Delivery context aware activity on networks: devices, software, and methods

• US 20040215757A1
• Filed: 10/30/2003
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Butler, Mark Henry
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Software (42) which when run on a processor (40) of a networked resource server (14′, 18′, 20′) reads delivery context aware related data from a contact log of said server and processes said data to produce processed acquired data relating to delivery context aware requests for resources made of the server, and which software causes said processed acquired data to be transmitted out of a network port (58) of the server proactively, without an input trigger signal from outside of the server.

Claims

1. A networkable resource server adapted in use to serve out resources to client devices of a network, the server having delivery context aware activity software which when run on a processor of the server causes a report to be produced containing data related to delivery context aware requests for resources received by the server.

2. A server according to claim 1 adapted to transmit the report externally of the server to another processor.

3. A server according to claim 1 in which there is provided a data log held in a data log memory, the data log being adapted to store data on activity of the server, including information on delivery context aware activity, and wherein the delivery context aware activity software is adapted to interrogate the data log to obtain the data related to delivery context aware requests for resources received by the server.

4. A server according to claim 1 adapted proactively to send out said report onto the network to which the server is connected.

5. A server according to claim 1 wherein the report relates to a plurality of context delivery aware requests for resources.

6. A method of network management comprising obtaining data related to context delivery aware requests for resources made on the network, analysing the data, and taking an action from the group:

(i) generating a control signal adapted to control a network element;

or (ii) generating a report containing information indicative of the level of delivery context aware activity on the network.

7. A method according to claim 6 comprising modifying the size or contents of a reference profile cache of a resource server responsive to an assessment of the level of usage of reference profiles in said reference profile cache.

8. A method according to claim 6 wherein the assessment comprises one or more of:

assessing a level of deletes of reference profiles in said cache;

assessing a frequency of use of specific reference profiles.

9. A method according to claim 6 comprising seeking a reference profile and/or vocabulary from an alternative reference profile repository or vocabulary repository.

10. A method of managing a resource server on a network comprising assessing delivery context aware activity involving said server.

11. A method according to claim 10 comprising, responsive to said assessment, modifying a cache reference profile memory.

12. A method according to claim 10 comprising, responsive to said assessing, seeking a reference profile from a different reference profile repository to that from which the server has previously sought the reference profile.

13. A method according to claim 10 comprising, responsive to said assessing, seeking a vocabulary from a different vocabulary repository to that from which the server has previously sought vocabulary.

15. A network according to claim 13 wherein the central network delivery context aware activity monitor is adapted to generate a report for review by a system administrator and/or a control signal to alter, automatically, a networked component.

14. A network having a plurality of resource servers, a central network delivery context aware activity monitor;

the resource servers being adapted to monitor their own delivery context aware activity and to convey a report relating to delivery context aware activity with which they have been involved to the central delivery context aware activity monitor.

16. A network according to claim 14 wherein the resource servers are adapted to report said reports relating to delivery context aware activity with which they have been involved to said central network delivery context aware activity monitor automatically without requiring an external prompt.

17. A method of managing a network having delivery context aware client devices and resource servers, comprising having the resource servers process data relating to delivery context aware activity with which they were involved locally at the resource servers, and forward a report containing information derived from their delivery context aware activity to a network-wide delivery context aware activity monitor, and having the monitor process the individual reports from the resource servers to produce an output result from the monitor that is influenced by delivery context aware activity involving a plurality of the resource servers.

18. A method according to claim 17 wherein the output result is from the group:

a control signal, a report for human consumption, a report for consumption by a processor.

19. Computer program product which when run on a processor of a networked resource server, acquires data relating to delivery context aware requests for resources made of the server.

20. Computer program product according to claim 19 which causes data relating to delivery context aware requests for resources to be transmitted out of a network port of the server.

21. Computer program product according to claim 20 which is adapted to cause acquired data to be sent out of the server proactively, without an input trigger signal from outside of the server.

22. Computer program product according to claim 19 which is adapted to process delivery context aware related data to acquire derived data derived from other data relating to delivery context aware requests.

23. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to extract said delivery context aware related data from a memory of said server.

24. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to evaluate said acquired data and to cause the processor of the server to take an action dependent upon evaluation of said acquired data.

25. Computer program product according to claim 24 wherein said action comprises selecting a network address representative of a reference profile repository, said address to be used by said server in preference to another network address for a reference profile when said processor seeks a reference profile for resolving a client device profile responsive to a delivery context aware request for resources.

26. Computer program product according to claim 24 adapted for use with a server having a reference profile memory, and wherein said action comprises changing said reference profile memory.

27. Computer program product according to claim 26 adapted to cause the reference profile memory to increase or decrease in size responsive to an evaluation of acquired data relating to delivery context aware activity involving the server.

28. Computer program product according to claim 26 wherein the identity of the reference profiles stored in the server referenced profile memory is caused to change by said software.

29. Computer program product according to claim 26 wherein said action comprises selecting a network vocabulary address representative of a vocabulary repository, said vocabulary address to be used in preference to another network address for vocabulary when said processor seeks vocabulary responsive to a delivery context aware request for resources.

30. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to evaluate whether the server successfully retrieves reference profiles.

31. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to monitor the frequency of deletes in a reference profile cache of the server.

32. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to evaluate the level of usage of reference profiles in a reference profile cache of the server.

33. Computer program product according to claim 32 which is adapted to establish a usage level parameter indicative of the usage of a reference profile for each reference profile.

34. Computer program product according to claim 33 wherein said usage level parameter comprises the ratio of the time since a specific reference profile was entered into the profile cache and the number of times the particular reference profile has been retrieved from the cache since it was entered into it.

35. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to monitor the fraction of devices requesting resources, and/or requests for resources from the server that are delivery context aware.

36. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to monitor whether client devices are using a profile that contains errors.

37. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to monitor whether a profile references a vocabulary description that either the server has not been preconfigured to recognise or that it cannot retrieve from a vocabulary reference.

38. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to monitor the number of profile differences used in an individual request for resources.

39. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to identify an inability to obtain a requested reference profile or vocabulary from a reference profile or vocabulary repository and to cause the server to request the reference profile or vocabulary from an alternative repository.

40. Computer program product according to claim 19 adapted to convey monitored information to a remote system central monitor system.

41. Central network monitoring computer program product adapted to be run on a processor of a central network monitoring processor, the central network monitoring computer program product comprising delivery context aware activity analysis computer program product adapted to process delivery context aware related data input to said central network monitoring processor by networked resource servers.

42. Central network monitoring computer program product according to claim 41 adapted to collate data from a plurality of networked resource servers and to provide a statistical analysis of overall network activity involving delivery context aware activity.

43. Central network monitoring computer program product according to claim 41 which is adapted to produce delivery context aware network activity influenced parameters, data, reports, or control signals.

44. A method of providing consulting services relating to network management comprising using software in accordance with a previous computer program product claim to provide information relating to delivery context aware network activity, and providing advice using the information so obtained.

45. A method of monitoring the performance of resource servers on a network comprising monitoring consequential requests made over the network by a resource server in response to the resource server receiving delivery context aware requests to serve out resource, the consequential requests made by the resource server being request for data to enable the server to serve out the resource in an appropriate delivery context aware manner.

46. A method according to claim 45 wherein the success or failure of the resource server in serving out resources in the appropriate delivery context aware manner is monitored.

47. A method of managing resource servers on a network which receive delivery context aware requests or resources from client devices and dependant thereupon create their own network secondary requests for client device capability-related information in order to customise the data they serve out for suitability with the requesting client device, the method comprising monitoring the secondary requests to determine levels of operational efficacy of the secondary requests and/or statistics relating to secondary requests.

48. A method of managing a server in a network where the server serves resources to a requesting device which has made a primary delivery context aware request to the server for resources, the server responsive thereto making its own secondary request for reference profile and or vocabulary data from another server, the method comprising monitoring operational statistics relating to the success or failure of the primary request.

49. Computer program product which when run on a processor of a networked resource server, reads delivery context aware related data from a contact log of said server and processes said data to provide processed acquired data relating to delivery context aware requests for resources made of the server, and which computer program product causes said processed acquired data to be transmitted out of a network port of the sever proactively, without an input trigger signal from outside of the server.

50. A method of trading in network-related usage and/or performance, and/or network composition and/or device performance information comprising acquiring said information using software probes on networked resource servers to extract delivery context awareness-related network activity data relating to activity involving the particular resource server upon which said probe resides, reporting said data to a location externally of said resource servers, using reported data to produce said network-related usage and/or performance information, and trading in said information.

51. A networkable resource server adapted in use to serve out resources to client devices of a network, the server having a resource request monitoring computer program product which when run on a processor of the server causes a report to be produced containing data related to or influenced by at least one of the group:

(i) whether the requests for resource contain information relating to the capabilities of a client device to receive and/or process and/or display data;

(ii) the capabilities of the resource server to output resources having different network transmission and/or data-presentation characteristics;

(iii) network transmission and/or data-presentation characteristics of an intermediary device in said network disposed in a communication pathway between said client device and said resource server;

(iv) the characteristics of settings of configurable settings of the server, or client device, or an intermediary device in a communication pathway in the network between the resource server and the client device.

52. A networkable resource server adapted in use to serve out resources to client devices of a network, the server having a resource request monitoring computer program product which when run on a processor of the server causes a report to be produced containing data related to or influenced by at least one of the group:

(i) success rate of the server being able to obtain reference profiles;

(ii) the level of churn occurring in a reference profile cache of the server;

(iii) the level of usage of individual reference profiles in a reference profile cache of the server;

(iv) the proportion of requests for resource received by the server that contain delivery context information;

(v) errors detected in reference profiles;

(vi) vocabulary in reference profiles that is unrecognised by said server;

(vii) the proportion of requests for resources received by the server that use profile differences;

(viii) the proportion of client devices that make requests of the server for resources that use profile differences;

(ix) the number of intermediary devices in a communication chain from a client device to the server that influence the delivery context information of the requests;

(x) the number of configurable settings of devices involved in making and communicating a request of the server for resources, and in returning the requested resources to the client device, that influence the delivery context information in the request.