Patent ID: 8054756

Claim:
A method performed by a processor for path discovery of network usage data, the method comprising: at one or more computing devices configured to perform path discovery, receiving node visit data, wherein the node visit data indicates which users visited which nodes in a network at which times; organizing, using the one or more computing devices, the node visit data into sessions; producing, from the node visit data a list of all nodes visited; creating a node-to-integer code mapping and an integer-to-node code mapping using the list of all nodes visited and a hierarchy definition, using the one or more computing devices; converting nodes in the organized node visit data into corresponding integers using the node-to-integer code mapping; removing duplicate, successive node visits within the same session from the converted, organized node visit data, using the one or more computing devices; calculating, using the one or more computing devices, all unique pathviews for each session of the converted, organized node visit data, wherein no loop occurs in any unique pathview, wherein a pathview represents a sequence of two or more nodes in the order in which a user visited the two or more nodes in a single session, and a pathview is unique if it is not identical to, or a subset of, another pathview of the single session; calculating a frequency of occurrence of each unique pathview; receiving a query from a path access application program interface; and sending data about the unique pathviews and the frequencies of occurrence responsive to the query to the path access program interface, using the one or more computing devices, wherein the path access application program interface is capable of decoding the unique pathviews using the integer-to-node mapping.