A system and method for automatically monitoring communications networks and
for
determining network configuration use data stream characterizations. The system
comprises a plurality of measurement probes that passively probe the network and
collect data packets carried by data streams in the network. The system further
comprises characterization computational units that process the collected data
packets and produce data stream characterizations from the collected data packets.
The data stream characterizations represent individual data streams in an arbitrarily
unique manner. The system still further comprises a configuration processing unit
that compares data stream characterizations taken at different points in the network
and determines data stream paths through the network based on data stream characterization
matching. The method for automatically monitoring communications networks comprises
the steps of passively probing the data streams to produce sets of collected data
packets from the data streams, determining data stream characterizations from the
collected data packets, and comparing the data stream characterizations to one
another to identify matching characterizations.
