Abstract: The present invention is a solution that provides reliable and robust boot upgrade system and method. A power up boot process is performed in which a boot update application monitors for an indication of available update information and an update setup process is engaged in which an upgrade indication variable is set to a value indicating an upgrade is required and the upgrade indication variable continues to indicate an upgrade is required until an upgrade is successfully completed. An update reboot process is executed which retrieves updated information from a central management station and a boot loader routine reads an upgrade indication variable and repeatedly downloads the updated information until the upgrade indication variable indicates there is no pending update download required. The upgrade indication variable is changed to indicate no pending update download is required when a download is verified and authenticated.

Abstract: A method and system of communicating state information between devices of a communications network is provided. A gateway of a packet network may change operating states during transmission of packets to another gateway. The gateway may indicate the state change to the receiving gateway by sending a burst of messages to the receiving gateway. If the gateway does not respond to any of these messages, the gateway may then send another message to the receiving gateway, which requires the receiving gateway to respond. Or, the gateway may send individual messages to the receiving gateway for a desired amount of time and, if the receiving gateway does not respond to any of these, then the gateway may again send the must respond message to the receiving gateway.

Abstract: Method and system for navigating in an interactive voice response system including detecting an account login request, authenticating the login request, detecting a location identifier request, and generating a location identifier in response to the location identifier request is provided. Also, the method and system includes detecting an account login request, authenticating the login request, receiving a location identifier, and bypassing one or more menu hierarchy in an interactive navigation system to transfer the user associated with the account login request to a location in the menu hierarchy associated with the location identifier.

Abstract: A network management apparatus and method for determining the topology of a network in which a Spanning-Tree protocol is implemented, is disclosed in which address table data is obtained from the ports of the core network devices on the network, and the identity of the ports of the core network devices are determined. Spanning-Tree protocol information is obtained from the core network devices and used to process the address table data to remove data relating to ports having links which are inactive. The topology of the network is then determined using the processed data by first selecting one of the core network devices as a root network device, and then using the processed address table data to build a network tree from the selected root device.

Abstract: An improved data access arrangement device for use in full-duplex two-wire communication systems having a transmission impedance characteristic. The DAA includes a transmit amplifier and a receive amplifier adapted for connection to a two-wire line, a codec connected to the transmit amplifier for generating a transmit signal, a summation device connected to the receive amplifier, an echo cancellation path including a variable gain amplifier, where the path extends between the codec and the summation device, and wherein the variable gain amplifier is adjusted in accordance with the transmission impedance characteristic. The variable gain amplifier may include a gain register that is programmed by a microprocessor, or may have the gain set by user-configurable switches. The summation device is preferably an operational amplifier.

Abstract: The occurrence of false positives and the post-processing of digital streams subjected to examination by a deterministic finite state machine for character strings are reduced by combining location-based pattern matching, e.g. on packet headers, and content-based pattern matching, e.g. on payloads of packets. One scheme allows automatic transition from a header match state into an initial state of a content matching machine. Another scheme is based on a rules graph defining strings of match states and the examination of a list of match states (rather than characters) which have been previously determined, for example by means of header matching and content matching. The latter is also capable of comparing offset and depth values associated with the match states with offset and depth criteria.

Abstract: A method and switch for controlling the allocation of priority of TCP packets, more particularly for distinguishing between data and control packets and assigning an increased priority to control packets. The layer 4 information in the form of the flag bits of the header are snooped in the switch to determine whether any flag other than PSH is set and if so to allocate a priority to that packet, which will usually be a higher priority than data packets.

Abstract: A switching module has external ports for sending and receiving data packets and mesh interfaces for internal mesh connections with other modules. A switching engine directs packets to one or other of the mesh interfaces according to the port number of a ‘destination’ or egress port on another module, as determined by a lookup. The port numbers are programmable so that the distribution of traffic through the mesh connections can be modified.

Abstract: A network discovery functionality, intrusion detector functionality and firewalling functionality are integrated together to form a network security system presenting a self-deploying and self-hardening security defense for a network.

Abstract: In a Quality of Service system, segments in a TCP session are assigned a priority level. A segment may contain an acknowledgement and data. The system determines if network congestion is detected or anticipated in the segment's priority band or in a higher priority band. When the TCP segment arrives at a network point, the segment is split into an acknowledgement segment and a data segment. The acknowledgement segment is scheduled at a higher QoS priority than the data segment.

Abstract: A method and system of setting up a call over a circuit or packet switched network. Network elements exchange an automode sequence of signals to determine a modulation that both devices support and that will be used for the connection between them. The two elements may exchange the automode signals end-to-end, and then switch to a modulation scheme by negotiating an appropriate modulation or one supported by both endpoints. Alternately, each element can execute a split automode sequence with a separate network endpoint to determine the modulation to be used between the network elements. The network elements and network endpoints may negotiate a modulation scheme by exchanging integers that are indicative of the capabilities of the network elements to determine which supported modulation scheme is most desirable in the particular configuration of the elements.

Abstract: In a computer network, a method of mutually authenticating a client device and a network interface, authenticating a user to the network and exchanging encryption keys. In one embodiment, the method comprises authenticating the client device at the local network device point, with which the client device exchanges an encryption key and then the user is authenticated by a central authentication server. In another embodiment, the method comprises authenticating the client device at the central authentication server, with which the client device exchanges a key which is passed to the network device with a secret shared between the central authentication server and the network device. In this embodiment, the user is also authenticated at the central authentication server.

Abstract: For each metered flow in a network unit there is a memory entry which defines a time stamp and a rate parameter. When a packet in the respective flow arrives, the time of arrival is compared with the time stamp. If the time of arrival is before the time stamp the packet is discarded. If the packet arrives after the date stamp, it is allowed to proceed and a new time stamp is computed in accordance with the rate parameter. One exemplary computation adds to the time stamp a time interval obtained by dividing the size of the packet by the rate parameter and preferably subtracting from the quotient the time interval between the arrival time and the previous time stamp.

Abstract: A telephone set suitable for sending and receiving calls and for affecting a display of call-related information on a user-viewable information display. The telephone set comprises a handset and a base. The handset includes a transmitter, a receiver, and an integrated pointing device. The integrated pointing device is configured to transmit a signal to the base in response to physical manipulation by a user. The base includes a numeric keypad for inputting phone numbers, an input for receiving the signal from the handset, and an electronic pathway that originates from the input and is directed toward the information display such that the physical manipulation of the integrated pointing device will affect the display of call-related information. Preferably, the telephone set is, by incorporation of a network interface, enabled to communicated and share call-related information through a packet-switched network.

Abstract: A deterministic finite state machine organised for the detection of positionally significant matches of characters in a string of characters examines each character in turn to determine a exit transition for a current state of the machine to another state The machine responds to an examination of the string of characters by executing in response to a first character at the commencement of the string a transition from aninitial state to another state. The machine has at least one state for every character position, includes a exit transition from each state for each character to another state; and possesses only forward exit transitions each from any of the states whereby the current state of the machine unambiguously represents a count of the number of characters from the commencement of the string. The machine may include at least one match state which indicates that all character matches in the string required by at least one respective rule have been detected.

Abstract: A network management apparatus and method for determining the topology of a network 1 is described. The present invention uses data relating to discovered devices on the network 1, typically network management address table data, to build a network tree. Due to the presence of unsupported or unmanaged connecting network devices, some branches of the resulting tree may not be resolved. In order to address this, for each unresolved branch of the network tree, the present invention attempts to determine the type of each of the discovered network devices on the branch, and if the type of every discovered network device on the branch is determined to be an endstation type, the present invention determines that an undiscovered connecting device is present on the branch.

Abstract: A method and program for checking for misconfigurations and inefficiencies in the configuration of devices and links on a network. Information relating to the configuration of components on the network is stored in a database. The configuration information is accessed for each device, and interrogated for each port and its associated link and connected remote port. The interrogation determines whether the ports and links have matched configuration and whether they are running at optimum capability, such as at full duplex (both ends permitting), at maximum speed or with maximum numbers of ports assigned to a trunk.

Abstract: A system and method for integrating the call control signaling pathway with data network access components. A call control server agent is resident on a network device that provides a first interface from an access network to a packet-switched data network. The call control server agent receives data session initiation requests and passes the requests to the call control server agent. The call control server agent also performs proxy server functions and provides a source of information relating to data sessions directly to the access network.

Abstract: A method for automatically creating a modem interface on a computer device for use with a wireless device. The method of the present invention creates a modem interface without requiring the user to execute a standard operating system's manual modem installation procedure. The modem interface can then be used as a standard interface to a wireless device. This allows existing software to be used in conjunction with the wireless device connected to the modem interface.

Abstract: The present invention presents a method and system for providing an intelligent data concentrator communicatively coupled to a network by a wireless mode. Specifically, the present invention comprises a portable intelligent device, communicatively connected to a network by a wireless mode, which may, for example, be placed in the center of a conference table to facilitate a number of client devices connecting for simultaneous access to the network and, at the same time, allowing for ease in moving about the room. In one embodiment, the portable intelligent data concentrator is communicatively coupled by a wireless mode to an access point. In one embodiment, the intelligent data concentrator is battery powered. In one embodiment, the access point through which the intelligent data concentrator is connected to the network is another intelligent data concentrator. In another embodiment, the access point is a Bluetooth access point.