Reviewer: Ben Wun
Date: 10-20-2005
How would you rate this paper, relative to others we have read? top 50%, but not top 25%
How would you rate your kowledge of the topic of this paper? novice
What problem or issue does the paper address? Why is it important?
This paper provides introduces a method for discovering network topology without SNMP, instead inferring the network topology by sending normal ethernet packets. This method is geared towards smaller networks that may not have SNMP enabled components.
What are the main contributions of the paper and why are they important?
This paper provieds a method for discovering network topology without SNMP that should be easy to incorporate into existing end hosts. In addition to providing methodology, this paper also includes a correctness proof.
How significant are these contributions relative to previous work?
According to the authors, theirs is the first protocol aimed at small networks. Existing tools and methods either rely on SNMP, or be geared toward large networks using IP.
This paper therefore presents the first end host based, small network mapping method.
Give detailed comments justifying your view of the paper.
I thought this paper was well written and easy to follow. The methodology was well described with illustrative examples.
I think that the work presented in this paper is important because it fills a niche that existing tools overlook. The authors even looked into some of the more practical aspects of implementing this method in a real network- they have identified a switch that does not conform to the expectations of their method and have come up with a work around.