PCA Faculty Member Receives Fifth Patent

Congratulations to PCA faculty member and IT Director, Mike Shevenell, for receiving his fifth patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month!

Mike, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, currently teaches Robotics & Software Engineering at our Upper School and is also a Varsity Track Coach. His latest patent is entitled “Identification of Networking Components via Application Programming Interface Signatures.” This is essentially a process whereby unknown network-based software entities are identified by repeated probes to determine their identity which is especially useful in areas of rapidly evolving technology where managements standards have not been developed or formalized yet. In the past nine years, Mike has received four other patents and has three additional patents pending.

Identification of networking component application programming interfaces (patent issued May 1, 2018)

Efficient Network Monitoring (patent issued February 16, 2016)

System and method for intelligent service assurance in network management (patent issued November 6, 2012)

Method and apparatus for security management via vicarious network devices (patent issued August 3, 2010)

Method and apparatus for the simulation of computer networks (patent issued November 17, 2009)

Software Defined Networking Entity Life cycle Management (patent pending)

This application focuses on the dynamic lifecycle of components in Software Defined Networking (SDN) based networks. Key aspects include the definition of communication and representation methods for the efficient transfer of this lifecycle information.

Automated Testing of Software Defined Networking Virtual Service Chains (patent pending)

This application (similar to 14/716,185) focuses on methods for intelligent and dynamic test provisioning in Software Defined Networking based Virtual Service Chains. These highly dynamic service chains require testing, validation and verification at several levels which must constantly be adjusted as services and resources change. This method involves detecting and responding to relevant changes in the network environment which lead to modifications of test architecture and deployment

Method for computing Policy based operations Administration & Management (OAM) coverage metrics (patent pending)

This application focuses on solving the difficult problem of constantly updating and adapting the OAM test in a highly dynamic network environment (like Software Defined Networking for example). One of the challenges is knowing where adequate tests have been provisioned and which areas need additional test. The introduction (and computation) of an OAM Coverage metric is used to guide this further application and deployment of tests.