System and Method of Network Diagnosis

• US 20110194451A1
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CF DB EZ LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Crossroads Systems (Texas) Incorporated (Crossroads Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sims, Robert C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,644,185 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0471 applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding

Abstract

Embodiments provide systems and methods for diagnosing a network and identifying problems in a network which reduce the data transfer rate of data through the network. One embodiment of a method for network diagnosis may include infusing data into a network upstream and downstream of a portion of the network relative to a library drive, querying the drive at intervals over time for drive data to determine the data transfer rate at the drive and comparing the data transfer rate of the data infused upstream of the device or network portion with the data transfer rate of the data infused downstream of the device or network portion to determine throughput. By comparing the data transfer rate of data infused upstream and downstream of a network device or network portion, problem devices in a network may be identified.

Claims

1. A system for network diagnosis, comprising:

a library comprising a drive coupled to a network;

an infusion device coupled to the network upstream of a portion of the network relative to the drive and configured to infuse control data into the network at an infused data transfer rate; and

a monitoring appliance coupled to the network and configured to send commands to the drive over the network, wherein the monitoring appliance is further configured to calculate the data transfer rate at the drive based on drive data returned in response to the commands.