Ordering possible device locations on the network by port-of-entry likelihood

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12184497-B2
Application number	US-202117558815-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2021
Priority date	Apr 23, 2021
Publication date	Dec 31, 2024
Grant date	Dec 31, 2024

Abstract

A method of managing a network includes: obtaining a search request for a device of a plurality of devices of the network where the device is specified by a piece of network information associated with the device; searching a searchable data structure using the piece of the network information to obtain a search result where the search result comprises a location list of potential locations within the network where the device may be located; obtaining likelihood rankings of the potential locations; and providing a response to the search request using the search result and the likelihood rankings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network, comprising:
a plurality of devices, wherein each device of the plurality of devices is programmed to:
obtain a respective portion of network information regarding the network in which the device resides, and
provide network communication services; and

a network manager programmed to:
obtain a search request for a device of the plurality of devices specified by a piece of the network information associated with the device, wherein a location of the device in the network is unknown;
search a searchable data structure using the piece of the network information to obtain a search result, wherein the search result comprises a location list of potential locations within the network where the device may be located;
generate likelihood rankings of the potential locations; and
provide a response to the search request using the search result and the likelihood rankings.

2. The network of claim 1 , wherein each of the potential locations specify a respective port of one of the plurality of devices.

3. A method of managing a network, comprising:
obtaining a search request for a device of a plurality of devices of the network, wherein the device is specified by a piece of network information associated with the device and a location of the device in the network is unknown;
searching a searchable data structure using the piece of the network information to obtain a search result, wherein the search result comprises a location list of potential locations within the network where the device may be located;
obtaining likelihood rankings of the potential locations; and
providing a response to the search request using the search result and the likelihood rankings.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein each of the potential locations specify a respective port of one of the plurality of devices and the plurality of devices comprises infrastructure devices and endpoint devices.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the respective port specifies an identifier of one of the plurality of devices, an interface, and a virtual local area network, wherein each of the potential locations further specifies a mariner in which the respective potential location was learned.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein each of the potential locations further specifies a time at which the respective potential location was learned.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein generating the likelihood rankings of the potential locations comprises:
making a determination that at least two of the likelihood rankings are a same ranking;
in response to the determination, using the time at which the respective potential location was learned to differentiate the at least two of the likelihood rankings.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the method further comprises:
providing, along with the likelihood rankings, an explanation for the likelihood ranking associated with each of the potential locations.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the explanation for the likelihood ranking associated with each of the potential locations is based, at least in part, on a type of a network information management table of a plurality of network information management tables in which each respective potential location was found.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the explanation for the likelihood ranking associated with each of the potential locations is further based, at least in part, on a type of the device, wherein the type of the device is one selected from a group consisting of an infrastructure device and an endpoint device.

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein each potential location of the potential locations is associated with a likelihood ranking of the likelihood rankings.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein each likelihood ranking of the likelihood rankings is based, at least in part, on:
a type of the device; and
a type of connection of the corresponding potential location.

13. The method of claim 3 , wherein the response to the search request comprises a unified list of unique identifiers based on the search result.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the unified list comprises hostnames and device types associated with the unique identifiers.

15. The method of claim 3 , wherein the location list of potential locations comprises information usable to, for a device of the plurality of devices, identify where on the network the device has resided over time.

16. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
prior to obtaining the search request:

obtaining the portions of the network information from the plurality of devices, wherein the portions of the network information comprise a plurality of network information management tables; and
populating the searchable data structure using, at least in part, the portions of the network information and a type of each device of the plurality of devices.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of network information management tables comprises:
a plurality of tables forwarding tables;
a plurality of address resolution protocol tables;
a plurality of neighbor discovery protocol tables;
a plurality of link layer discovery protocol tables; and
a plurality of tables that specify inventories of the devices.

18. The method of claim 3 , wherein generating the likelihood rankings of the potential locations comprises:
searching the searchable data structure for identifiers associated with the potential locations; and
ranking the potential locations using the identifiers and a set of rules that define the likelihood rankings based, in part, on a source from which the identifiers were obtained.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code, which when executed by a computer processor enables the computer processor to perform a method for managing a network, the method comprising:
obtaining a search request for a device of a plurality of devices of the network, wherein the device is specified by a piece of network information associated with the device and wherein a location of the device in the network is unknown;
searching a searchable data structure using the piece of the network information to obtain a search result, wherein the search result comprises a location list of potential locations within the network where the device may be located;
obtaining likelihood rankings of the potential locations; and
providing a response to the search request using the search result and the likelihood rankings.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 , wherein each of the potential locations specify a respective port of one of the plurality of devices.

Assignees

• Arista Networks Inc

Inventors

• Ding Charles
• Madsen Ryan Sherali

Classifications

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• Y02D30/00

  Reducing energy consumption in communication networks · CPC title

• H04L41/046

  comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor · CPC title