Patent ID: 8509117

Claim:
A method comprising: requesting a management information variable from a device on a network, the management information variable includes management information associated with the device, the management information variable comprising at least one object identifier (OID); receiving a response from the device, the response comprising the requested management information variable including a single OID, the single OID comprising a sequence of numbers; using the received single OID to generate a set of OIDs, the set of OIDs generated by: assigning the single OID as a seed OID; adding the seed OID as part of the set of OIDs; splitting the seed OID, the splitting of the seed OID comprising: removing a last number in the sequence of numbers of the seed OID, the removal of the last number the sequence of numbers creating a new last number in the sequence of numbers of the seed OID, multiplying the new last number in the sequence of numbers of the seed OID by a numerical value, generating a new OID as a result of multiplying the last number in the sequence of numbers of the seed OID, and assigning the new OID as the seed OID, and repeating the splitting of the seed OID until a threshold is achieved, wherein the set of OIDs is generated at least upon achieving the threshold; and sending the generated set of OIDs in a single request to the device.