Patent ID: 8102758

Claim:
A network management system for determining impacted units, comprising: a gathering component that receives data from an origin device on a computer network, the received data including a label and being sent by the origin device to a target device within the computer network, extracts the label from the received data, and transmits the received data to the target device within the computer network; and an identifying component that identifies impacted units affected as a result of a network communication failure based on the data obtained by the gathering component, the identifying component comprising an analyzing component, a comparison component, and a searching component, wherein the analyzing component determines an Internet Protocol (IP) address that corresponds to the label; wherein the comparison component compares the label against information located in the source device to determine a Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) that uses the IP address to reach the target device; and to determine, within the VRF, a customer destination label that uses the IP address, the customer destination label identifying an impacted unit that share a path connected to the target device, and the impacted unit being affected as a result of a network communication failure related to the path; and wherein the searching component searches for other impacted units identified by the customer destination label without contacting the target device and without the use of an offline topological map.