Patent ID: 7519700

Claim:
A system to visually navigate hierarchical data groups, the system including: a network management console comprising, an extractor processing subsystem configured to receive a request to retrieve network traffic information relating to logical groups of network nodes connected to a selected logical group of such nodes having a selected level of hierarchy and a topology tool processing subsystem configured to retrieve information from those ones of the connected logical groups relevant to the selected level of hierarchy wherein the topology tool processing subsystem is further configured to, filter the connected logical groups according to respective levels of hierarchy thereof, wherein the topological tool processing subsystem includes a filter configured to, identify the selected logical group as a relevant logical group; identify those of the connected logical groups as relevant logical groups if a logical group container associated with a connected logical group of interest is the same as a logical group container associated with the selected logical group and a level of hierarchy for the connected logical group of interest is the same as the level of hierarchy for the selected logical group; identify a top level container for the connected logical group of interest as a relevant logical group if the logical group container associated with the connected logical group of interest is different from the logical group container associated with the selected logical group, and identify those of the connected logical groups as relevant logical groups if a connected logical group is not a member of any logical group container.