Abstract: A method, apparatus, article of manufacture and computer product for low-overhead continuous monitoring of network performance in an intranet or Internet topology. Probe packets are sent from ingress access routers where they are received and processed by egress access routers. Probe packets are generated by copying every Nth packet being sent by an ingress access router. In the event an access router does not receive the probe packet, the probe packet is discarded through normal network delivery mechanisms. Network delay is determined by subtracting the time that a probe packet was received with the time stamp enclosed in the probe packet. Round trip time is established by reflecting the probe packet back to the originating access router and computing the round trip time. Bandwidth monitoring is achieved by using the number of probe packets received to estimate the expected amount of network traffic to be received.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a referring entity for an access request for a node in a network comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein each node is identified by a unique address and each node comprises the capability for including sub-addresses. The method comprises the steps of: receiving a request for an address in the network, the request including a request for a sub-address within the node identified by the address; removing the sub-address from the request; comparing the sub-address received with a list of sub-addresses, each corresponding to a referring entity; and determining the referring entity corresponding to the request for an address based on the comparison.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system is provided by which two or more cooperating end-users of the Internet and/or other network can dynamically select and use a single Internet or other network service provider (ISP) from among a multitude of ISPs based on the application requirements. The service provider may be selected in a dynamic fashion. This overcomes the problem wherein traditionally most end-users, whether they are individuals or organizations, are connected to the Internet or other network through a single Internet and/or other network service provider. However, users generally may have more than a single connection to the Internet and/or other network. In such cases the routing of traffic over these multiple connections is handled by IP routers based on the routing information that they exchange with their peers. This information is relatively static in nature and is typically based on the state of links that interconnect the different routers.

Abstract: The invention describes a scheme by which the dynamic characteristics of virtual links provided to a first network protocol engine are fed back to a second network protocol engine, and used to improve the performance of the second protocol traffic across a backbone. As an example, the invention describes a scheme by which the dynamic characteristics of the virtual links provided to the HPR network are fed back to the RTP protocol, and used to improve the performance of RTP traffic across the IP backbone. The invention provides this feedback using the mechanisms provided by the HPR networking architecture, and thus can inter-operate with HPR networks that do not support this invention. In one embodiment of the present invention, on the link characteristics are determined by programs running on both end of the IP network. These link characteristics are sent to the HPR end-node when an HPR connection is established. The HPR end-node obtains the information during the connection establishment phase.

Abstract: The present invention is an apparatus for controlling client node access to data items maintained in a storage device. The data items include volatile data items. The apparatus comprises a communication device for communicating with multiple client nodes; and a processor, coupled to the storage device for polling the client nodes to exchange (e.g., retrieve and/or transmit) data related to the volatile data items, via the communication device. The processing system further controls client node access to the data items of the storage device. In this way, the apparatus and method of the present invention remedies the problems associated with directory server overload.

Abstract: The present invention is a directory server for monitoring network access requests, which includes a storage device for storing data items and an identifier associated with a monitoring node for at least a selected data item of the data items; a communication device for transmitting signals to the monitoring node; and a processing device, coupled to the storage device and the communication device. The processing device receives a network access request for the selected data item and, responsive to receipt of the request, automatically transmits a signal notifying the monitoring node of the request via the communication device, thereby enabling the monitoring node, e.g., a third party, to enforce traffic class priorities and access characteristics of the network.

Abstract: A method for classifying different pages accessed by a web-browser into different service-levels on a granularity finer than that of the connection. The method augments each edge device with two applications, a Client-Proxy and a Server-Proxy. The Client-Proxy obtains identifying information from the client's request, and the obtain PICS labelling information from a label referee. This information is used to obtain a service level from an LDAP based SLA directory, and this service level information is then imbedded along with a unique identifier for the network operator organization in the HTTP header request which is transferred to the Server-Proxy. The Server-Proxy then strips the header containing the PICS information from the request and forwards the request to the server. When the Server-Proxy gets a response, it uses the PICS information to mark the packets.

Abstract: A method of reconfiguring a multipoint communications channel to reconnect selected nodes after failures occur in the network disclosed. The method for this invention requires that a selected node (leader) participating in the multipoint communication channel act as the coordinator of the re-establishment protocol. The coordinator (leader) monitors the state of network topology to determine failures, recomputes an alternative feasible communication channel path in the case of failure, and generates messages to join new network elements in the multipoint communication channel. By using a novel tree recomputation method that rejoins the disconnected subtrees created by the network failure to the tree containing the coordinator, along with network topology information, the coordinator is able to minimize messaging and preserve the original channel to the maximum possible extent.