Rearch And Implemention Of Network Topology Discovery

With the development of the technology of computer networks and the worldwide popularity of Internet, scale of computer networks is getting bulky and complex, the categories of the devices are multiple, such as hosts, PCs, bridges, routers and switches, which are connected with networks, and the information flows on the networks are increasing rapidly. On the other hand, the architectures of networks, corresponding network operating systems and network application software are very plentiful, complex, and vary greatly. Therefore, the technique of the computer network management has become a very important issue. The aim of network management is to guarantee its normal running, improve its efficiency, and decrease its costs by monitoring and controlling complex computer network.Topology discovery is a kind of important function of the network management systems. Its main purpose is to acquire and maintain the information of the existence of network devices and their connecting relations, by means of which the graphical representation of the connection of the entire network is given, which helps the network administrators have a whole understanding and realization of the topology of whole network. It is essential for an effective network management system to discover and trace the topology of a network. How to completely, accurately and efficiently discover network topology is the focus of relevant research community.In this paper, we will have a detailed technical analysis and research over the status of network topology discovery and current methods. We mainly focus on three methods used in discovering the router level topology of network: SNMP protocol based, general protocols based and routing protocols based discovering methods. We will introduce the principles and algorithms implementions of these methods in detail, including the key problems that they need to resolve, advantages and disadvantages they have, and where they can be used.