What is Network Discovery?

• Network Discovery Definition

  Network Discovery Definition

  Network discovery is a process of finding devices that also allows systems and nodes to connect and communicate on the same network. This helps network administrators locate devices, create network maps, organize device inventories, enforce accurate device access policies, and gain better control of the infrastructure. Network discovery also helps to find static, dynamic, reserved, and abandoned IP addresses.
• Why is network device discovery important?

  Why is network device discovery important?

  Network discovery is crucial and the first step when mapping and monitoring network infrastructure for a large and dynamic network. It is important to improve the visibility of the devices in an enterprise network infrastructure such as network bridges, gateways, modems, wireless access points, routers, switches, hubs, and more. Most organizations utilize discovery tools to manage the influx of a huge number of employee devices. Without the proper understanding of devices and their relationships within a network, it becomes difficult to identify outages, troubleshoot network downtime, and fix the issues.

  A hybrid environment includes a combination of wired, wireless, and virtual networks. It also includes devices such as multilayer switches, proxy servers, firewalls, network address translators, protocol converters, and bridge routers. Such hybrid environments can complicate the network topology and make it difficult for IT teams to identify the root cause of the issues. In such a scenario, relying on basic monitoring and performance metrics is not enough. Your organization needs a dedicated network discovery tool that can investigate internal activities and ensure that all devices access the network as per the authorizations assigned to them.

  Additionally, network discovery also can help to identify cyber threats. For instance, an unauthenticated or invalid IP address can be a sign of malicious or rogue devices. With the help of network discovery tools, IT teams can easily detect such devices by locating and mapping devices and eliminating a data breach.

  Apart from mapping devices, network discovery also helps to determine the open ports on each device. Any open ports on a device that aren't critical to operations can be a potential threat. It is crucial to detect the open ports on a network via mapping to prevent access by an intruder.
• How does network devices discovery work?

  How does network devices discovery work?

  Network discovery utilizes three basic protocols that help to discover and monitor network devices. One of the most effective ways to discover network devices is to use discovery tools that leverage different processes to help teams understand their enterprise network topology better.

  These tools help in locating and discovering devices using different protocols. Network device discovery tools collect data by running ping sweeps, IP scans, and polling devices. It automates these processes to reduce time and complete discovery quickly.

  Network device discovery tools can:

  • Automatically map network devices by using SNMP monitoring: Device discovery tools automatically discover a range of network devices and add them to the monitoring database. With the help of centralized dashboards, IT admins can monitor IP address range, subnets, and more to collect detailed information. Mapping devices manually can be time-consuming. Device discovery tools automatically discover a range of network devices, add them to monitoring databases, create dynamic network maps to visually track device performance of the changing network topology. With the help of centralized dashboards, IT admins can monitor IP address range, subnets, and more to collect detailed information.
  • Use Quality of Experience metrics to monitor and troubleshoot network devices: Device discovery tools utilize Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics to provide the device performance status based on real-time user experience. QoE uses packet analysis sensors to drill down into specific nodes and gain information about average response time, packet loss, and more.
  • Obtain insights into hardware health: Discovery tools can also provide immediate insights into hardware outages on a network. Additionally, some tools can provide information and performance metrics of hardware assets, including power supply, fan speed, temperature, and more.
  • Scan a range of network devices from a single dashboard: These tools offer a single dashboard that provides all the information in one place. This allows users to find the details of specific network devices easily and quickly. Teams do not have to collate metrics manually and IP addresses to scan the entire network.
• Types of devices network tools can discover

  Types of devices network tools can discover

  Network discovery tools can discover various devices such as:

  • Hardware assets, such as switches, printers, firewalls, servers, printers
  • Virtual computers and networks
  • Software assets, such as applications and operating systems

  Some discovery tools can also discover logical and physical relationships between network assets.
• Network discovery and monitoring protocols

  Network discovery and monitoring protocols

  Network tools utilize the most common discovery protocols to monitor and locate network devices.

  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP): SNMP is a simple networking protocol also known as Internet standard protocol used to monitor network-connected devices. It helps IT administrators to collect and sort data about managed devices on the network. It is one of the most frequently used protocols that provides a common mechanism for network devices to pass information within LAN or WAN environments.
  • Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP): LLDP is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEE) standard protocol that is used to define encapsulated messages. This vendor-neutral, one-way protocol enables devices to transmit data to their nearby or directly connected neighbor devices. The data is further stored in management information databases (MIB) for faster querying using SNMP.
  • Ping: Ping is a network software utility tool used to test whether a particular device or IP is reachable or not. The major role of Ping is to send Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) queries to identify network devices. It works by measuring the time taken by the packets to reach a destination device from a local host and vice-versa. It records the round-trip time of packets and packet loss, reports errors, and provides statistical summaries to help admins discover network devices.