Method of network connectivity analyses and system thereof

1. A method to analyze connectivity between a source and a destination through the operating of a network analyzer comprising a processor operatively coupled to a memory, the method comprising:

upon obtaining in the memory a partial topological network model comprising at least one cloud comprising at least one unmonitored router, the cloud connected to one or more monitored routers and characterized by a cloud address space defined as a plurality of addresses that are routed into the cloud by all routers connected thereto,

specifying at least one pair of end points of one or more paths between the source characterized by one or more source network addresses and the destination characterized by one or more destination network addresses, wherein the processor specifies the cloud as a source point of the one or more paths if at least one source network address belongs to the cloud address space and the processor specifies the cloud as a destination point of the one or more paths between the source and the destination if at least one destination network address belongs to the cloud address space; and

generating by the processor the one or more paths between the specified at least one pair of end points;

wherein, during the step of generating the one or more paths, discovering by the processor at least one on-path cloud on at least one of the paths being generated, the on-path cloud comprising at least one unmonitored router and being a joint of two or more monitored parts of the network; and

specifying, by the processor, the discovered at least one on-path cloud as an on-path router configured to route traffic between the two or more monitored parts of the network,

wherein inbound routing to the on-path cloud is specified in accordance with routing information obtained from monitored routers; and

outbound routing from the at least one on-path cloud is specified to route all addresses routed into the at least one on-path cloud to all connected monitored routers.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting, using a display operatively coupled to the network analyzer, the generated one or more paths to a user, and enabling the user to select one or more desired paths.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising optimizing the path generation using at least one element of the group constituted by routing precedence; symmetric routing considerations; loop detection; cloud customization using additional routing information.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining two or more network elements corresponding to a business application, and defining connectivity status of the application using the paths generated between the determined network elements.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining two or more zones, and defining a status of inter-zone connectivity policies using the paths generated between the determined zones.

6. A network analyzer capable of analyzing connectivity between a source and a destination characterized, respectively, by one or more source network addresses and one or more destination network addresses, the network analyzer comprising a processor operatively coupled to a memory,

wherein the processor is configured to:

obtain from the memory a partial topological network model comprising at least one cloud comprising at least one unmonitored router, the cloud connected to one or more monitored routers and characterized by a cloud address space defined as a plurality of addresses that are routed into the cloud by all routers connected thereto;

upon specifying at least one pair of end points of one or more paths between the source and the destination, wherein the processor specifies the cloud as a source point of the one or more paths if at least one source network address belongs to the cloud address space and the processor specifies the cloud as a destination point of the one or more paths between the source and the destination if at least one destination network address belongs to the cloud address space;

generate the one or more paths between the specified at least one pair of the end points;

during generating the one or more paths, discover at least one on-path cloud on at least one of the paths being generated, the on-path cloud comprising at least one unmonitored router and being a joint of two or more monitored parts of the network; and

specify the discovered at least one on-path cloud as an on-path router configured to route between the two or more monitored parts of the network, wherein inbound routing to the on-path cloud is specified in accordance with routing information obtained from monitored routers; and

outboard routing from the at least one on-path cloud is specified to route all addresses routed into the at least one on-path cloud to all connected monitored routers.

7. The analyzer of claim 6 further comprising a display and an input device operatively coupled to the processor, the display configured to present the generated one or more paths to a user, and the input device is configured to enable the user to select one or more desired paths.

8. The analyzer of claim 6 wherein the processor is further configured to optimize the path generation using at least one element of the group constituted by routing precedence; symmetric routing considerations; loop detection; cloud customization using additional routing information.

9. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium and comprising computer program code means for performing all the steps of claim 1 when run on a computer.