Patent Document ID: 7764626
Application ID: 10957850
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer implemented method to assign nodes in a network to groups of nodes, comprising: representing hosts in the network by corresponding property vectors that encode information about the operational characteristics of the hosts; identifying properties corresponding to operational characteristics of the hosts by integers in the property vectors for a respective host; determining a degree of similarity in operational characteristics of hosts according to the property vectors; and grouping the hosts according to the determined similarity in operational characteristics, which comprises one or more of the following operations: grouping the hosts by neighbors over N dimensions, wherein a value for dimension d comprises a first value if a host d is a neighbor of host h, and a second value otherwise; grouping the hosts by protocols for P dimensions, wherein a value for dimension d comprises a third value if host h uses protocol d, and a fourth value otherwise; and grouping the hosts by client-server over two dimensions, wherein a first dimension comprises a fifth value if host h is a client and a sixth value otherwise, and wherein a second dimension comprises a seventh value if host h is a server and an eighth value otherwise.