METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING PHYSICAL CONNECTIVITY IN A DYNAMIC NETWORK

• US 20100315975A1
• Filed: 08/05/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: Insightix
• Inventors: ARKIN, Ofir
• Granted Patent: US 8,811,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/413 with random access, e.g. carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection [CSMA-CD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

There are provided a system and a method of determining a physical connectivity of a new node connected to a dynamic communication network comprising a plurality of connecting nodes each comprising a plurality of ports. The method comprises: (a) responsive to automatically discovering a new node connected to the dynamic communication network, obtaining address data characterizing a network address of said discovered new node; (b) querying all known connecting nodes and generating a port dataset representing all ports thereof which have registered address data characterizing the network address of said discovered new node; (c) defining, by analyzing the generated port dataset, a port and respective connecting node which said discovered new node is directly connected to.

Claims

1. A method of determining a physical connectivity of a new node connected to a dynamic communication network comprising a plurality of connecting nodes each comprising a plurality of ports, the method comprising:

(a) responsive to automatically discovering a new node connected to the dynamic communication network, obtaining address data characterizing a network address of said discovered new node;

(b) querying all known connecting nodes and generating a port dataset representing all ports thereof which have registered address data characterizing the network address of said discovered new node;

(c) defining, by analyzing the generated port dataset, a port and respective connecting node which said discovered new node is directly connected to.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the connecting nodes are known from a previously provided process of determining a physical connectivity in the dynamic communication network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the network address is a MAC address.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the port dataset is generated in accordance with SNMP MIB data received from the connecting nodes responsive to querying.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the port dataset is generated in accordance with data received from the connecting nodes by querying via remote log-in into the connecting nodes.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the port dataset comprises processing data related to the ports represented in the port dataset in order to discover a port which is not an inter-switch port or a switch-router port, thereby discovering the port directly connected to the discovered new node.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said discovered new node is initially classified as an end-node and respective directly connected port is initially classified as an end-node port, and wherein said discovered new node is further re-classified as a connecting node and respective directly connected port is further re-classified as an inter-switch port or a switch-router port responsive to results of a network connectivity analysis.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic communication network is selected from a group comprising a single-subnet communication network, a multi-subnet communication network, a single VLAN communication network, and a multi-VLAN communication network.

17. A computer program comprising computer program code means for performing all operations of claim 1 when said program is run on a computer.

18. A computer program as claimed in claim 17 embodied on a computer readable medium.

9. A system capable to determine a physical connectivity of a new node connected to a dynamic communication network comprising a plurality of connecting nodes each comprising a plurality of ports, the system comprising:

(a) means for obtaining, responsive to automatically discovering a new node connected to the dynamic communication network, address data characterizing a network address of said discovered new node;

(b) means for querying connecting nodes and receiving respective responses, wherein said means are configured to query known connecting nodes with respect to ports thereof which have registered address data characterizing the network address of said discovered new node;

(c) means for generating a port dataset in accordance with responses received from the queried connecting nodes, wherein said port dataset presents ports which have registered address data characterizing the network address of said discovered new node;

(d) means for analyzing the generated port dataset in order to define a port and respective connecting node directly connected to said discovered new node.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a memory configured to maintain data related to the known connecting nodes.

11. The system of claim 9 further comprising communication means operative to receive data related to the known connecting nodes from an external memory.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the network address is a MAC address.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the port dataset is generated in accordance with SNMP MIB data received from the connecting nodes responsive to querying.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the port dataset is generated in accordance with data received from the connecting nodes by querying via remote log-in into the connecting nodes.

15. The system of claim 9 further comprising means for classifying said discovered new node, wherein said means are configured to initially classify the discovered new node as an end-node and to initially classify respective directly connected port as an end-node port, and, responsive to results of a network connectivity analysis, to further re-classify the discovered new node as a connecting node and to respective directly connected port as an inter-switch port or a switch-router port.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the dynamic communication network is selected from a group comprising a single-subnet communication network, a multi-subnet communication network, a single VLAN communication network, and a multi-VLAN communication network.