Ethernet Topology Discovery

Network troubleshooting tends to be particularly difficult, especially in the home environment.  This work addresses the problem of Layer 2 topology discovery. Current techniques concentrate on using SNMP to query information from Ethernet switches. In contrast, we present a technique that infers the Ethernet (Layer 2) topology without assistance from the network elements by injecting suitable probe packets from the end-systems and observing where they are delivered.

This work has a related publication at http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/research/publication/ethernet-topology-discovery-without-network-assistance/.

Speaker Details

Richard Black is a researcher at Microsoft’s European research centre in Cambridge, England. He obtained his B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and his Ph.D. addressing issues in operating systems and networking interaction in 1995. After a further three years at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as a research associate and research fellow he moved in 1997 to a lectureship at the University of Glasgow Department of Computing Science. He returned to Cambridge in January 2000, to join the Microsoft Research laboratory.

Date:
Speakers:
Richard Black
Affiliation:
Microsoft Research Cambridge

Watch Next