Christopher M Hunt

US Patent:

53032357, Apr 12, 1994

Filed:

Dec 14, 1992

Appl. No.:

7/989615

Inventors:

Douglas W. Chan - Lexington MA
Christopher J. Hunt - Howell NJ
C. Daniel Vanevic - Fremont NH
Christopher S. Welles - Weston MA

Assignee:

AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04L 1256
H04L 1224
H04L 1212

US Classification:

370 601

Abstract:

In a telecommunications management network indications of newly reachable network elements and indications that existing network elements cease to be reachable are maintained automatically and the need for manually inputting such information is eliminated by employing a routing exchange protocol to dynamically maintain identity information of network elements reachable within the network, and by enhancing the routing exchange protocol interface to automatically supply an indication that a newly reachable network element has been detected or an indication that an existing network element has ceased to be reachable to an applications layer protocol.

US Patent:

55375472, Jul 16, 1996

Filed:

Dec 14, 1992

Appl. No.:

7/990743

Inventors:

Douglas W. Chan - Lexington MA
Christopher J. Hunt - Howell NJ
C. Daniel Vanevic - Fremont NH
Christopher S. Welles - Weston MA

Assignee:

AT&T Corp. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

G06F 1100
G06F 1122

US Classification:

39520002

Abstract:

In a telecommunications management network including a network element provisioned as a so-called Directory Services Network Element (DSNE) and at least one sub-network intended to include one or more network elements, the DSNE automatically distributes the identity information of all network elements in a sub-network to all the network elements in that sub-network. Specifically, the DSNE automatically distributes all the identity information for all network elements within a sub-network to a newly registered network element and also supplies the identity information for the newly registered network element to all the other network elements within the sub-network. Since, each sub-network can be defined as a set of network elements that require significant communications with each other, distribution of the identity information for all the network elements in the sub-network to all the network elements in that sub-network significantly reduces the number of queries made to the DSNE. Furthermore, in the event of a DSNE failure, the network elements in a sub-network may still be capable of communicating with each other, thereby improving communications survivability.