Process and apparatus for performing an automatic discovery of the topology and devices of an Intranet network

Process for discovering the sub network of an Intranet network to which is attached a pluggable device (7), characterized in that said process involves the steps of:

• a) initiating (210) a self IP detection step for the purpose of detecting an IP address;
• b) computing (220) a first value representative of a first subnet mask (“/n”) comprising a prefix with n logical “1”, said first subnet mask corresponding to a first sub network to which is likely to belong said IP address;
• c) computing (230) for said value a first and second broadcast addresses (BC1;
• BC2);
• d) transmitting (240) an ICMP Echo Request to said first and second broadcast addresses (BC1, BC2);
• e) in response to a positive answer received to both said first and second broadcast addresses (BC1, BC2), validating (270) said value as being the effective value of an existing sub network connected to said Intranet.
• f) decrementing n by 1 and repeating steps b)-e) for the purpose of testing new values of possible subnet masks.

Apparatus for allowing the discovery of a Intranet network comprising at least one sub network;

• said apparatus being pluggable into said Intranet and further including:
• means for allowing a connection to said at least one sub network;
• means for achieving a self IP configuration and for receiving an IP address;
• means for computing a set of sub network configurations which are likely to be connected to said Intranet;
• means generating ICMP requests for successively testing and validating the different network configurations for the purpose of discovering the sub networks of said network.