Patent Document ID: 8099481
Application ID: 10737684
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of resolving a connectivity multiplier operably coupled to three or more adjacency-detection enabled (ADE) nodes, wherein each of the three or more ADE nodes is associated with an ADE node icon, the method comprising the steps of: (a) acquiring adjacency information from each of the three or more ADE nodes, wherein said adjacency information is at least partially derived from said three or more ADE nodes each responding to a respective adjacency request during a current discovery occurrence, wherein the connectivity multiplier forwards said adjacency requests without responding to any one of said adjacency requests during the current discovery occurrence such that the connectivity multiplier is not an ADE device during the current discovery occurrence and wherein the connectivity multiplier is an ADE node that responds to adjacency requests during a different discovery occurrence; (b) identifying a pseudo-link set from the adjacency information, each unique pseudo-link set comprising at least one pseudo-link associating a pair of ADE nodes; (c) coupling all of said three or more ADE node icons directly and only to a single connectivity multiplier icon; and (d) providing a viewable graphic display representing a subnet topology including said three or more ADE nodes, wherein the viewable graphic display includes the single connectivity multiplier icon, the ADE icon associated with each one of said ADE nodes, and all of said ADE node icons directly and only connected to the connectivity multiplier icon by a respective single link icon, wherein the respective single link icon directly connected between the connectivity multiplier icon and each one of said ADE node icons is derived from the pseudo-link set, wherein the connectivity multiplier icon is a graphical representation of the connectivity multiplier, and wherein the connectivity multiplier in combination with said link icons visually depict ADE node connectivity functionality provided by the connectivity multiplier and said pseudo-link set.