Networked facilities management system
Patent 5522044 Issued on May 28, 1996. Estimated Expiration Date: 
January 21, 2014. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
January 21, 2014. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent ReferencesLocating resources in computer networks User to network interface protocol for packet communications networks System for locating resources resided in a distributing processing system by sequentially transmitting resource inquiries through a looped transmission line Message routing system for shared communication media networks Distributed file access structure lock Patent #: 5175852 Inventors
AssigneeApplicationNo. 185181 filed on 01/21/1994US Classes:709/222, Initializing709/229, Network resources access controlling709/243Decentralized controllingExaminersPrimary: Harrell, Robert B.Attorney, Agent or FirmInternational ClassG06F 013/00AbstractA networked system having a wide variety of applications and particularly applicable to facilities management systems has multiple levels of software in processing nodes. The levels include a "features" processing level which communicates requests for data to a software object level containing databases of processes and attributes and database managers. The database managers in the software object level operate to provide data to the high level features in the same format. The software object level communicates with a hardware object level which also contains databases and database managers to mask differences between operational hardware units. By categorizing operational units by type, additional units of a known type can be added with only low level hardware object database changes. Adding units of a new type is facilitated by software changes confined to the lower level hardware and software objects, avoiding software changes at high level features. Individual software objects are tailored for typical types of inputs and output devices encountered by facilities management systems. Universal drive circuitry also provides applicability to a broad range of devices. Nodes are provided with ports which may accommodate a non-configured device. When a non-configured device is identified on a port, a drop identifier specifying the port is transmitted to the non-configured device for use in establishing a network address by which the non-configured device can be accessed.Other References
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