Patent ID: 7961594

Claim:
A process for constructing and analyzing an access path event history in a network, comprising: detecting at least one access path event causing nonconformance with an access path policy, wherein an access path event comprises a physical or a logical change of a state of a network component on the access path, and the access path policy includes a set of access paths and attributes of the set of access paths; determining a root cause of the nonconformance, wherein determining the root cause includes determining event timing of the at least one access path event, and reconciling discrepancies in the event timing of the at least one access path event, wherein determining the event timing includes receiving, at a network management device, electronic signals representative of timestamps from network components, the timestamps being associated with the at least one event, wherein reconciling discrepancies in the event timing is based on a route for transmission of a timestamp, a multiplicity of messages with different timestamps for an identical event, and a causal relationship between events; reconfiguring network resources based on the root cause to bring the reconfigured network in conformance with the access path policy; and validating the reconfigured network.