US 2010/0161832 A1Published application

Method for executing discovery and status update polling procedures of networked devices

AssigneeKonica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc.

InventorNaoki KOMINE

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

In a system of networked devices such as printers managed by a computer connected to them by a network, a method is described for executing device discovery and device status update at independent time intervals using a SNMP broadcast method while eliminating thread safety risk. Device discovery and status update are executed as subroutines within a main routine and each subroutine has its own decrement counter. The entire routine is repeated one cycle every time unit. In each cycle, the decrement counters are evaluated. If a counter is a positive value, the corresponding subroutine is skipped and the counter is decremented by one. If a counter is zero, the corresponding subroutine is executed and its counter is reset to the user-specified time interval afterwards.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method implemented on a computer for managing a plurality of devices, the computer being connected to the devices via a network, the method comprising:

(a) evaluating a first time counter;
(b) if the first time counter is a first target value, executing a first subroutine and resetting the first time counter to a first reset value, the first subroutine including making SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) calls onto the network and receiving responses from one or more of the devices to gather a first type of information;
(c) if the first time counter is one of a first plurality of non-target values, skipping the first subroutine and adjusting the first time counter toward the first target value;
(d) evaluating a second time counter;
(e) if the second time counter is a second target value, executing a second subroutine and resetting the second time counter to a second reset value, the second subroutine including making SNMP calls onto the network and receiving responses from one or more of the devices to gather a second type of information;
(f) if the second time counter is one of a second plurality of non-target values, skipping the second subroutine and adjusting the second time counter toward the second target value;
(g) sleeping for a pre-defined time period;
and
(h) repeating steps (a) through (g).

6 more elements

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embedded therein for controlling a computer, the computer being connected to a plurality of devices via a network, the computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to execute a process for managing the plurality of devices, the process comprising:

(a) evaluating a first time counter;
(b) if the first time counter is a first target value, executing a first subroutine and resetting the first time counter to a first reset value, the first subroutine including making SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) calls onto the network and receiving responses from one or more of the devices to gather a first type of information;
(c) if the first time counter is one of a first plurality of non-target values, skipping the first subroutine and adjusting the first time counter toward the first target value;
(d) evaluating a second time counter;
(e) if the second time counter is a second target value, executing a second subroutine and resetting the second time counter to a second reset value, the second subroutine including making SNMP calls onto the network and receiving responses from one or more of the devices to gather a second type of information;
(f) if the second time counter is one of a second plurality of non-target values, skipping the second subroutine and adjusting the second time counter toward the second target value;
(g) sleeping for a pre-defined time period;
and
(h) repeating steps (a) through (g).

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.