System and method for assigning network blocks to sensors

• US 8,433,790 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2010
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sourcefire Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Polley, Jonathan, Vogel, William Andrew III
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Application Number:
  US12/813,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20110307600A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A system includes a processor device. The processor device is configured to detect a physical topology of a network comprising hosts and sensors in the network. The processor device is also configured to generate a sensor policy for assignment of the sensors to network blocks of the hosts, that balances a processing load and accuracy of the sensors in the network based on physical closeness of the sensors to different divisions of hosts within a same network block.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a processor and memory configured to

detect a physical topology of a network comprising hosts and sensors in the network;

determine different divisions of hosts within a same one of network blocks of the network;

for each of the sensors,

determine distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the different divisions of hosts within the same one of network blocks of the network, and

for each of the different divisions of hosts, assign a sensor-network block score to indicate physical proximity based on the distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the each of the different divisions of hosts;

determine which one of the sensors to assign to one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on which one of the sensors is physically closest the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block as indicated by the sensor-network block scores; and

generate a sensor policy that assigns the one of the sensors to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on the sensor-network block scores, wherein the processor is further configured to

iteratively divide and determine sensor-network block scores of smaller divisions of hosts within the network block; and

scale the sensor-network block scores that are assigned to prefer a larger network block over a smaller network block, when the different divisions of hosts within the network block are iteratively divided into smaller divisions of hosts within the network block.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a sensor most suited to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts is determined by recursively determining smaller and smaller divisions of hosts within the network block and determining which of the sensors has an overall shortest physical distance, as indicated by the sensor-network block scores, to each one of the smaller and smaller divisions of the network block.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the sensor policy to the sensors in the network to instruct the sensors as to which hosts to monitor.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising displaying the sensor policy for assignment of the sensors, on a display to a user for acceptance of the sensor policy.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the one of the sensors monitors by passively reading packets in motion on the network.

5. A method, comprising:

in a processor device,

detecting a physical topology of a network comprising hosts and sensors in the network;

determining different divisions of hosts within a same one of network blocks of the network; and

for each of the sensors,

determining distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the different divisions of hosts within the same one of network blocks of the network, and

for each of the different divisions of hosts, assigning a sensor-network block score to indicate physical proximity based on the distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the each of the different divisions of hosts;

determining which one of the sensors to assign to one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on which one of the sensors is physically closest to the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block as indicated by the sensor-network block scores;

generating a sensor policy that assigns the one of the sensors to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on the sensor-network block scores;

iteratively dividing and determining sensor-network block scores of smaller divisions of hosts within the network block; and

scaling the sensor-network block scores that are assigned to prefer a larger network block over a smaller network block, when the different divisions of hosts within the network block are iteratively divided into smaller divisions of hosts within the network block.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a sensor most suited to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts by recursively determining smaller and smaller divisions of hosts within the network block and determining which of the sensors has an overall shortest physical distance, as indicated by the sensor-network block scores, to each one of the smaller and smaller divisions of the network block.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting the sensor policy to the sensors in the network to instruct the sensors as to which hosts to monitor.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising displaying the sensor policy for assignment of the sensors, on a display to a user for acceptance of the sensor policy.

9. A controller configured to perform the method of claim 5.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for performing the method of claim 5.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein the one of the sensors monitors by passively reading packets in motion on the network.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising non-transitory computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

detecting a physical topology of a network comprising hosts and sensors in the network;

determining different divisions of hosts within a same one of network blocks of the network;

for each of the sensors,

determining distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the different divisions of hosts within the same one of network blocks of the network, and

for each of the different divisions of hosts, assigning a sensor-network block score to indicate physical proximity based on the distances between the sensor and each of the hosts in the each of the different divisions of hosts;

determining which one of the sensors to assign to one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on which one of the sensors is physically closest to the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block as indicated by the sensor-network block scores;

generating a sensor policy that assigns the one of the sensors to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts within the same network block of the hosts, based on the sensor-network block scores;

iteratively dividing and determining sensor-network block scores of smaller divisions of hosts within the network block; and

scaling the sensor-network block scores that are assigned to prefer a larger network block over a smaller network block, when the different divisions of hosts within the network block are iteratively divided into smaller division of hosts within the network block.

12. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, further comprising determining a sensor most suited to monitor the one of the different divisions of hosts by recursively determining smaller and smaller divisions of hosts within the network block and determining which of the sensors has an overall shortest physical distance, as indicated by the sensor-network scores, to each one of the smaller and smaller divisions of the network block.

13. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, further comprising transmitting the sensor policy to the sensors in the network to instruct the sensors as to which hosts to monitor.

14. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, further comprising displaying the sensor policy for assignment of the sensors, on a display to a user for acceptance of the sensor policy.

17. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one of the sensors monitors by passively reading packets in motion on the network.