Patent ID: 8254282

Claim:
A method of monitoring a telecommunications network having a plurality of network nodes coupled by a plurality of links, comprising: capturing data packets from the links in the telecommunications network via plurality of monitoring probes; classifying the data packets by protocols used in the data packets; receiving a user selection of a group of one or more of the plurality of links; displaying a first information level to the user, the first information level display comprising a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 3 protocols in use on the selected links, a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 4 protocols in use on the selected links, and a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 5/7 protocols in use on the selected links; receiving a user selection of one of the Layer 3 protocols; displaying a second information level to the user, the second information level display comprising a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 3 protocols in use on the selected links, a pie chart representing OSI Layer 4 protocols associated with packets having the selected Layer 3 protocol in use on the selected links, and a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 5/7 protocols associated with packets having the selected Layer 3 protocol in use on the selected links; receiving a user selection of one of the Layer 4 protocols; and displaying a third information level to the user, the third information level display comprising a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 3 protocols in use on the selected links, a pie chart representing OSI Layer 4 protocols associated with packets having the selected Layer 3 protocol in use on the selected links, and a pie chart representing all OSI Layer 5/7 protocols associated with packets having both the selected Layer 3 protocol and the selected Layer 4 protocol in use on the selected links.