Patent ID: 7512841

Claim:
A method for locating a fault in a network, comprising: in response to a node having one or more of one or more addresses and one or more interfaces that fail to respond to a poll, polling the node itself; and if the node fails to respond, polling a plurality of neighbor nodes of the node and assigning the fault in accordance with a number and the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes, wherein assigning the fault in accordance with the polling of the node and the number and the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes further comprises: if the node does not respond, further comprising performing: if the node is one hop downstream from a NAT router, determining that the fault is with the node; if the node is the NAT router, determining that the fault is with the node; if the node has no neighbors, determining that the fault is with the node; if the node has no neighbors that respond to the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes, not generating an alarm; if the node has neighbors that respond to the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes, further comprising: if the node is an end node, determining that the fault is with the node; if there is more than one neighbor that responds to the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes, determining that the fault is with the node; and if there is exactly one neighbor that responds to the polling of the plurality of neighbor nodes and there is more than one connection inaccessible determining that the fault is with the connection, otherwise the fault is with the node.