Patent ID: 7930725

Claim:
A method of determining an operational status of a segment of a distribution network comprising: accessing a ping datastore to acquire ping data associated with a plurality of subscriber premises units (SPUs) connected to the distribution network through a common node, wherein the ping data comprise for each SPU of the plurality of SPUs a ratio of a number of ping responses to a number of ping queries; selecting a primary SPU, wherein the primary SPU has the highest ratio of ping responses to ping queries and wherein the primary SPU is associated with a primary SPU IP address; and selecting a secondary SPU, wherein the secondary SPU has the second highest ratio of ping responses to ping queries and wherein the secondary SPU is associated with a secondary SPU IP address; pinging the primary SPU IP address; when a response from the ping is received from the primary SPU, then setting a primary SPU operational status of the primary SPU to responsive and setting a node operational status of the common node to responsive; when a response from the ping is not received from the primary SPU, pinging the secondary SPU IP address; when a response from the ping is received from the secondary SPU, then setting a secondary SPU operational status of the secondary SPU to responsive and setting a node operational status of the common node to responsive; when a response from the ping is not received from the secondary SPU, then setting the secondary SPU operational status of the secondary SPU to non-responsive and setting the node operational status of the common node to non-responsive; and determining an operational status of a network component upstream from the common node based on the node operational status of all nodes serviced by the upstream network component.