Is a patent about to be granted that covers basic network discovery?

Terry Slattery - CCIE No. 1026 Routing and Switching stated in a recent Netcordia blog entry:

"I discovered a patent application (not yet granted) this week that gave me chills," said Terry Slattery - Cisco CCIE No. 1026 and often regarded as the first real CCIE in history. "Part of its claims* are performing Layer 2 and Layer 3 network topology discovery and display, as of October 2001." "Huh?" "Network topology discovery and display was being done way before then." "What's chilling about this patent application?"

"Having a patent granted that covers basic network discovery."

"That's the foundation of many/all network management products, prior to the filing date and subsequent to then."

Patent Application Publication, May 8 2003, Sheet 5 of 31, US 2003/0086425 A1

Patent Application Abstract

A system for monitoring traffic on a network first discovers the network so as to map the various devices and links in the network.

Statistics are then gathered from various points in the network relating to quality of service, and especially loads on the network devices.

Synthetic calls are generated at selected points of the network while monitoring the network.

This data is then stored and displayed in a manner that is easy for the operator to analyze, with more detailed displays being available through the use of a mouse or keystrokes.

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View Terry Slattery's blog item regarding this patent application.

Update from Terry:

"Thanks for covering this."

"I talked with the USPTO examiner who is reviewing this patent and he didn't know how I could provide input to his process since I'm not a lawyer."

"There are other points in the patent that should also be contested."

"In particular, the combination of Claim 1, 4, and 7, which claims to invent determination of a network path, identifying that an error has occurred on the path, and collecting data via SNMP."

Does the potential of a patent grant on the above patent application give YOU the same chills as Terry?

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