Patent ID: 7379857

Claim:
A method for simulating a computer network in order to facilitate testing computer network security, said method comprising: providing a hardware inventory of physical network components; providing a software library of simulated network components; receiving a specific user-defined computer network configuration for testing network security of said specific user-defined network configuration, a user defining all the physical network components and the simulated network components needed to simulate the user-defined network; in response to the receipt of said specific user-defined computer network configuration to be simulated, selectively acquiring only the user defined physical network components from said hardware inventory, and selectively acquiring only the user defined simulated network components from said software library to create a simulated computer network; configuring said acquired physical network components within said simulated computer network via an interface switch; configuring said acquired simulated network components within said simulated computer network via a plurality of daemons; performing computer network security tests in real-time on said simulated computer network having said acquired physical network components and said simulated network components; and displaying results of said computer network security tests to the user.