Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Douglas W. Cameron
  • Patent number: 7047303
    Abstract: A system comprising a network resource server or a server farm formed by a plurality of computer systems and a network processor which transfers data exchanged with an external network supported by the server farm at a data rate substantially the same as the data flow rate of the network and related method. The network processor protects the network resource server against attacks such as a denial of service attack by monitoring data flow, computing a derivative of the data flow over time to determine the rate of change of data flow, and modifying instructions for the discarding of packets in response to rates of change which are outside predetermined boundaries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: C. Steven Lingafelt, Daniel Edward McConnell, Francis E. Noel, Jr., Charles J. Sannipoli
  • Patent number: 7024008
    Abstract: A method of enhancing the audio quality in a reproduction medium having unknown characteristics. With this method a predetermined finite set of single frequency tones are generated and these tones are then passed through the reproduction medium to generate an output signal, which in turn is passed through a set of sub-band filters. Each of the sub-band filters pass at least a frequency corresponding to one of the tones in the set of tones. The characteristics of the reproduction medium is then estimated as a result of passing the output signal through the set of sub-band filters. Based on the estimated characteristics of the reproduction medium, a set of sub-band inverse filters are constructed. Finally before passing the audio signal through the reproduction medium the signal is passed through the set of inverse filters to improve the quality of the audio signal after it passes through the reproduction medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Anand Narasimhan, Ganesh Nachiappa Ramaswamy
  • Patent number: 7020153
    Abstract: The present invention provides an improved method and a system for processing data packets in a router. The router includes a plurality of input/output ports and more than one packet processing units. The packet processing units derive from a piece of information associated to each data packet one output port to forward the data packet to. In response to a data packet arriving at one input port one packet processing unit is determined. The determined packet processing unit is then requested to derive a respective output port. The output port is derived from a piece of information within the packet. An identification identifying the respective output port is in the following returned to the requesting unit. Finally, the data packet is forwarded to the identified output port. The method and system according to the present invention optimize advantageously resource utilization that leads to higher packet processing speed and helps to lower the costs and power requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick Droz, Lukas Kencl
  • Patent number: 7013334
    Abstract: A network system comprising general management consoles 9, which are connected to the Internet 8; a supervisor management console 4, which can be accessed by a device management server 2; a database 5, which is connected to the device management server 2, wherein company data, correlated with each general management console 9, and device data, for each device 10 correlated with the company data, are stored; a console manager 3, for relaying the data processing; and means for referring to the company data and the device data to permit the correlated general management console to provide a correlated service or device or group. Since only a management console is installed in a company, the company is relieved of its responsibility for providing for the complicated operation of a management server. Furthermore, since the fee that an ISP may charge for providing a device management service for multiple companies can be split among the relevant companies, the expense incurred by each company can be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hirobumi Toyoshima, Tadato Tanaka, Yuhji Yamashita
  • Patent number: 6999415
    Abstract: A switching device comprising several input ports and several output ports, whereby each of the input ports is connectable to a corresponding switch adapter. At least one switch controller controls the routing of incoming data packets from the input ports to the output ports. For each output port a congestion controller is arranged which in operation, generates grant information which signals whether the switch adapters are allowed to send the data packet to the output port. For each of the input ports a data packet access controller marks a data packet as non-compliant if the packet was erroneously sent from said output port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ronald R. Luijten, Michel Colmant
  • Patent number: 6996116
    Abstract: An interface module is provided for connecting a data communications link to a switching node, comprising a plurality of other interface modules, of a data communications network. The interface module has at least one external port for connection to a data communications link, and a plurality of internal ports for connection to respective internal ports of the switching node. A link interface is connected to the external port for processing inbound and outbound data. A switch circuit is connected between the link interface and the internal ports of the module for transmission of data between the internal ports and to the link interface. The module includes a controller for controlling routing of data via the internal ports in accordance with an intra-node routing protocol. Switching nodes comprising a plurality of interface modules, and optionally one or more switching modules, are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ton Engbersen, Ronald P. Luijten
  • Patent number: 6988120
    Abstract: A squaring multiplier for a floating-point number comprises: a pseudo carry generator for generating pseudo information concerning a carry equivalent to predetermined bits for the calculation of a target variable; an MSB look ahead circuit for employing the variable to perform a look ahead operation and establish the location of the MSB (Most Significant Bit) in the calculation results; and combinational circuits for performing the rounding off process and the calculation of the variables by using information concerning a carry, which is generated by the pseudo carry generator and based on the location of the MSB determined by the MSB look ahead circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshinao Kobayashi, Ken Namura, Kenya Katoh
  • Patent number: 6988144
    Abstract: A method for scheduling the delivery of multimedia data packets over a communications medium with a limited bandwidth. The packets may contain data representing images, sounds, or other media which are to be delivered from a source or server to a recipient or client. The 6 method described here minimizes the delay between the point in time when a client requests the multimedia data and the point in time when the client may start presenting the data without risk of interruption, for a given communications bandwidth. This method also determines the minimum buffer sizes needed by the client in order to present this multimedia data subject to the specified bandwidth limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William L. Luken, Stephen P. Wood
  • Patent number: 6988270
    Abstract: A system and method featuring a collection of model objects which hold data to be shared, and supporting interfaces to read and write the data, to create and destroy collaboration relationships and to attach “view objects” containing application code which will be automatically notified of value changes. Each user environment is provided with a model object control entity, referred to herein as a Collaboration Manager, which creates model objects, executes transactions, and creates association objects related to the collaboration. A concurrency control mechanism records the reads and updates of the data and of collaboration relationships within a single transaction site and guarantees that they are applied atomically and consistently to both the local and to all remote replica objects of the collaboration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Guruduth Somasekhara Banavar, Kevan Lee Miller, Atul Prakash, Robert Evan Strom, Michael James Ward
  • Patent number: 6983042
    Abstract: The present invention is a method of doing business where a wireline telephone company provides wireless telephone communication through a telephone network. The method includes a wireline distribution providing a plurality of telephone signals over one or more wireline connected to one or more network nodes in wireless communication proximity to one or more telephone users and responding to requests from one or more wireless devices for telephone network attachment through a wireless communication with the network node devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Ellis Chapman, Jr., Edith Helen Stern, Barry E. Willner
  • Patent number: 6957331
    Abstract: Byzantine Agreement requires a set of parties in a distributed system to agree on a value even if some parties are corrupted. The invention comprises a method for achieving agreement among participating network devices in an asynchronous network is disclosed that makes use of cryptography, specifically of threshold digital signatures and a distributed coin-tossing protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Klaus Kursawe, Victor Shoup, Christian Cachin
  • Patent number: 6952829
    Abstract: An adaptive view mechanism can dynamically adapt to changing conditions and provide the benefits of both optimistic and pessimistic notifications. This can, for example, provide a consistent and jitter-free GUI to display the state of distributed replicated data objects in the presence of concurrency control conflicts and losses. In a Model-View-Controller architecture of building distributed collaborative applications where model objects are replicated at distributed sites, adaptive views can dynamically switch between behaving like pessimistic views and like optimistic views. When the number of concurrent updates is low, the adaptive views can be made to operate in an optimistic mode—providing good responsiveness to users. However, during those periods of heavy activity, when the number of concurrent updates becomes high, the adaptive view can be made to operate in a pessimistic manner—providing more reliable response to users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Guruduth Somasekhara Banavar, Kevan Lee Miller, Michael James Ward
  • Patent number: 6944674
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for managing protocol information in a PNNI hierarchical network. In a PAR-enabled device (1) of the network PAR PTSEs received by the PAR-enabled device (1) from the network are checked to identify redundant protocol information encapsulated in the PAR PTSEs. Protocol information in received PAR PTSEs is then supplied to a protocol device associated with the PAR-enabled device (1). In some embodiments, protocol information identified as redundant is excluded from the protocol information supplied to the protocol device. In other embodiments, the protocol information supplied to the protocol device is tagged to distinguish redundant protocol information from non-redundant protocol information. This facilitates efficient configuration of the network topology for the protocol in question.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Laurent Frelechoux, Robert Haas, Michael Osborne
  • Patent number: 6944170
    Abstract: The invention is related to a switching arrangement for transporting data packets which comprise a section with data packet destination information and a payload section, to one or more output ports. The switching device is able to route the arriving data packets according to the data packet destination information, to at least one dedicated of the output ports. It comprises at each input port an input buffer with at least as many single input queues as there are output ports, and an input controller for each input port, serving for controlling the order of multiplexing the data packets from the input queues of the corresponding input buffer to the switching device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Cyriel Minkenberg
  • Patent number: 6925080
    Abstract: A method of updating an inverse ARP table in an IP network over a partially meshed Frame Relay network (10) wherein the Frame Relay network includes at least a hub (12 or 14) which is linked to each one of a set of spokes (16, 18, 24 or 20, 22, 24) by a Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) identified by a first Data Link Connection Identifier (DLCI) associated with the hub and a second DLCI associated with the spoke, the hub and the set of spokes defining an IP subnet having a subnet address, and each spoke having an inverse ARP table in which the first DLCI identifying a PVC is mapped with the IP address of the hub as entry. The method comprises automatically entering an entry into the inverse ARP table which defines the first DLCI being mapped with a default IP address identifying the hub as destination for any frame addressed to one or several spokes of the subnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lionel Denecheau, Denis Esteve, Pascal Thubert
  • Patent number: 6922778
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for transcoding a data message, comprising a plurality of data fields (f1-f10) and an authentication code (Sgn(h1-10)), to produce a transcoded message for transmission to a destination device (4). The transcoding methods can be applied to such a data message which is received from a source device (1) wherein said data fields (f1-f10) have been coded in accordance with a first coding system, whereby respective data field codes (h1-h10) are generated for said data fields (f1-f10) and a message code (h1-10) is derived from said data field codes (h1-h10), and wherein said message code (h1-10) has been coded in accordance with a second coding system to generate said authentication code (Sgn(h1-10)). For each data field (f1-f10) of the received data message it is decided whether to maintain, modify or omit that field. For a field to be maintained, that field is maintained in the transcoded message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Stefan G. Hild, Luke J. O'Connor
  • Patent number: 6895547
    Abstract: A method for low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoding of data comprises defining a first M×N parity check matrix; generating, based on the first parity check matrix, a second parity check matrix having an M×M triangular sub-matrix; and, mapping the data into an LDPC code word based on the second parity check matrix. The method is particularly useful for data communications applications, but may also be employed in other applications such as, for example, data storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Evangelos Stavros Eleftheriou, Richard Leo Galbraith, Sedat Oelcer
  • Patent number: 6829764
    Abstract: A task schedule is enforced among multiple processes by setting process priorities based upon which tasks are running on which processes and based upon the task schedule. The task scheduling may be provided by a local or global scheduler which uses application information to prioritize tasks. The task schedule, or priority list, is provided at Local Activity Schedulers which schedule the activities for their local execution elements/nodes. Execution of activities locally are performed by any number of processes that reside in each execution element. These processes are assigned operating system priorities by the respective Local Activity Scheduler based on their assigned activities for execution and the task schedule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mitchell Adam Cohen, Anant Deep Jhingran, Ronald Mraz
  • Patent number: 6823509
    Abstract: A computer system includes a virtual machine supporting an object-oriented environment, in which programs to run on the virtual machine are formed from classes loaded into the virtual machine by a class loader. A class must be initialized before being used by a program. A first application is started on the virtual machine, and a set of one or more classes are loaded and initialized for the first application, which is then run. After the first application has finished running, at least one class from the first application is reset. A second application is then started on the virtual machine. This (re)-initializes any classes that have been reset from the first application, prior to using them, but does not have to reload any reset classes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Alan Michael Webb
  • Patent number: RE38865
    Abstract: A method of optimizing the operation of a computer system in running application programs in accordance with system capabilities, user preferences and configuration parameters of the application program. More specifically, with this invention, an optimizing program gathers information on the system capabilities, user preferences and configuration parameters of the application program to maximize the operation of the application program or computer system. Further, user selected rules of operation can be selected by dragging rule icons to target optimizer icon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Peter Dumarot, David Alan Stevenson, Nicolas Richard Dono, James Randall Moulic, Clifford Alan Pickover, Bengt-Olaf Schneider, Adelbert Smith