Patent ID: 7739370

Claim:
A method of generating performance data for network devices comprising: associating tags with communication points of network devices conditioned on whether the network device belongs to a group of network devices, each tag indicating at least one group of network devices to which the network device associated with the communication point belongs; compiling, by at least one computer, performance data for at least one group of network devices over a particular time period by (1) identifying communication points that, during the particular time period, had a tag that identifies the at least one group of network devices, (2) determining, for each of the identified communication points, a part of the particular time period during which the identified communication point was associated with a tag that identifies the at least one group of network devices, (3) gathering, for each communication point identified as belonging to the at least one group of network devices, performance data based on performance during the determined part of the particular time period, and (4) combining the performance data gathered for each communication point identified as belonging to the at least one group of network devices to produce performance data for the at least one group of network devices during the particular time period; and generating a report of the performance data compiled for the at least one group of network devices during the particular time period.