Patent ID: 7369513

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining a network topology based on Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated ports, the method comprising: determining a first Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port that is associated with a network interface of a first network device; determining a second Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port that is associated with a network interface of a second network device; determining whether the first Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port is the same as the second Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port; in response to determining that the first Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port is the same as the second Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port, determining that the network interface of the first network device is connected to the network interface of the second network device on a same local network area (LAN) segment; and generating and storing an indication of the network topology that indicates whether the network interface of the first network device is connected to the network interface of the second network device; wherein the first network device is different from the second network device and wherein both the first network device and the second network device are different from a designated network device that contains 1) the first Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port, 2) the second Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated port, or 3) both the first and second Spanning-tree-Algorithm-designated ports.