A system acquires information about communication among wired or wireless nodes [110, 210] in a network [100, 200] by intercepting chunks of data in the network by a wired or wireless tap [120, 220] located among the wired or wireless nodes [110, 210] in the network. Characteristic information [400] about the intercepted chunks of data may be obtained. The characteristic information may include times of arrival [410] of the chunks of data at the wired or wireless tap [120, 220] and identifiers of wired or wireless source nodes [420] that sent the chunks of data. At least one signal may be constructed to represent the characteristic information over time.