Discovery and display of network phones on a network topology map

摘要

In a network of devices such as workstations, servers, hubs, bridges, a network management computer 11 runs a process for the discovery of telephones such as Ethernet telephones connected to the network. Discovered phones are displayed as icons on a network topology map. Managed devices are discovered using a protocol such as SNMP. The phones do not support SNMP and so are discovered using a processor 20 which stores information (which may be in the form of a custom web page) comprising a list of telephones and their MAC addresses. This information is used by the network management computer 11 to match up MAC addresses seen at the ports of managed devices with the MAC addresses of phones.