Patent ID: 8607293

Claim:
A method of establishing a relationship between an addressable network element and a non-addressable network element comprising: a processor acquiring first data from a first datastore, wherein the first data associates a first identifier of each of a plurality of first addressable network elements in the network to one of a plurality of non-addressable network elements in the network to which the first addressable network elements are connected; the processor acquiring second data from a second datastore, wherein the second data associates the first identifier of each of the plurality of the first addressable network elements to one of a plurality of second identifiers of a second addressable network element; the processor using the first data to identify a first set of first identifiers associated with a particular non-addressable network element; the processor using the second data to identify a second set of first identifiers associated with a particular second identifier of a particular second network device; the processor comparing the first and second sets of first identifiers; and the processor storing the particular second identifier in association with the particular non-addressable network element when at least a threshold measure of the first set of first identifiers matches the second set of first identifiers, wherein the threshold measure is less than one.