Patent ID: 7290048

Claim:
A method of assigning parentage of a set of network transactions in time comprising: choosing a first network transaction; sorting the network transactions into groups of partial enclosers, full enclosers and non-busy full enclosers relative to the first network transaction; assigning parentage of the first network transaction through the following steps; if the non-busy full encloser group includes one and only one network transaction, the non-busy full encloser network transaction is assigned as a parent of the first network transaction; if the non-busy full encloser group includes more than one network transaction, a difference in timing between the first network transaction and each non-busy full network transaction in the non-busy full encloser group is calculated to determine the non-busy full encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing wherein the non-busy full encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing is assigned as a parent of the first network transaction; if the full encloser group includes one and only one network transaction, the full encloser network transaction is assigned as parent of the first network transaction; if the full encloser group includes more than one network transaction, a difference in timing between the first network transaction and each full encloser network transaction in the full encloser group is calculated to determine the full encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing wherein the full encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing is assigned as a parent of the first network transaction; if the partial encloser group includes one and only one network transaction, the partial encloser network transaction is assigned as parent of the first network transaction; if the partial encloser group includes more than one network transaction, a difference in timing between the first network transaction and each partial encloser network transaction in the partial encloser group is calculated to determine the partial encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing wherein the partial encloser network transaction having the smallest difference in timing is assigned as a parent of the first network transaction.