Network Agent Status Monitoring via Inverted Polling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network management methods, such as active polling or pinging, consume significant bandwidth and are ineffective in managing unknown agents, as they require directing polls to specific agent addresses, which can be costly and inefficient, especially in bandwidth-limited networks.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the storage of agent data files, where agents send unsolicited status messages to a host, which updates the files and periodically checks for stale data, sending requests to inactive agents, reducing the need for active polls and optimizing bandwidth usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If active polling or pinging is used to monitor agent status, then the host can verify agent status, but bandwidth consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of the host actively polling agents for status information, the patent inverts the approach by having agents proactively send unsolicited status messages to the host. This reversal eliminates the need for continuous poll-response message exchanges, significantly reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining reliable status monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The host periodically identifies agent data files that have not been updated for a predetermined time and sends requests only to those specific inactive agents. This periodic checking approach replaces continuous polling, reducing the frequency of communications and thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining monitoring reliability.
2Reliability
If active polling is used to manage agents, then agent status can be verified, but the system cannot manage agents that the host does not know about
Solution Approach 1:
Agents automatically send unsolicited status messages to the host, enabling the host to discover and learn about agents without prior knowledge of their addresses. This self-service approach allows the system to adaptively manage unknown agents, as they introduce themselves and report their status proactively, eliminating the limitation of active polling requiring pre-configured agent addresses.
3Loss of information
If polls are directed to specific agent addresses, then the host can retrieve status information, but the approach becomes inefficient and costly in bandwidth-limited networks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the status information transmission from the traditional poll-response framework. Instead of requiring a complete poll-response exchange for each status check, agents extract and send only the necessary status information unsolicited to the host. This reduces the amount of network communication required, improving network efficiency while ensuring status information is retrieved.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods of managing a network comprising a plurality of agents. The methods may comprise the step of storing a plurality of agent data files corresponding to the plurality of agents. The methods may also comprise the step of receiving periodic status messages from at least a portion of the plurality of agents. Upon receiving a status message from a first agent, the methods may comprise the step of updating an agent data file corresponding to the first agent. Also, the methods may comprise the steps of periodically identifying agent data files from the plurality of agent data files that have not been updated for a predetermined amount of time; and sending a request for response to a second agent corresponding to an agent data file that has not been updated for a predetermined amount of time.