Patent ID: 7996556

Claim:
A method of generating a network topology representation based on inspection of application messages at a network device, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving a request packet at the network device from a request application; associating request packet correlation information with a request application message in the request packet at the network device; storing the request packet correlation information; routing the request packet to a request packet destination; receiving a response packet at the network device from a response application responding to the request application message; associating response packet correlation information with a response application message in the response packet at the network device; correlating the response packet correlation information for the response application message with the stored request packet correlation information for the request application message; storing the response packet correlation information; routing the response packet to a response packet destination; analyzing the stored request packet correlation information and the stored response packet correlation information; wherein the request application message and the response application message are messages exchanged in an application layer of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Layer Model; wherein the stored request packet correlation information identifies the request application at the application layer of the OSI Layer Model; wherein the stored response packet correlation information identifies the response application at the application layer of the OSI Layer Model; wherein the request packet and the response packet are Transport Control Protocol (TCP) packets; wherein the analyzing step determines an application-to-application mapping at the application layer of the OSI Layer Model between the request application and the response application; wherein the analyzing step calculates application response times and a response relevant metric; wherein the application-to-application mapping, the application response times and the response relevant metric are published to outside applications; wherein the method is performed by one or more processors.