Method and device for evaluating the system assets of a communication network

Abstract

There is provided a method a method for evaluating the system assets of a network that includes the steps of identifying system assets of the network and applying a heuristic that focuses on specific attributes of the communications relationships between the system assets of a network.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method comprising,
 monitoring communications among network resources of a networked environment, wherein the network resources include a plurality of network devices and a plurality of applications;   using information of the monitored communications to identify media access control addresses (MAC addresses) corresponding to the plurality of network devices, wherein a MAC address uniquely identifies a network device and represents an addressable location of the network device in the networked environment, wherein the plurality of network devices and the plurality of applications distribute the communications among the network resources using the MAC addresses, wherein the plurality of network devices comprise the network device;   using information of the monitored communications to identify non-intermediated communication relationships among the MAC addresses, wherein a non-intermediated communication relationship comprises a first MAC address of the MAC addresses communicatively connected to at least two other MAC addresses of the MAC addresses.