Patent ID: 8032531

Claim:
A computer-implemented section identification system for identifying a section of a network, said network represented by a system diagram, comprising: a computer-implemented system diagram information management portion for managing information on each of nodes, branches and spans constituting the system diagram and ID (Identification) information given to each of the nodes, said ID information including depth (level) information corresponding to the number of branches in the system diagram; a computer-implemented input portion for receiving an input specifying at least one node on said system diagram; and a computer-implemented search portion for creating a search condition using said ID information based on node specification received by said input portion and searching the span between the specified nodes by using the search condition so as to identify a section constituted by the span, wherein the system diagram information management portion comprises: means for examining the number of spans extending from a specified node; means for selecting one of unprocessed spans and increasing a value of ID(x) of depth (x) by 1 so that the ID(x) becomes ID information on a node at an end point of the selected span; means for generating ID(x+1) of depth (x+1) so that ID(x+1)=1 and selecting one of the unprocessed spans so that the ID(x+1) becomes ID information on a node at an end point of the selected span, if there are unprocessed spans remained; and means for letting ID(x+1)=0, letting x become x+1, generating ID(x+1) of depth (x+1) so that ID(x+1)=1, and selecting one of the unprocessed spans so that the ID(x+1) becomes ID information on a node at an end point of the selected span, if there are still unprocessed spans.