Patent ID: 8811224

Claim:
A method of determining a physical connectivity of the new node connected to a dynamic communication network comprising a plurality of connecting nodes each comprising a plurality of ports, the method comprising: determining a baseline dataset comprising node data and connectivity data representing all discovered nodes in a dynamic communication network; responsive to automatically discovering a new node connected to the dynamic communication network and not represented in the baseline dataset, obtaining address data characterizing a network address of said discovered new node; querying all known connecting nodes and generating a port dataset, the port dataset indicating connectivity data for only a subset of all known connecting nodes, the subset representing only connecting nodes having registered address data characterizing the network address of said discovered new node; determining, by analyzing the generated port dataset, a directly connected port and respective connecting node to which said discovered new node is directly connected; classifying initially the discovered new node as an endpoint node and classifying the port of the respective connecting node as an endpoint port prior to performing a network connectivity analysis; reclassifying said discovered new node as a connecting node responsive to results of the network connectivity analysis; and reclassifying the directly connected port as an inter-switch port or a switch-router port responsive to results of the network connectivity analysis.