Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing information about the logical and physical connections between devices on a network. The apparatus includes a storage access unit coupled to a storage device. The storage device stores a database of connectivity information. Various applications which display network information request the information from the storage access unit. The storage access unit supplies the information to the applications based on information contained in the connectivity database. The connectivity database is incrementally built and updated as information is acquired from devices on the network in response to requests for information not currently stored in the database.

Abstract: An apparatus for acquiring a plurality of values from an agent on a network is provided. The apparatus may be accessed through a predefined interface by various network management station applications. Because the apparatus is independent from the network management applications, the functionality provided by the apparatus need not be duplicated in each network management station application. The apparatus generally includes an agent identification unit, a display mechanism, a database access unit, a storage device and an information retrieval unit. The storage device stores a database containing data representing agents, management information bases, objects and attribute groups. When a network management station application requires values from an agent, the network management station application sends the apparatus a signal identifying the agent and specifying an information category, such as performance, status, or diagnostic. The agent identification unit identifies the type of the agent.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying an agent based on a decision tree is provided. The apparatus transmits a series of queries to the agent and the agent transmits responses to the queries back to the apparatus. Based on the responses, the apparatus determines the identity of the agent. The apparatus determines the series of queries by traversing the decision tree based on responses sent by the agent to previous queries. When the traversal arrives at a leaf node of the decision tree, an agent associated with the leaf node is used to identify the agent. If the traversal fails before arriving at a leaf node, then a weight is determined for each supported agent based on the responses sent by the agent, and the agent with the greatest weight is used to identify the agent.