Patent ID: 7720987

Claim:
A method for mapping a digital network, comprising: sending a transport stream map request to a plurality of network devices including a plurality of network transport stream sources and a plurality of network transport stream handlers; receiving a plurality of replies to the transport stream map request from the plurality of network devices, each reply including information associated with the respective network device, the information including an input transport stream identifier (input TSID) received by the respective network device and an output transport stream identifier (output TSID) transmitted by the respective device; remapping, when a received at least one of: the input TSID and the output TSID indicates a transport stream transmission conflict, a corresponding at least one of: an input transport stream corresponding to at least one network transport stream handler associated with the conflict, and an output transport stream corresponding to one of: the at least one network transport stream handler and at least one network transport stream source associated with the conflict; and generating a transport stream map based on at least one of: the received replies and at least one remapped transport stream identifier, the transport stream map representing a flow of transport streams among the plurality of network devices.