US Patent 7925733 Generating unique object identifiers for network management objects

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter use a radix-like counting technique to generate unique object identifiers (OIDs) for managed objects in accordance with a network management protocol. A limit value is utilized to ensure prefix uniqueness for an allocated object identifier. For a level in a managed objects tree with a maximum value of MAX, a suffix MAX-2 will be allocated for a unique object identifier and a suffix MAX-1 will be extended to allow allocation of unique object identifiers with MAX-1 in the prefix, while the suffix MAX-2 will not occur in a prefix for a unique object identifier. Embodiments of the inventive subject matter allow for generation of unique object identifiers in constant bound time O(1). Additionally, the number of OIDs generated is not limited by the maximum value of an integer 232−1.