System and method for monitoring performance, analyzing capacity and utilization, and planning capacity for networks and intelligent, network connected processes

• US 20050018611A1
• Filed: 08/07/2004
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Klassen, Fredrick K.P., Chan, Ken, Silverman, Robert M.
• Application Number:
  US10/913,981
• Publication Number:
  US 20050018611A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage

Abstract

Analysis of networks and testing and analyzing intelligent, network connected devices. An instantaneous network utilization value is assigned for the worst surviving ping instance of between 90% and 99% (determined proportionately from the ratio of dropped test samples to surviving test samples), and then used to solve for average network message size and average utilization of the network. A plurality transactions of different types are transmitted across the network to intelligent end systems and the results mathematically evaluated to determine the portion of the total response time contributed by the network and by the end processors; the utilization of the end processor processing subsystems and of the end processor I/O subsystems; and the utilization of the end system as a whole; and of the network and end processors considered as a unitary entity. Steps include determining utilization of the network when test packets are dropped by the network; utilization of intelligent processor and other devices attached to the network when test transactions are dropped, and when not dropped; and response time for remote processes at both the network and processor level.

Claims

1-16. -16. (Canceled)

17. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for providing a queuing theory analysis of a network system including a communications network and an intelligent end device, said operations comprising:

sending and receiving a plurality of probative test packets through said network to generate first evaluation data;

sending a plurality of probative transactions and data streams to said intelligent end device connected to said network to generate second evaluation data;

responsive to said first and second evaluation data, determining and storing evaluation parameters including best short and best long ping times; and

responsive to said parameters, determining response time and throughput characteristics, including end-to-end capacity, utilization and performance of said network system as a function of network queue factor.

18-22. -22. (Canceled)

23. Method for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system including a test station, a network, and a target station, comprising:

performing test routines including test transactions across said network and probative tests of said network;

responsive to data from said transactions and said tests, determining the state of the network, including network capacity and utilization as a function of end-to-end network queue factor;

responsive to said state, deriving network contribution to application response time, and the capacity and utilization of said target station and its contribution to network system response time.

24-35. -35. (Canceled)

36. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, said operations comprising:

sending probative test packets and transactions across a network to an intelligent end station; and

responsive to said test packets and transactions, deriving and applying network queue factor to determine end-to-end capacity, utilization, and performance of said network system, devices connected by said network system, and said devices and network considered as a unitary system.

43. The program storage device of claim 36, said operations further comprising:

testing for presence of prioritization support within said network system; and

, if present, measuring the capacity, utilization, and performance of said network system with respect to a plurality of priority levels by transmitting and analyzing sample packets and transactions set at varying priorities.

37. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, the computer readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect sending probative test packets and transactions across a network to an intelligent end station; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect responsive to said test packets and transactions, for deriving and applying network queue factor to determine end-to-end capacity, utilization, and performance of said network, devices connected by said network, and said devices and said network considered as a unitary system.

38. A computer program product configured to be operable for evaluating a networked system according to operations comprising:

selectively sending and receiving a plurality of network evaluation signals over a network;

selectively sending a plurality of probative transactions and data streams to intelligent end stations on said network;

responsive to said evaluation signals, determining network evaluation and intelligent end station parameters; and

deriving and applying network queue factor to said parameters to determine end-to-end network response time and throughput characteristics, including capacity, utilization and performance.

39. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, said operations comprising:

generating network system test ping and transaction data;

performing mathematical analysis of said test ping and transaction data, including determining network end-to-end throughput and response time bandwidths, end processor transaction capacity, network end-to-end queue delay, network end-to-end latency delay, network internal packet size, network utilization as a function of end-to-end network queue factor, and utilization of intelligent processors connected by said network.

40. System for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, comprising:

a network device for sending probative test packets including short pings and long pings and transactions across said network to an intelligent end station to generate test results including best short ping and best long ping; and

a device for deriving and applying network queue factor to said test results to determine end-to-end capacity, utilization, and performance of said network, devices connected by said network, and said devices and said network considered as a unitary system.

41. System of claim 40, said network further comprising data, voice, and video communications networks including intelligent processors supporting communication devices including cellular phone and pager devices.

42. System of claim 40 for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, further comprising:

said network device further for testing for presence of prioritization support within said network system; and

, if present, for measuring the capacity, utilization, and performance of said network system with respect to a plurality of priority levels by transmitting and analyzing sample packets and transactions set at varying priorities.

44. System for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system including a test station, a network, and a target station, comprising

said test station performing test routines including test transactions across said network and probative tests of said network;

said test station responsive to data from said transactions and said tests for determining the end-to-end state of said network, including as a function of network queue factor network capacity and utilization;

said test station responsive to said state for deriving network contribution to application response time, and capacity and utilization of said target station and its contribution to network system response time.

45. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for monitoring performance, capacity, and utilization of a network system, said operations comprising:

performing test routines including test transactions across said network and probative tests of said network;

responsive to data from said transactions and said tests, determining the state of the network, including network capacity and utilization as a function of end-to-end network queue factor;

responsive to said state, deriving network contribution to application response time, and the capacity and utilization of said target station and its contribution to network system response time.

46. System for providing a queuing theory analysis of a network system including a test station, a communications network and an intelligent end device, comprising:

said test station sending and receiving a plurality probative test packets through said network to generate first evaluation data, and sending a plurality of probative transactions and data streams to said intelligent end device connected to said network to generate second evaluation data;

said test station responsive to said first and second evaluation data for determining and storing evaluation parameters; and

said test station responsive to said parameters for determining response time and throughput characteristics, including end-to-end capacity, utilization and performance of said network system as a function of network queue factor.