SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC NETWORK TOPOLOGY EXPLORATION

• Main Authors: WILCKE, WINFRIED, W, WICKI, THOMAS M, HELLAND, PATRICK, J, WEBER, WOLF-DIETRICH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 27.04.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A system and method dynamically determines the topology of a source node routing network while having a minimal effect on network performance and without requiring expensive hardware to implement. A source node generates a ping frame. The source node transmits the ping frame to a first source router that is coupled to the source node. The first router transparently identifies the frame as a ping frame and creates an echo frame that is transmitted back to the source node. The first router identifies the port from which the ping frame is received and places this information in the header of the echo frame along with an echo frame identifier. The source node receives the echo frame and identifies routers and nodes to which a ping frame has not been sent based upon the connectivity information in the received echo frame. The source node continue generating and transmitting ping frame to all nodes and routers in the network. The source node identifies loops in the topology to avoid repetitive checking and identifies link and router failures. The topology exploration technique is transparent to the routers The topology exploration techique can be implemented during slow traffic periods with no increase in network latency or the technique can be implemented during high traffic periods and result in only a minimal increase in system latency because ping frames are small and are transparently sent to the control frame handler of the destination router or node.