Patent ID: 7646729

Claim:
A method for managing a communications network, the method comprising: adapting a sniffer to collect information from nodes of a first outer nodal area of the communications network, wherein the communications network comprises: an inner nodal area; and a plurality of outer nodal areas connected to the inner nodal area via respective nodes of the inner nodal area, each outer nodal area comprising a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of nodes configured to send link status messages only to other nodes of the outer nodal area, wherein the adapting comprises: configuring the sniffer as a partition designated inner-nodal-area node of the first outer nodal area; adapting the sniffer to collect information from nodes of a second outer nodal area of the communications network by configuring the sniffer as a partition designated inner-nodal-area node of the second outer nodal area; and determining a topology of at least a portion of the communications network using the collected information, the portion of the communications network comprising the first and second outer nodal areas.