Patent ID: 6076107
Filing Date: 2000-06-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
For use in a network having at least one device and a manager for managing said at least one device in accordance with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), said at least one device being connected to said manager and supporting one or more resources, each of said one or more resources having a plurality of attributes, said at least one device comprising an agent having an internal storage area and an instrumentation, said instrumentation having at least one table for holding data representing said resources and said attributes, said at least one table having one or more rows representing said one or more resources and a plurality of columns representing said plurality of attributes, said at least one table having a plurality of data items in corresponding table locations defined by said one or more rows and said plurality of columns, in said instrumentation, a method for retrieving said data items from said table comprising the following steps:receiving a first request from said agent for retrieving a data item from a table location defined by a last row and one of said columns;sending to said agent, in response to said first request, said data item from said table location defined by said last row and said one column;receiving a second request from said agent for retrieving the data item in the same column and a next subsequent row as the data item in a table location defined by said one column and said last row; andsending to said agent, in response to said second request, the data items in said first row.