Opinion ID: 2689161
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A method for reporting on the collection of net-

Text: work usage information from a plurality of net- work devices, comprising:
information in real-time from a plurality of network devices at a plurality of layers utiliz- ing multiple gatherers each including a plu- rality of information source modules each interfacing with one of the network devices and capable of communicating using a proto- col specific to the network device coupled thereto, the network devices selected from the group consisting of routers, switches, fire- walls, authentication servers, web hosts, proxy servers, netflow servers, databases, mail servers, RADIUS servers, and domain name servers, the gatherers being positioned on a segment of the network on which the network devices coupled thereto are posi- tioned for minimizing an impact of the gather- ers on the network;
communications usage information;
the filtered and aggregated network commu- nications usage information, the plurality of data records corresponding to network usage by a plurality of users;
database;
of reports for reporting purposes; 8 AMDOCS LIMITED v. OPENET TELECOM, INC.
the selected reports for retrieving information on the collection of the network usage infor- mation from the network devices; and