Patent ID: 7853671

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a computer program for analyzing a plurality of network system designs, the computer program comprising: a first receiving code segment for receiving a first design comprising a plurality of first components, each of the first components having a plurality of attributes; an identifying code segment for accessing a component database and identifying a plurality of second components corresponding to the plurality of first components based on at least one attribute comparable to an attribute of the corresponding one of the first components, each of the second components having a plurality of attributes; a second receiving code segment for receiving a second design comprising the plurality of second components; and a comparing code segment for deriving a mean score for each of the first components and the second components from scores given to each of the attributes of the first components and the second components, and for generating an aggregate score for each of the first design and the second design, based on the mean scores of the first components and the second components, wherein the scores account for various levels of importance associated with particular attributes or components.