Patent ID: 8171413

Claim:
A system for presenting information about subnets in a network, comprising: a) a display which represents some of the subnets; and b) a detecting and displaying system for i) detecting selection of a displayed subnet A by a user and, in response, ii) displaying on said display at least one frame comprising a plurality of rows of cells arranged in a hierarchy following said selected subnet A, said detecting and displaying system recalculating and displaying each cell in said plurality of rows of cells of said at least one frame in response to said user's selection so that each cell within each or said plurality of rows of cells is populated and displayed with a subset of said selected subnet A in a dotted decimal format; said plurality of rows of cells in said at least one frame being grouped in a hierarchy, with each cell in said plurality of rows of cells being a subnet and representing a range of binary numbers corresponding to a range of network addresses, respectively, that subtend from said subnet A; a first one of said plurality of rows of cells within said at least one frame comprising a plurality of cells and each of said plurality of cells being represented by two cells in a second one of said plurality of rows of cells in said at least one frame so that a number of said plurality of cells in said second one of said plurality of rows of cells within said at least one frame doubles compared to a number of cells in said first one of said plurality of rows of cells, said second one of said plurality of rows of cells immediately succeeding said first one of said plurality of rows in said at least one frame; each cell in said first one of said plurality of rows of cells in said at least one frame is subdivided into two cells in said second one of said plurality of rows of cells in said at least one frame and said range of binary numbers represented by each of said two cells will be one-half of the range of binary numbers represented by said cell in said first one of said plurality of rows of cells.