Patent ID: 6847614
Filing Date: 2005-01-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a data network comprised of one or more hubs coupled to one or more nodes by a data transmission media, said data network functioning to transmit payload data between said one or more nodes and said one or more hubs, said one or more hubs and nodes containing network objects to be managed; a computer programmed to carry out a network management process which functions to receive requests for network management type data from one or more of said network objects and requests to write management type data to the one or more of said network objects, said computer, under control of said network management process, functioning to convert said requests into management packets further including data identifying the hub or slave which contains a network object to be operated upon; a master hub coupled to said media of said data network and to said network management process via an interprocess data transport mechanism functioning to convert management packets received from said management process into subchannel packets, said master hub further comprising a subchannel transceiver coupled to receive said subchannel packets from said conversion process and to send reply data from network objects thereto; and in each of said one or more hubs and one or more nodes of said network, one or more subchannel transceivers and a programmable computer programmed to carry out a subchannel communication protocol, said subchannel transceiver in every hub and node coupled said subchannel transceiver in said master hub, said subchannel transceivers in said master hub and in said one or more hubs and nodes functioning to carry out said subchannel communication protocol so as to transmit said subchannel packets to the network objects identified in said subchannel packets using said media of said data network used to transmit non-management data.