Patent · US Expired

System and method for monitoring communication networks using data stream characterization

US6904020B1 · kind B1 · utility

28Cited by
8References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 1, 2000
Grant dateJun 7, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 4, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L43/12
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method for automatically monitoring communications networks and for determining network configuration use data stream characterizations. The system comprises a plurality of measurement probes that passively probe the network and collect data packets carried by data streams in the network. The system further comprises characterization computational units that process the collected data packets and produce data stream characterizations from the collected data packets. The data stream characterizations represent individual data streams in an arbitrarily unique manner. The system still further comprises a configuration processing unit that compares data stream characterizations taken at different points in the network and determines data stream paths through the network based on data stream characterization matching. The method for automatically monitoring communications networks comprises the steps of passively probing the data streams to produce sets of collected data packets from the data streams, determining data stream characterizations from the collected data packets, and comparing the data stream characterizations to one another to identify matching characterization…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.