Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for determining a packet's round trip time (RTT) in a network. A system can receive information of a packet sent by a component of the network and further determine an expected acknowledgement (ACK) sequence number associated with the packet based upon received information of the packet. The system can receive information of a subsequent packet received by the component and determine an ACK sequence number and a receiving time of the subsequent packet. In response to determining that the ACK sequence number of the subsequent TCP packet matches the expected ACK sequence number, the system can determine a round trip time (RTT) of the packet based upon the received information of the packet and the received information of the subsequent packet.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for determining whether a node in a network is a server or a client. In some examples, a system can collect, from one or more sensors that monitor at least part of data traffic being transmitted via a pair of nodes in a network, information of the data traffic. The system can analyze attributes of the data traffic such as timing, port magnitude, degree of communication, historical data, etc. Based on analysis results and a predetermined rule associated with the attributes, the system can determine which node of the pair of nodes is a client and which node is a server.

Abstract: Application dependency mapping (ADM) can be automated in a network. The network can determine an optimum number of clusters for the network using the minimum description length principle (MDL). The network can capture network and associated data using a sensor network that provides multiple perspectives and generate a graph therefrom. The nodes of the graph can include sources, destinations, and destination ports identified in the captured data, and the edges of the graph can include observed flows from the sources to the destinations at the destination ports. Each clustering can be evaluated according to an MDL score. The optimum number of clusters for the network may correspond to the number of clusters of the clustering associated with the minimum MDL score.

Abstract: An example method can include choosing a pattern or patterns of network traffic. This pattern can be representative of a certain type of traffic such as an attack. The pattern can be associated with various components of a network and can describe expected behavior of these various components. A system performing this method can then choose a nodes or nodes to generate traffic according to the pattern and send an instruction accordingly. After this synthetic traffic is generated, the system can compare the behavior of the components with the expected behavior. An alert can then be created to notify an administrator or otherwise remedy any problems.