Reliable datagram packet delivery for simple network management protocol (SNMP)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided in a network system having a first network device and a plurality of network devices.
The first network device stores a retry time and a retry value for each network device in the plurality of network devices.
In order to determine when to execute a timeout for a first message sent from the first network device to a second network device which is in the plurality of network devices, the retry time and the retry value for the second network device are used.
While a response to the first message is not received by the first network device from the second network device, the first message from the first network device to the second network device is resent a number of times equal to the retry value for the second network device.
The elapsed time between each resending of the first message is equal to the retry value for the second network device.
When a response to the first message is still not received by the first network device, a timeout is executed.
The first network device adjusts the retry value and the retry number for each network device as responses are received from the network device or timeouts are executed.
For example, when the first network device receives a response to the first message by the first network device, the first network device adjusts the retry time for the second network device based on a first response time which elapsed between the first network device sending the first message and the first network device receiving from the second network device the response to the first message.
For instance, when the first response time is a maximum for response times for messages sent from the first network device to the second network device, the retry time for the second network device is set equal to an amount greater than the first response time.
When the first response time is not a maximum for response times for messages sent from the first network device to the second network device, the retry time for the second network device is set equal to a weighted average of the current retry time and the first response time