{"id":4196,"date":"2011-12-07T15:33:48","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T15:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/network-map\/"},"modified":"2015-04-13T11:40:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:40:01","slug":"network-map","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map","title":{"rendered":"Network Map"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_network_map_mean\">What Does Network Map Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A network map is a visualization of devices on a network, their inter-relationships, and the transport layers providing network services. Practically, a Network Map is one tool to provide network users, managers and administrators, and IT personnel with a better understanding of network performance, especially concerning data bottlenecks and associated root cause analysis.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_network_map\">Techopedia Explains Network Map<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Three techniques for producing a Network Map include: SNMP-based approaches, active probing; and route analytics.<\/p>\n<p>SNMP-Based Maps: These obtain data from routers and switch MIBs (management information bases), which are hierarchical virtual databases of a network (or other entity)<\/p>\n<p>Active Probing: These maps are created with data from a series of \u201ctraceroute-like probe packets,&#8221; i.e. special data packets or frames, which report IP router and switch forwarding paths to the destination address. By compiling this data describing the actual forwarding paths taken by data through networks, Network Maps are created and used to find \u201cpeering links&#8221; between ISPs (Internet Service Providers); these are links (physical lines or channels) connecting distinct networks comprising the Internet which allow ISPs to exchange customers&#8217; traffic for mutual benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Route Analytics: This approach uses routing protocol data for creating a Network Map through passively listening to layer 3 protocol exchanges between routers. This data facilitates network discovery, real-time network monitoring, and routing diagnostics as well as network mapping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Network Map Mean? A network map is a visualization of devices on a network, their inter-relationships, and the transport layers providing network services. Practically, a Network Map is one tool to provide network users, managers and administrators, and IT personnel with a better understanding of network performance, especially concerning data bottlenecks and associated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[226,236,219,220],"class_list":["post-4196","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-home-networks","definitioncat-network-management","definitioncat-networks","definitioncat-wireless-and-mobile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Network Map? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Network Map and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Network Map\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Network Map and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-13T11:40:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Network Map\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-07T15:33:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-13T11:40:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map\"},\"wordCount\":227,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4993\/network-map\",\"name\":\"What is Network Map? 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