Patent ID: 7075896

Claim:
A program storage medium readable by a computer, embodying a computer program of instructions executable by the computer for automatically specifying a topological map, wherein the topological map describes the connectivity of nodes on a computer network, wherein the network comprises a first switching device having a first port, the instructions are executed by the computer to perform the method steps comprising: detecting connection of a first node to the first port; if connection of a second node to the first port was previously detected: specifying that the topological map of the network comprises a bus segment attached to the first port, wherein the bus segment comprises the first port, the first node, the second node, and that part of the network interconnecting the first port, the first node, and the second node, otherwise, if the first node is a second port located on a second switching device: specifying that the topological map of the network comprises a serial segment attached to the first port, wherein the serial segment comprises the first port, the second port, and that part of the network interconnecting the first port and the second port, and otherwise: specifying that the topological map of the network comprises a star segment attached to the first port, wherein the star segment comprises the first port, the first node, and that part of the network interconnecting the first port and the first node; and using the topological map to control the flow of messages on the network.