Patent ID: 8078706

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, incrementing the new last number in the sequence of numbers by one, generating a new OID as a result of incrementing the last number in the sequence of numbers of the a new 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.