Patent ID: 7200648

Claim:
A dynamic searching method of provisioning instance identifiers (PRIDs), which is applied to a policy-based network management system, the network management system including a network policy database storing a plurality of data tables, each data table defining N PRIDs to store specific instructions, the N PRIDs respectively defining 1 to N field values sequentially, such that when determining a network policy, the network management system searches the network policy database to find a plurality of data tables used by the network policy, and then sequentially searches each used data table to find an available PRID for assignment according to the following steps: (A) finding a last data table without PRID assignment used by a network policy in data tables; (B) summing up used PRIDs in the last data table as a count M; (C) If M<N, selecting a used PRID with the greatest field value X, wherein N is the greatest integer limit for every data table and M is an integer; and (D) if X<N, assigning an (X+1) th PRID as a PRID used by the network policy in the last data table, wherein X is an integer, and wherein if X=N, the following steps are performed: (D1) retrieving the used PRID with the smallest field value Y, wherein Y is an integer; and (D2) if Y>1, assigning a (Y−1) th PRID as a PRID used by the network policy in the data table.