Understand Flow Network traversal

For applications to query a Flow Network for information, traversal is the most useful operation that can be performed. Starting from any topographical element, a traversal request can be performed that will report back all reachable injection or delivery devices.

A successful traversal will contain all of the topographical elements between the starting topographical element and the injection or delivery device. If there are multiple paths to the injection or delivery device, the shortest path will be reported, based on the number of segments or nodes encountered. This concept is important as most processing in the Flow Network relies on the shortest path having the highest priority.

In the example below, there are an infinite number of paths that could be taken when traveling from the injection meter to the delivery tank. If a traversal request were initiated from the injection meter, the route returned to the delivery tank would follow the segments highlighted in dark green. The highlighted route is the most direct because fewer segments or nodes are traversed.