Patent ID: 7441023

Claim:
A method for representing a network and performing operations on the represented network, the method comprising the steps of: creating at least one configuration non-specific object class associated with components of the network, wherein said objects are selected from the group consisting of: LSPTermination, LSPHop, LSPOutSegment, LSPInSegment and wherein the objects LSPOutSegment, LSPInSegment are subclasses of the LSPTermination object; and creating at least one configuration non-specific representation of relationships among associated object classes, wherein the relationships among the object classes are selected from the group consisting of: PreviousHop/NextHop, SwitchedFrom/SwitchedTo, PreviousHop, FirstHop, NextHop, Connected PE; representing a behavior relationship among the object classes based on the representations of the relationships among the object classes, wherein said behavior relationship is represented as a mapping of effects of at least one event in selected object classes to events in other selected object classes to allow propagation and elevation of events through relationships of the object classes to higher object class levels; analyzing properties of the network based on the propagation and elevation of events between the object classes.