LAN early warning system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention may be used in virtually any LAN/WAN environment.
For the remainder of this disclosure, the DCO network example is described only for exemplary purposes and not by way of limitation.
Remote console refers to a PC at a Remote Operations Center and Data Center console refers to a PC at a Data Center.
A Data Center console may also be referred to as a local console.
FIG.
1 is a block diagram illustrating the network architecture of an exemplary DCO network.
Such an architecture is also described in related patent application Ser.
No.
08/723,746 (COS-94-035).
Although four Data Centers are shown, in reality any number of Data Centers may be employed.
The Data Centers house the computers that perform data processing.
There are Remote Operations Centers (two in this example) that are used for data center operations functions, such as monitoring and managing the performance of the Data Center computers.
This may be accomplished with remote consoles connected to local consoles at each Data Center.
The related patent application Ser.
No.
08/723,746 (COS-94-035) describes this concept.
Each Data Center and Remote Operations Center has one or more Token Ring LANs to support internal connectivity among the computers and Data Center local consoles.
Each Data Center LAN is then connected to each of the two Remote Operations Center LANs via bridges and routers, as is conventional in the industry.
This realizes an enterprise WAN that constitutes the DCO network.
Also part of the WAN is redundant connections between the two Remote Operations Centers.
Connections among the Data Centers and Remote Operations Centers are standard T1 communication links.
FIG.
2 shows a more detailed network architecture of various Data Center and Remote Operations Center LANs connected to an enterprise WAN.
At each Data Center there are several local (Data Center) consoles.
These local consoles monitor the computers that perform data processing.
There may be one or more Token Ring LANs at each Data Center