Method of finding a path between two nodes in a network

1. A computer implemented method for use during execution of finding a path between two network element nodes by a computer accessing an associated routing table for routing information in a network, comprising:

obtaining a subnet information from a routing table of a first node in the path to analyze by masking with a sequence of binary 1's shifted with 0's to get a destination address based on the subnet information, and selecting a second node as another node in the path, the obtaining of a subnet information being repeatable with the another node being set as the first node to select the second node, the analyzing by masking including the steps of:

bitwise ANDing a mask to an address of a next node to get a destination address,

checking the routing table of the first node for the destination address,

shifting the mask to add a 0, and

repeating the bitwise ANDing of the mask to the next node address and checking the routing table of the first node for the destination address until the second node is found or the mask is all 0's;

determining whether any non-routing nodes are in the path between the first and second nodes; and

producing an electronic representation of nodes in the path.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing table is an Internet Protocol routing table.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing table is an Internet Protocol forwarding table.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing table is a table maintained for a network management protocol in the first node.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first of the two nodes is a start node, and a second of the two nodes is an end node.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one additional node in the path is found using information obtained from a routing table of the second node found in the obtaining step.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first of the two nodes is a start node and wherein additional nodes are found in information obtaining steps until the second of the two nodes is found.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein multiple pairs of nodes having routing tables are found in the obtaining step, and the determining step determines whether any non-routing nodes are in the path between a first pair of the multiple pairs, and at least one additional determining step determines whether any non-routing nodes are in a path between another of the multiple pairs.

9. The method of claim 7 , comprising:

determining any non-routing nodes in the path between each of the multiple pairs.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing table includes NextHop information.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the NextHop information indicates at least one of: a routing node which is the next node; and an interface identifier that allows for finding the next node.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a network management protocol is used to obtain information from the routing table.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the network management protocol is the Simple Network Management Protocol.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-routing nodes determined in the determining step are in a subnet.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-routing nodes are determined by examining a stored network topology information.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-routing nodes are determined using a shortest path algorithm.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation includes ingress and egress pairs of ports for each of the first node, the second node and the non-routing nodes.

18. A computer implemented method for use during execution of finding a path between two network element nodes by a computer accessing an associated routing table for routing information in a network, comprising:

obtaining a subnet information from a routing table of a first node in the path to analyze a destination address based on the subnet information, and select a second node as a next node in the path, wherein the analyzing of the destination address includes bitwise ANDing a subnet mask of a sequence of binary 1's shifted with 0's to an address of an end node in the path, and checking the routing table of the first node for a matching subnet number, the subnet mask being shifted to add a 0 to repeat the bitwise ANDing of the subnet mask to the end node address and checking the routing table for the destination address until the next node is found or the mask is all 0's, the obtaining of a subnet information being repeatable with the next node being set as the first node to select the second node;

determining whether any non-routing nodes are in the path between the first and second nodes and by examining stored network topology information; and

producing an electronic representation of nodes in the path.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the non-routing nodes are determined using a shortest path algorithm.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the representation includes ingress and egress pairs of ports for each of the first node, the second node and the non-routing nodes.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the representation is at least one of an electronic display, a table, an electronic file and a printed representation.