Patent ID: 7948916

Claim:
Method for discovering topology information in a computer network, comprising: identifying interface addresses in an address table of a node in the network by ignoring all loopback addresses and all any-cast addresses; comparing prefixes of the interface addresses with prefixes in an address prefix table of the node; associating subnets in the network with interfaces corresponding to the interface addresses, based on the comparison; identifying an other node with a retrieved address from reading a net-to-media table or routing table using the identified interface address of an interface of the node as an index to the net-to media table or the routing table, wherein the net-to-media table includes information about nodes neighboring the node including neighboring address and interface index information, and wherein the routing table includes information about one or more next hop addresses from the node including address and interface index information; repeating the identifying interface addresses, the comparing prefixes, and associating subnets with the other node; and generating a topology from the association of the subnets in the network with the interfaces.