Network Diagnostics Using Passive Network Monitoring and Packet Analysis

Network diagnostics, passive network monitoring, rule-based diagnostics, fault tree analysis, event-based diagnostics.

Finding a problem cause in network infrastructure is a complex task because a fault node may impair seemingly independent components. On the other hand, most communication protocols have built-in error detection mechanisms. In this paper, we propose to build a system that automatically diagnoses network services and applications by inspecting the network communication automatically. We model the diagnostic problem using a fault tree method and generate a set of rules that identify the symptoms and link them with possible causes. The administrators can extend these rules based on their experiences and the network configuration to automatize their routine tasks. We successfully deployed the proof-of-concept tool and found interesting future research topics.

Finding a problem cause in network infrastructure is a complex task because a fault node may impair seemingly independent components. On the other hand, most communication protocols have built-in error detection mechanisms. In this paper, we propose to build a system that automatically diagnoses network services and applications by inspecting the network communication automatically. We model the diagnostic problem using a fault tree method and generate a set of rules that identify the symptoms and link them with possible causes. The administrators can extend these rules based on their experiences and the network configuration to automatize their routine tasks. We successfully deployed the proof-of-concept tool and found interesting future research topics.