Dynamic modification of application behavior in response to changing environmental conditions

• US 20030135638A1
• Filed: 01/11/2002
• Published: 07/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rajaraman, Bala, Lindquist, David B., Brabson, Roy Frank, Devine, Wesley McMillan, Stagg, Arthur James, Huynh, Lap Thiet, Britton, Edward Glen
• Granted Patent: US 8,667,165 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically modifying an application program'"'"'s behavior in response to changing environmental conditions (such as network changes, system changes, and so forth). The application may solicit such information, and/or may receive unsolicited environmental change notifications. In response to a change notification, the application may take one or more of the following approaches to adapt to the changing conditions: (1) alter its execution; (2) modify its use of, or control of, other cooperating application; and (3) modify the selection of application execution threads. (An application might also decide to make no changes in its behavior.)

Claims

1. A method of improving traffic management in a computing network, comprising steps of:

detecting a changed environmental condition;

generating a notification of the detected condition;

analyzing the generated notification by consulting one or more criteria; and

determining, based on the analysis, whether a currently-executing application should modify its behavior.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of modifying, by the currently-executing application, its behavior.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises reducing a size of one or more data objects generated by the currently-executing application.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises reducing data retrieval by the currently-executing application.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises dropping one or more connections with the currently-executing application.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises increasing a size of one or more data objects generated by the currently-executing application.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises increasing data retrieval by the currently-executing application.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises changing thread assignments of the currently-executing application.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the modification comprises changing the currently-executing application'"'"'s use of one or more other applications.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changed environmental condition pertains to system-related conditions.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changed environmental condition pertains to network-related conditions.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changed environmental condition pertains to client-related conditions in one or more clients of the currently-executing application.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changed environmental condition occurred internally to a system in which the currently-executing application is executing.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the generated notification pertains to a condition of a local network protocol stack.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the generated notification pertains to a condition of the system in which the currently-executing application is executing.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the analyzing step is performed by a policy manager component of the system in which the currently-executing application is executing.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changed environmental condition occurred externally to a system in which the currently-executing application is executing.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the generated notification pertains to a condition of a client of the currently-executing application.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the generated notification pertains to a condition of a remote network platform.

20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the generated notification pertains to a condition of a remote server with which the currently-executing application is communicating.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the modification comprises making adjustments pertaining to the remote server.

22. A method of dynamically modifying behavior of an executing application in response to changing environmental conditions, comprising steps of:

exchanging information among multiple components of a network as to each component'"'"'s support for environmental awareness;

detecting, by a selected one of the components, an environmental change;

determining, responsive to the detecting, those other ones of the components which indicated an interest in the detected environmental change during the exchanging step;

notifying those other ones of the detected environmental change; and

dynamically modifying behavior of an application currently executing at one or more of the notified components, in order to account for the detected environmental change.

23. A system for improving traffic management in a computing network, comprising:

means for detecting a changed environmental condition;

means for generating a notification of the detected condition;

means for analyzing the generated notification by consulting one or more criteria;

means for determining, based on the analysis, whether a currently-executing application should modify its behavior; and

modifying, by the currently-executing application, its behavior.

24. A computer program product for dynamically modifying behavior of an executing application in response to changing environmental conditions, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for exchanging information among multiple components of a network as to each component'"'"'s support for environmental awareness;

computer-readable program code means for detecting, by a selected one of the components, an environmental change;

computer-readable program code means for determining, responsive to operation of the computer-readable program code means for detecting, those other ones of the components which indicated an interest in the detected environmental change during operation of the computer-readable program code means for exchanging;

computer-readable program code means for notifying those other ones of the detected environmental change; and

computer-readable program code means for dynamically modifying behavior of an application currently executing at one or more of the notified components, in order to account for the detected environmental change.