Method of collecting information about test devices in a network

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:

• (1) identifying a plurality of routable network addresses within a plurality of the network addresses, comprising:
• sending first packets to the plurality of network addresses, wherein a frequency of sending the first packets is below a predefined threshold;
• and,
• receiving responses to the first packets from one or more of the plurality of network addresses, thereby identifying the plurality of routable network addresses;
• (2) obtaining information about a plurality of test devices, comprising:
• sending discovery packets, wherein the plurality of routable network addresses are used as destination addresses in the discovery packets;
• receiving information packets from the plurality of test devices;
• and, extracting the information about the plurality of test devices from the information packets, comprising extracting, from each of the information packets, test-device information about one of the plurality of test devices;
• and,
• (3) storing the information about the plurality of test devices in memory so as to associate, for each of the plurality of test devices, the test-device information with at least one of the plurality of routable network addresses.

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and a memory coupled to the one or more processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
• (1) identify a plurality of routable network addresses within a plurality of the network addresses, comprising:
• sending first packets to the plurality of network addresses, wherein a frequency of sending the first packets is below a predefined threshold;
• and,
• receiving responses to the first packets from one or more of the plurality of network addresses, thereby identifying the plurality of routable network addresses;
• (2) obtain information about a plurality of test devices, comprising:
• sending discovery packets, wherein the plurality of routable network addresses are used as destination addresses in the discovery packets;
• receiving information packets from the plurality of test devices;
• and,
• extracting the information about the plurality of test devices from the information packets, comprising extracting, from each of the information packets, test-device information about one of the plurality of test devices;
• and,
• (3) store the information about the plurality of test devices in the memory so as to associate, for each of the plurality of test devices, the test-device information with at least one of the plurality of routable network addresses.