Method and apparatus providing role-based configuration of a port of a network element
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsChris Riggins, Steven Berl, Dirk Anteunis, Arnold Stamler
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Abstract
A method of automatically configuring a port of a network element comprises the steps of discovering information that identifies or describes a second network element that is coupled to a port of a first network element; associating the port with a port role definition selected from a plurality of port role definitions based on the discovered information; retrieving one or more configuration settings that are associated with the selected port role definition; and applying the one or more configuration settings to the port.
Claims46
A method comprising the steps of:
- discovering information that identifies a second network element that is coupled to a port of a first network element or describes a device type of the second network element, wherein the discovered information is based on a value in a field of a message sent by the second network element;
- associating the port of the first network element with a port role definition selected from a plurality of port role definitions based on the discovered information;
- retrieving one or more configuration settings that are associated with the selected port role definition;
- and
- applying the one or more configuration settings to the port of the first network element.
A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:
- discovering information that identifies a second network element that is coupled to a port of a first network element or describes a device type of the second network element, wherein the discovered information is based on a value in a field of a message sent by the second network element;
- associating the port of the first network element with a port role definition selected from a plurality of port role definitions based on the discovered information;
- retrieving one or more configuration settings that are associated with the selected port role definition;
- and
- applying the one or more configuration settings to the port of the first network element.
An apparatus comprising:
- a network interface that is coupled to a data network for receiving one or more packet flows therefrom;
- a processor;
- one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of:
- discovering information that identifies a network element that is coupled to a port of the apparatus or describes a device type of the network element, wherein the discovered information is based on a value in a field of a message sent by the network element;
- associating the port of the apparatus with a port role definition selected from a plurality of port role definitions based on the discovered information:
- retrieving one or more configuration settings that are associated with the selected port role definition;
- and
- applying the one or more configuration settings to the port of the apparatus.
An apparatus comprising:
- means for discovering information that identifies a network element that is coupled to a port of the apparatus or describes a device type of the network element, wherein the discovered information is based on a value in a field of a message sent by the network element;
- means for associating the port of the apparatus with a port role definition selected from a plurality of port role definitions based on the discovered information;
- means for retrieving one or more configuration settings that are associated with the selected port role definition;
- and
- means for applying the one or more configuration settings to the port of the apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.