Quality of service improvements for network transactions

• US 20020143981A1
• Filed: 04/03/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Peters, Marcia L., DeLima, Roberto
• Granted Patent: US 7,213,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/233
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business by improving quality of service (“QoS”) in network exchanges comprising a plurality of related request and response messages. A TQoS (“transactional QoS”) cookie is defined, which is used to store information needed when controlling response time (and perhaps other QoS factors as well) for messages exchanged with a particular client. In preferred embodiments, this QoS information comprises a relative priority for these related messages and an available bandwidth for transmitting messages to the client. The disclosed techniques enable applying consistent QoS requirements for delivery of all the related Web objects comprising a transaction. No changes are required on client devices or in client software, and there is no dependency on a client to support cookies.

Claims

1. A method of providing improved quality of service over a series of related messages exchanged between computers in a networking environment, comprising steps of:

determining one or more transactional quality of service (“

TQoS”

) values to be applied to the related messages;

using the determined TQoS values to transmit at least one of the related messages for delivery to a particular one of the computers; and

annotating selected ones of the related messages with information reflecting the determined TQOS values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein one of the TQoS values is a transmission priority value to be used when transmitting the annotated messages.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein one of the TQoS values is available bandwidth information pertaining to a network connection to the particular computer.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the determined TQoS values for use when transmitting subsequent ones of the related messages to the particular computer.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the particular computer is a client computer and the using step transmits one of the annotated messages to the client computer, and further comprising steps of:

receiving the transmitted annotated message at the client computer; and

automatically returning the TQOS values to a server computer in each subsequent one of the related messages.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the transmitted annotated message includes an object reference that is annotated to carry the TQoS values, and wherein the automatically returning step is enabled by the annotation of the object reference.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a request from the particular computer for a Web page.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a request from the particular computer for a Web object.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information referenced by the Web page.

11. The method according to claim 5, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information selected from the Web page by a user of the particular computer.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the using step further comprises using the determined TQoS values to set markings in a network layer header of the transmitted annotated messages.

13. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of enforcing bandwidth allocation using the available bandwidth information as the at least one transmitted message is transmitted through the networking environment.

14. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of using the transmission priority value to prioritize the transmission of the at least one transmitted message through the networking environment.

15. The method according to claim 4, wherein the storing step stores the determined TQoS values in a server computer.

16. The method according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the annotating step further comprises storing the information reflecting the determined TQoS values as part of a routing token in the annotated messages.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the routing token is used to modify a Uniform Resource Locator from a header of selected ones of the related messages.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the routing token further comprises information enabling identification of the particular computer and another computer which performs the transmitting step, as well as identification of a storage area used to store the determined TQOS values for the related messages.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the TQoS values comprise one or more of (1) a transmission priority value to be used when transmitting the annotated messages and (2) available bandwidth information pertaining to a network connection to the particular computer.

21. The system according to claim 19, further comprising means for storing the determined TQoS values for use when transmitting subsequent ones of the related messages to the particular computer.

22. The system according to claim 19, wherein the particular computer is a client computer and wherein the means for using the determined TQoS values transmits one of the annotated messages to the client computer, and further comprising:

means for receiving the transmitted annotated message at the client computer; and

means for automatically returning the TQoS values to a server computer in each subsequent one of the related messages.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the transmitted annotated message includes an object reference that is annotated to carry the TQoS values, and wherein the means for automatically returning is enabled by the annotation of the object reference.

24. The system according to claim 19, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer, a request from the particular computer for a Web page, or a request from the particular computer for a Web object.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information referenced by the Web page.

26. The system according to claim 22, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information selected from the served Web page by a user of the particular computer.

27. The system according to claim 19, wherein the means for using the determined TQoS values further comprises using the determined TQoS values to set markings in a network layer header of the transmitted annotated messages.

28. The system according to claim 20, further comprising means for enforcing bandwidth allocation using the available bandwidth information as the at least one transmitted message is transmitted through the networking environment.

29. The system according to claim 20, further comprising means for using the transmission priority value to prioritize the transmission of the at least one transmitted message through the networking environment.

30. The system according to claim 21, wherein the means for storing stores the determined TQoS values in a server computer.

31. The system according to claim 20, wherein the means for annotating further comprises means for storing the information reflecting the determined TQoS values as part of a routing token in the annotated messages.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the routing token is used to modify a Uniform Resource Locator from a header of selected ones of the related messages.

33. The system according to claim 32, wherein the routing token further comprises information enabling identification of the particular computer and another computer which performs the means for transmitting, as well as identification of a storage area used to store the determined TQoS values for the related messages.

34. The system according to claim 22, wherein:

the TQoS values comprise at least (1) a transmission priority value to be used when transmitting the annotated messages and (2) available bandwidth information pertaining to a network connection to the particular computer; and

at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web object to the particular computer from a network cache; and

wherein the means for using the determined TQoS values further comprises using the determined TQoS values, by the network cache, to prioritize transmission of the response that serves the Web object and to enforce bandwidth allocation using the available bandwidth information as the response is transmitted.

36. The system according to claim 35, wherein the determined QoS values are stored as cookies in the headers.

38. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein the TQoS values comprise one or more of (1) a transmission priority value to be used when transmitting the annotated messages and (2) available bandwidth information pertaining to a network connection to the particular computer.

39. The computer program product according to claim 37, further comprising computer-readable program code means for storing the determined TQoS values for use when transmitting subsequent ones of the related messages to the particular computer.

40. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein the particular computer is a client computer and wherein the computer-readable program code means for using the determined TQoS values transmits one of the annotated messages to the client computer, and further comprising:

computer-readable program code means for receiving the transmitted annotated message at the client computer; and

computer-readable program code means for automatically returning the TQoS values to a server computer in each subsequent one of the related messages.

41. The computer program product according to claim 40, wherein the transmitted annotated message includes an object reference that is annotated to carry the TQoS values, and wherein the computer-readable program code means for automatically returning is enabled by the annotation of the object reference.

42. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer, a request from the particular computer for a Web page, or a request from the particular computer for a Web object.

43. The computer program product according to claim 40, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information referenced by the Web page.

44. The computer program product according to claim 40, wherein at least one of the annotated messages is a response that serves a Web page to the particular computer and wherein at least one of the subsequent ones of the related messages is a request for information selected from the served Web page by a user of the particular computer.

45. The computer program product according to claim 37, wherein the computer-readable program code means for using the determined TQoS values further comprises using the determined TQoS values to set markings in a network layer header of the transmitted annotated messages.

46. The computer program product according to claim 38, further comprising computer-readable program code means for enforcing bandwidth allocation using the available bandwidth information as the at least one transmitted message is transmitted through the networking environment.

47. The computer program product according to claim 38, further comprising computer-readable program code means for using the transmission priority value to prioritize the transmission of the at least one transmitted message through the networking environment.

48. The computer program product according to claim 39, wherein the computer-readable program code means for storing stores the determined TQoS values in a server computer.

49. The computer program product according to claim 38, wherein the computer-readable program code means for annotating further comprises computer-readable program code means for storing the information reflecting the determined TQoS values as part of a routing token in the annotated messages.

50. The computer program product according to claim 49, wherein the routing token is used to modify a Uniform Resource Locator from a header of selected ones of the related messages.

51. The computer program product according to claim 48, wherein the routing token further comprises information enabling identification of the particular computer and another computer which performs the computer-readable program code means for transmitting, as well as identification of a storage area used to store the determined TQOS values for the related messages.

19. A system for providing improved quality of service over a series of related messages exchanged between computers in a networking environment, comprising:

means for determining one or more transactional quality of service (“

TQoS”

) values to be applied to the related messages;

means for using the determined TQoS values to transmit at least one of the related messages for delivery to a particular one of the computers; and

means for annotating selected ones of the related messages with information reflecting the determined TQoS values.

35. A system for providing improved quality of service for transmission of related request and response messages exchanged between computers in a networking environment, comprising:

means for determining one or more quality of service (“

QoS”

) values to be applied to transmission of the related messages; and

means for communicating the QoS values to be applied to the transmission by storing the determined QoS values in headers of selected ones of the request and response messages.

37. A computer program product for providing improved quality of service over a series of related messages exchanged between computers in a networking environment, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for determining one or more transactional quality of service (“

TQoS”

) values to be applied to the related messages;

computer-readable program code means for using the determined TQoS values to transmit at least one of the related messages for delivery to a particular one of the computers; and

computer-readable program code means for annotating selected ones of the related messages with information reflecting the determined TQoS values.