Patent ID: 8203962
Filing Date: 2012-06-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A network monitoring method in a network monitoring device that monitors a state of a network having a plurality of terminals and network devices, wherein the network monitoring device comprises a storage part, which stores configuration information that includes interface address information identifying an interface address of a communication interface and a subnet mask length of the interface address, for each of the terminals and the network devices, and transfer destination information held by each of the network devices, including information that associates destination address information which identifies a destination address and a subnet mask length of the destination address with transfer destination address information which identifies a transfer destination address to which the destination address is to be transferred, and a control part for controlling the network monitoring device; and the method performs: an input receiving step, in which designated destination address information that includes a designated destination address as an object of path information generation and a subnet mask length of the designated destination address is received through an input part; a path information generation step, which comprises: a step, in which, from the transfer destination information of each network devices and for each piece of the destination address information, a network address of the destination address identified from a piece of the destination address information in question is acquired as a first address, then, from the configuration information of each of the terminals, a network address of the interface address identified from the interface address information is acquired as a second address, and then, among the first addresses, each address that coincides with a plurality of the second addresses is identified as a branch network address, and address information that includes an identified branch network address and a subnet mask length of the branch network address is acquired as branch network address information; a step in which, from the configuration information of each of the network devices, a network address of the interface address identified from the interface address information is acquired as a third address, then, among the third addresses, an address coincident with the branch network address identified from the branch network address information is identified, and then, a network device having the interface address corresponding to the identified address is identified; a step in which, by sequentially and repeatedly performing: a first step in which, from the transfer destination information of the identified network device, a transfer destination address to which the designated destination address identified from the designated destination address information should be transferred is acquired, and a second step in which, from the configuration information of each of the network devices, an interface address coincident with the acquired transfer destination address is identified, and a network device having the identified interface address is identified, to use then the transfer destination information of the identified network device in the first step, path information that includes information specifying connection order of network devices between the branch network and the designated designation address is generated, wherein the generated path information is stored in the storage part, wherein when a plurality of branch network addresses have been identified, path information is generated between each of the branch network addresses and the designated destination address; a step in which the control part performs: a first step of acquiring, from each of the network devices identified from the interface address information included in the configuration information, traffic information indicating a traffic of the network device in question, and stores the acquired traffic information in the storage part, a second step of performing processing in which the path information is acquired from the storage part, and displaying the network devices connection order identified from the path information on a display part, a third stop of processing in which the traffic information of each of the network devices constituting the connection order is acquired from the storage part, and the acquired traffic information is displayed on the display part, a fourth step of identifying, among the generated pieces of path information, pieces of path information having the same designated destination address, comparing the network devices connection orders identified from the identified pieces of path information to identify common connection order common to the compared connection orders, and displaying the identified common connection order on the display part, a fifth step of identifying a first network device that is closest in the connection order to the branch networks among the network devices constituting the identified common connection order, and judging whether a traffic of the first network device exceeds a first threshold, a sixth step of when the traffic is judged to exceed the first threshold, identifying second network devices located between the first network device and the branch networks, from each piece of the path information including the common connection order, a seventh step of identifying a second network device whose traffic exceeds a second threshold among the identified second network devices, and an eighth step of displaying the identified second network device together with the common connection order, wherein the transfer destination information includes output interface information that identifies an output interface coupled to the transfer destination address; a step of identifying the output interface together with the transfer destination address to which the designated destination address is to be transferred, and generates path information that includes information specifying the network devices connection order together with the output interface of each of the network devices; and a step in which the control part further performs: a step of acquiring, from the storage part, the traffic information of the output interface of a network device as a component of the connection order, and displaying the acquired traffic information in the display part.