Patent ID: 7293106

Claim:
A computer implemented method for use during execution of finding a path between two network element nodes by a computer accessing an associated routing table for routing information in a network, comprising: obtaining a subnet information from a routing table of a first node in the path to analyze by masking with a sequence of binary 1's shifted with 0's to get a destination address based on the subnet information, and selecting a second node as another node in the path, the obtaining of a subnet information being repeatable with the another node being set as the first node to select the second node, the analyzing by masking including the steps of: bitwise ANDing a mask to an address of a next node to get a destination address, checking the routing table of the first node for the destination address, shifting the mask to add a 0, and repeating the bitwise ANDing of the mask to the next node address and checking the routing table of the first node for the destination address until the second node is found or the mask is all 0's; determining whether any non-routing nodes are in the path between the first and second nodes; and producing an electronic representation of nodes in the path.