{"schema_version":"1.0","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-8499204","patent":{"patent_number":"US-8499204","title":"Method and apparatus for maintaining the status of objects in computer networks using virtual state machines","assignee":null,"inventors":[],"filing_date":"2011-06-28T00:00:00.000Z","publication_date":"2013-07-30T00:00:00.000Z","cpc_codes":["H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L","H04L"],"num_claims":15,"abstract":"A network appliance for monitoring, diagnosing and documenting problems among a plurality of devices and processes (objects) coupled to a computer network utilizes periodic polling and collection of object-generated trap data to monitor the status of objects on the computer network. The status of a multitude of objects is maintained in memory utilizing virtual state machines which contain a small amount of persistent data but which are modeled after one of a plurality of finite state machines. The memory further maintains dependency data related to each object which identifies parent/child relationships with other objects at the same or different layers of the OSI network protocol model. A decision engine verifies through on-demand polling that a device is down. A root cause analysis module utilizes status and dependency data to locate the highest object in the parent/child relationship tree that is affected to determine the root cause of a problem. Once a problem has been verified, a “case” is opened and notification alerts may be sent out to one or more devices. A user interface allows all objects within the network to be displayed with their respective status and their respective parent/child dependency objects in various formats."},"analysis":{"summary":null,"layman_explanation":null,"technical_analysis":null,"business_analysis":null,"faqs":null,"topics":[],"tech_cluster":null},"seo":{"title":"Method and apparatus for maintaining the status of objects in computer networks using virtual state machines","description":"A network appliance for monitoring, diagnosing and documenting problems among a plurality of devices and processes (objects) coupled to a computer network utilizes periodic polling and collection of o","keywords":[]},"attribution":{"source":"Patentable","source_url":"https://patentable.app","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-8499204","license":"CC-BY-4.0-like","license_terms":"AI-generated analysis on this page (summary, layman_explanation, technical_analysis, business_analysis, faqs) may be reused with attribution and a visible link back to the canonical URL above. Patent abstracts, claims, and bibliographic data are USPTO public domain.","required_link":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-8499204","citation_suggestion":"Patentable. \"Method and apparatus for maintaining the status of objects in computer networks using virtual state machines\" (US-8499204). https://patentable.app/patents/US-8499204","copyright_holder":"Nomic Interactive Technology LLC"},"links":{"html":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-8499204","json":"https://patentable.app/api/llm-context/US-8499204","site":"https://patentable.app","llms_txt":"https://patentable.app/llms.txt"},"generated_at":"2026-05-31T12:36:59.661Z"}