Patent ID: 8953479
Filing Date: 2015-02-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving a threshold time to live (“TTL”) value associated with a license; determining a first TTL value based on the threshold TTL value; transmitting a polling request comprising the first TTL value from a polling device disposed at a particular network location to a network device, the first TTL value decreasing each time the polling request transits through a node device; receiving a polling response from the network device if the first TTL value has not decreased to a first predetermined value before the polling request is received by the network device; determining that the license permits communication between a monitoring device disposed at the particular network location and the network device in response to receiving the polling response; transmitting a plurality of data requests from the monitoring device to the network device, each data request of the plurality of data requests comprising a second TTL value set based on the threshold TTL value prior to transmitting the each data request, the each data request further comprising a request for information about a metric associated with the network device, and the second TTL value decreasing each time the each data request transits through the node device; receiving a data response corresponding to the each data request if the second TTL value comprised in the each data request has not decreased to the first predetermined value before the each data request is received by the network device, the data response comprising the information about the metric associated with the network device; and storing data corresponding to the information about the metric associated with the network device in a memory.