Abstract: The present invention provides a method for managing delivery of a service that includes an initial step of modeling the service delivery by defining selected attributes of and inter-relationships among four interacting components including a service provider, one or more customers of the service, technology required for delivering the service as well as one or more suppliers of that technology. The selected attributes and inter-relationships are then monitored, and performance metrics for assessing the quality of service delivery are generated based on the monitored attributes and inter-relationships.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods and system for organizing a dataset in a database by marking the dataset by a plurality of labels generated based on a pre-define policy. The policy determines the data scope accessible to each label. A user of the database can access the data within the scopes of one or more labels based on its role and privileges granted thereto by, for example, a system administrator. Moreover, a variety of shaping transformations can be applied to the tagged dataset to create a derived dataset that is suitable for the informational needs of the user. The derived dataset can be formatted to render it compatible for viewing via a selected presentation engine, such as a web browser.

Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided for partitioning a network, comprising modeling the network as a graph comprising nodes which represent network devices, and edges which represent links between the devices, and automatically partitioning the graph into domains. One embodiment of the method includes identifying a number of anchor nodes in the graph and partitioning the domains around the anchor nodes such that each domain contains only one anchor node. Another embodiment of the method includes partitioning a graph without anchor nodes into a number of domains, and assigning controllers to each of the domains. Preferably, the method further includes assigning a weight to each node in the graph, and balancing the partitions as a function of the weight of each node in a respective partition.

Abstract: A network is monitored for reports indicative of a connection state among ports of a communications network. Certain ports are designated as being in a transition, and a transition table is created for each transition. The transition table includes locations that directly relate the connectivity of a first port with respect to a second port, as well as locations that relate the connectivity of other ports. The contents of the transition table are evaluated to determine the likely configuration of the communications network. State machines may be used to resolve conflicting data within the transition table, by providing a likely connection output based upon different entries within the transition table. A voting scheme is used to evaluate the outputs of the state machines and update the transition table when appropriate, and the updated transition table may also be evaluated.

Abstract: A logical representation of a communications network topology has links which represent connections within a network, and models of ports representing elements of devices which form the connections of the network. The logical representation is created and maintained in response to reports from the network, such as new neighbor reports and lost neighbor reports. A new neighbor module creates or changes the logical representation in response to new neighbor reports, based upon whether the reporting port is recently attached and whether the new neighbor port is recently attached. A lost neighbor module changes the logical representation in response to lost neighbor reports, by creating pseudo new neighbor reports, and allowing the pseudo new neighbor reports to be processed following a certain amount of time.

Abstract: A network is monitored for reports indicative of a connection state among ports of a communications network. Certain ports are designated as being in a transition, and a transition table is created for each transition. The transition table includes locations that directly relate the connectivity of a first port with respect to a second port, as well as locations that relate the connectivity of other ports. The contents of the transition table are evaluated to determine the likely configuration of the communications network. State machines may be used to resolve conflicting data within the transition table, by providing a likely connection output based upon different entries within the transition table. A voting scheme is used to evaluate the outputs of the state machines and update the transition table when appropriate, and the updated transition table may also be evaluated.

Abstract: According to several aspects of the present invention, a network is monitored for status information indicative of the status of a manageable device within the network. A network manager receives the status information, and updates or initializes a device model in accordance with the status information. A state machine may be used to determine a new state for the device model, and to enable or disable the device model. The network manager may also take action to inquire as to the status of the manageable device, for example by polling the manageable device or by initiating a discovery process. The device model may be used by the network manager as a basis by which to control the manageable device, and thus control aspects of the communications within the network.

Abstract: A logical representation of a communications network topology has links which represent connections within a network, and models of ports representing elements of devices which form the connections of the network. The logical representation is created and maintained in response to reports from the network, such as new neighbor reports and lost neighbor reports. A new neighbor module creates or changes the logical representation in response to new neighbor reports, based upon whether the reporting port is recently attached and whether the new neighbor port is recently attached. A lost neighbor module changes the logical representation in response to lost neighbor reports, by creating pseudo new neighbor reports, and allowing the pseudo new neighbor reports to be processed following a certain amount of time.