Patents by Inventor Peter Higginson

Peter Higginson has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Virtual LANs
    Patent number: 6560236
    Abstract: A network device for interconnecting computer networks, the device including a bridge having a plurality of ports through which network communications pass to and from the bridge, the bridge also including a first interface enabling a user to partition the plurality of bridge ports into a plurality of groups, wherein each group represents a different virtual network, wherein the bridge treats all ports within a given group as part of the virtual network corresponding to that group and the bridge isolates the virtual networks from each other, whereby any communications received at a first port of the bridge are directly sent by the bridge to another bridge port only if the other bridge port and the first bridge port are part of the same group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2003
    Assignee: Enterasys Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: George Varghese, John Bassett, Robert Eugene Thomas, Peter Higginson, Graham Cobb, Barry A. Spinney, Robert Simcoe
  • Device for partitioning ports of a bridge into groups of different virtual local area networks
    Patent number: 5963556
    Abstract: A network device for interconnecting computer networks, the device including a bridge having a plurality of ports through which network communications pass to and from the bridge, the bridge also including a first interface enabling a user to partition the plurality of bridge ports into a plurality of groups, wherein each group represents a different virtual network, wherein the bridge treats all ports within a given group as part of the virtual network corresponding to that group and the bridge isolates said virtual networks from each other, whereby any communications received at a first port of the bridge are directly sent by the bridge to another bridge port only if the other bridge port and the first bridge port are part of the same group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 5, 1999
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: George Varghese, John Bassett, Robert Eugene Thomas, Peter Higginson, Graham Cobb, Barry A. Spinney, Robert Simcoe