TOPOLOGY DISCOVERY BY PARTITIONING MULTIPLE DISCOVERY TECHNIQUES

A system for discovering a topology of a distributed processing network that includes a first topology Management Information Base discovery agent (308) configured to contact a first set of routers to obtain a first type of information stored in each router in the first set of routers; a second topology Open Shortest Path First discovery agent (312) and/or (316) configured to contact a second set of routers to obtain a second type of information stored in each router in the second set of routers, and a phase controller (304) configured to select between the first (308) and second (31 2) and/ or (316) topology discovery agents. The first and second sets of router s are different, and the first and second types of information are different. In one configuration, the first type of information is defined by a network management protocol, and the second type of information is defined by a routing protocol.