Error source identification in cut-through networks

A monitoring system comprising a monitoring server, the monitoring server comprising:

• one or more processing units;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the monitoring server to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• receiving port error counts for network devices in a cut-through network;
• creating a graph of a flow of errors through the cut-through network using the port error counts, wherein the creating the graph of the flow of errors through the cut-through network comprises:
• associating the port error counts with nodes in a topology of the cut-through network, wherein the nodes in the topology represent the network devices in the cut-through network and the port error counts are associated with the nodes representing the network devices from which the port error counts are received, and
• using edges between the nodes in the topology, representing connections between the network devices in the cut-through network, to trace the flow of the errors through the network devices in the cut-through network;
• and
• identifying a source of the errors in the cut-through network using the graph.

A method, comprising:

• retrieving error data from network devices in a cut-through network at periodic time intervals;
• using the error data and associated time intervals to create a graph modeling a flow of errors through the network devices in the cut-through network, wherein the creating comprises mapping the error data to vertices in a topology of the cut-through network;
• and
• identifying a network device, of the network devices in the cut-through network, that is a source of the errors, using the graph, wherein the using the graph comprises using edges between the vertices in the topology, to which the error data are mapped, to trace a path of the errors to an originating network device.