registration of accessible devices and/or services on a distributed network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a distributed network environment where there are numerous servers each providing access to a particular service or device, there may be a central manager residing on a server that has been designated the task to collect information with regard to the available services and/or devices on the network and to make this information available to servers within the network.
FIG. 1
illustrates such a network topology wherein a network
10
connects a number of servers
12
,
14
,
16
,
18
, and
20
. Each server may in term be connected to other devices such as a scanner
22
, a printer
24
, a fax machine
26
, or a plotter
28
, or itself may be the service and/or operative device (e.g., disk array file server
12
) at a particular network node. Each server connected to the network will have a unique network address, node name, and port number, and can be accessed accordingly. Additionally, each server has an agent responding to requests from other servers.
The task in collecting information with regard to available agents on the network is made complicated by the fact that agents and the associated services and/or devices may become unavailable due to a variety of possible causes, and new agents (and the associated services and/or devices) may be added to the network on an on-going basis as well. Given the dynamic nature of the environment, it becomes important to have an automated, efficient, and compatible method for determining the available agents on a network at any one time.
In prior art technologies, several methods were used to determine and maintain a list of the available agents. In the simplest method, a static list is maintained on a server, and changes to the list have to be manually carried out. This method is not practical in large, complex network environments and is tedious at best. In another prior art technology using a broadcast approach, a server sends a broadcast out to the network requesting any and all available agents to respond and register with the requesting server. However, this approach is only available with certain hierarchical network topology using proprietary protocol. Additionally, this approach generates a great deal of overhead in the broadcast itself because such a blind attempt to communicate with agents on all possible addresses and port numbers consumes an unacceptable level of CPU cycle time and has proven to be unreliable in registering all available agents. In yet another prior art technology, proprietary network protocol is setup in such a manner as to require that each of the agents check-in with a designated server at specified intervals. With this approach, each of the agents would have to be programmed to perform the registration function before it is registered with the network. This method requires an additional layer of compatibility and protocol, and thereby increases the cost associated with this task.
Ideally, it would be desirable to have a non-proprietary method for accomplishing automatic registration of available agents on a distributed network with this task being performed by any server.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for automatic discovery and registration of available agents on a distributed network.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method requiring low CPU utilization for conducting automatic discovery and registration of agents on a distributed network.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for discovering and registering agents on a distributed network using non-proprietary protocols thereby minimizing the need for additional programming of the agents.
Briefly, the present invention provides a method for automatic discovery and registration of the available agents on a distributed network using universally accepted protocols. In particular, the present invention takes advantage of the situation that TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet 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. Additionally, HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol), another pervasive and universal open protocol, has emerged with the proliferation of the Internet web pages. Similarly, devices and/or services from various vendors have been designed to provide an HTTP server (web server) within their respective devices and/or services.
Given this scenario, the present invention provides a method that generates a list of addresses from a defined management scope (a term of art which defines a set of criteria identifying the possible addresses of the available agents), detects the availability of agents at the specified addresses, and receives and compiles the returned information (if any) from the agents at the respective addresses.
An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for automatic discovery and registration of available agents on a distributed network.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method requiring low CPU utilization for conducting automatic discovery and registration of agents on a distributed network.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for discovering and registering agents on a distributed network that uses open protocols thereby requiring minimal programming of the agents.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become well understood upon examining the figures and reading the following detailed description of the invention.
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K. Obraczka, P.B. Danzig, and S.-H. Li “Internet Resource Discovery Service,” Computer, IEEE Sep. 1993, pp. 8-22.
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Douglas Daniel G.
Guinane, Sr. Thomas E.
Nguyen-Phuc Vinh-Thuan
Guillot Robert O.
Harrell Robert B.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP
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