System, method, and program for measuring performance in a network system

• US 20030195960A1
• Filed: 04/22/2003
• Published: 10/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Greg Elliot Merriam
• Original Assignee: Greg Elliot Merriam
• Inventors: Merriam, Greg Elliot
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,168 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions

Abstract

Disclosed is a method, system, and program for generating network performance data. Performance information including a performance time to download a page and execute the page within an application program is received. The received performance information is processed and then performance information output indicating network performance is generated in response to processing the performance information.

Claims

1. A method for generating network performance data, comprising:

receiving first performance information including a performance time to download a page and execute the page within an application program;

processing the received first performance information;

generating second performance information indicating network performance in response to processing the first performance information; and

utilizing the second performance information to estimate a performance time for a hypothetical device to download and execute the page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the page within the application program comprises displaying the entire contents of the page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance time to execute the displayed page is determined by screen scraping.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the page comprises:

executing a script program to input data into the displayed page;

transmitting the page including the input data; and

receiving a response concerning the transmitted page, wherein the performance time further includes the time to enter the input data into the page, transmit the page including the input data, and receive the response.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the downloaded page comprises a purchase order, wherein the script program inputs customer purchase information into the downloaded purchase order page, and wherein the response indicates confirmation of the purchase order.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a network address at a location; and

utilizing the second performance information to estimate a the performance time for a the hypothetical device at the network address to download and execute the page.

7. An article of manufacture for use in programming a computer to generate performance data, wherein a network comprises at least one client and a server, the article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium including at least one computer program that causes the computer to perform:

executing a performance test to determine first performance information at the at least one client and second performance information at the server, including a performance time for the computer to download a page from the server and execute the page within an application program;

calculating a first ping time and a second ping time; and

generating a performance time for a hypothetical device using the first performance information, the second performance information, the first ping time, and the second ping time.

8. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the application program is a browser program, and wherein executing the page within the browser program comprises displaying the entire contents of the page in the browser program.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein determining the performance time to execute the page within the client browser program comprises screen scraping.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein executing the page within the client browser program comprises:

executing a script program to input data into the page displayed in the browser program;

transmitting the page including the input data to the server over the network;

receiving a response page from the server in response to the page including the input data; and

incorporating into the client performance time the time to enter the input data into the page, transmit the page including the input data to the server, and receive the response from the server.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the page downloaded from the server comprises a purchase order, wherein the script program inputs customer purchase information into the downloaded purchase order page, and wherein the response from the server indicates confirmation of the purchase order.