System and method for hosted network management

摘要

A hosted network management solution for communications over a computer network supports data communication across a network in accordance with a network message protocol such that communications are established between a network host and a node device. The and the node device performs a self-configuring operation in which the network host identifies a network owner associated with the hosted network, and maintains a persistent network connection path between the network host and the node device for the exchange of network packet messages. The network host retrieves message data from the network packet messages it receives from the node device and performs network management operations to provide a user management interface to the identified network owner. The hosted network management enables more convenient setup and configuration for the network owner and provides more complete and effective network management tools.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a network host, a request from a node device for a network address, wherein the node device is one of a plurality of node devices in a managed network; determining that the node device is associated with device registration data in the managed network that identifies a network owner of the managed network; returning a network address allocation message to the node device based on the device registration data, the network address allocation message for use in configuring the node device for operation in the managed network; establishing, based on the network allocation message, a persistent Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel between the network host and the node device; maintaining the persistent VPN tunnel between the network host and the node device for exchanging network messages; and performing, by the network host, pull-based network monitoring to provide a user management interface to the network owner for managing the plurality of node devices, wherein the network host sends a query message to the node device using the persistent VPN tunnel, retrieves operational data from a query response from the node device, and provides real-time updates to the user management interface in accordance with the operational data from the node device, wherein different ones of the plurality of node devices are part of different ones of local networks associated with the network owner.