Network Linker for Multi-Protocol Traffic Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems face inefficiencies in tracking network communication traffic across protocol changes in multi-protocol networks, leading to impractical and time-consuming processes for linking network messages.
Innovation Solution
A fast and efficient network linker is developed to link network messages across inter-protocol device junctures by generating a linkage graph during an offline phase and optimizing it to reduce branching nodes. During the online phase, new messages are traced through the optimized graph to accumulate network traffic metrics in real-time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional brute force approach is used to link network messages by comparing each message to all other messages, then message linkage can be achieved, but computational complexity increases to O(N^2) making it impractical for large networks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the message linkage problem into two distinct phases: an offline phase where a linkage graph is constructed by comparing messages, and an online phase where pre-computed graph structures enable fast lookup. This segmentation transforms the O(N^2) brute force approach into an efficient two-stage process where the expensive computation is done once offline, and real-time tracking becomes fast lookups in the pre-built graph structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by constructing the linkage graph offline before real-time message tracking is needed. During this offline phase, all possible message linkages are pre-computed and stored in a graph structure. This preliminary computation enables the online phase to achieve fast message tracking without performing expensive comparisons at runtime, effectively moving the computational burden to when it is less critical.
2Adaptability or versatility
If protocol changes are made at network junctures to adapt messages to different protocols, then network compatibility is improved, but message traceability is lost making it difficult to track messages across protocol boundaries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the linkage graph - that mediates between protocol compatibility requirements and message traceability needs. The graph stores parent-child message relationships as metadata structures that persist across protocol transformations. When messages undergo protocol changes at network junctures, the intermediary graph structure preserves the origin information by maintaining references to parent messages and their protocols, enabling traceability despite protocol mutations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by creating and maintaining metadata copies of message identification information at each protocol transformation point. Instead of relying on the original message format which changes with protocol mutations, the system creates copy records in the linkage graph that preserve the message's identity, parent-child relationships, and protocol evolution history. These copied metadata structures enable traceability without interfering with the actual protocol transformations needed for compatibility.
3Measurement precision
If network traffic metrics are accumulated in real-time for each message, then network performance monitoring is improved, but computational overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the metric accumulation function into the existing linkage graph traversal operation. Instead of performing separate computations for message tracking and metric accumulation, the system combines both tasks into a single graph traversal process. As the system traverses the linkage graph to track message paths, it simultaneously accumulates network metrics along the same traversal path. This merging eliminates redundant computations and reduces overall computational energy consumption while maintaining precise metric measurement.
Data Source
AI summary
A device, system and method is provided for tracking network communication in a multi-protocol network. During the offline phase, a linkage graph may be generated representing network communication pathways of recorded messages comprising nodes representing network communication devices and edges representing direct communication paths pairwise connecting parent-child nodes over which the messages are transmitted. The linkage graph may be optimized by eliminating or reducing branching nodes. During a real-time online phase, for each new recorded message associated with a device node, tracing a communication pathway along edges of the optimized linkage graph by linking a sequence of nodes that connect sequential pairs of child-parent nodes extending from the device node to a root node. Simultaneous to linking each node to the device node, a network traffic metric for the linked node(s) may be accumulated to quickly and efficiently track the network traffic metric for the new recorded message.