Patent ID: 8379648

Claim:
A method for automatically mapping data flow, comprising: providing a database identifying a plurality of data paths and a plurality of communications devices, each data path correlated to a particular one of the communications devices, the database having an empty space; receiving an ATM cell from a customer device over a permanent virtual circuit, the permanent virtual circuit associated with a port of a digital subscriber line access multiplexer having a multiplexer address, the ATM cell having a source address identifying the customer device, a destination address identifying the digital subscriber line access multiplexer, a circuit identifier identifying the permanent virtual circuit, and a port number identifying the port; dropping the ATM cell upon determining that the destination address does not match the multiplexer address; determining that the circuit identifier is not found among the data paths identified in the database; indexing a row in the empty space in the database using the port number and the circuit identifier; determining that the source address and the port number are not found in the database; and in response to determining that the source address and the port number are not found, recording the source address from the received ATM cell in the row indexed by the port number and the circuit identifier, thereby correlating the source address, the port number, and the circuit identifier in the indexed empty space of the database.