RESPONSE TIME BENCHMARKING

• US 20080133739A1
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mani, Ramesh, Zuzga, Brian, Addleman, Mark Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,981 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3428 Benchmarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

A benchmark response time is determined for a browser application request sent to a network server over a network. The response time is determined by performance monitoring code that is loaded into and monitors the browser application from the client. The performance monitoring code automatically sends a request to a network server; the request is not sent in response to user input. The network server receives the request, generates a response and provides the response to the browser application. The response includes a fixed amount of randomly generated data. The browser application receives and processes the response, but does not display the bytes or change the content displayed in the browser application as a result of the response. The browser application sends the times at which the browser application sends the request and the browser application completes processing the response data to the network server for further processing.

Claims

1. A method for determining the performance of a server, comprising:

automatically sending a request to a first server by a client;

recording a first time at the client associated with sending the request;

receiving a response from the first server, the response including a first number of bytes of data;

processing the data contained in the response by the client;

recording a second time at the client after the client has processed the response; and

reporting the first time and the second time by the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving performance monitoring code by a client, the performance monitoring code initiating sad steps sending a request, recording the first time, recording the second time and reporting time data.

3. The method of claim 2, receiving a network page by a client, the network page including the performance monitoring code.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the performance monitoring code is script code.

5. The method of claim 1, said step of sending includes:

executing performance monitoring code;

determining that a browser application is idle by the performance monitoring code; and

sending the request by the browser application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of recording a first time includes:

recording a first time at which the request was sent to the server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of recording a first time includes:

storing the first time by a client browser application to the client.

8. The method of claim 1, the request sent in response to executing the performance monitoring code by a client browser application.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of processing does not change content displayed to a user through a client browser application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of reporting includes:

reporting the time data in an image request to the first server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of reporting includes:

automatically sending a second request to the first server by the client; and

including the time data in the second request.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of reporting includes:

receiving input from a user by the client browser application; and

sending a second request to the first server in response to said step of receiving input by the client browser application, the second request including the time data.

13. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

automatically sending a first request to a first server by a client;

receiving a first response from the first server by the client, the first response containing a first number of bytes;

automatically sending a second request to the first server by the client;

receiving a second response from the first server by the client, the second response containing the first number of bytes; and

automatically reporting time information associated with each response to a performance monitoring system.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, automatically sending the request by performance monitoring code received from the first server.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, automatically sending the request by performance monitoring code loaded into a browser application on the client.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, wherein the second request includes:

response time data associated with the first request.

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 16, wherein the response time data includes the first request was sent and the time the first response was received.

18. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, wherein the second request is sent in response to receiving the first response.

19. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, further comprising:

determining that a browser application is in an idle state; and

automatically sending the second request in response to determining the browser application is in an idle state.

20. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a communication interface;

a storage device; and

one or more processors in communication with said storage device and said communication interface, said one or more processors automatically send a request to a first server, store a first time associated with sending the request, receive a response from the first server, the response including a first number of randomly generated bytes of data, process the random bytes of data contained in the response, store a second time at the client after the random bytes of data are processed, and report the first time and the second time.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, said one or more processors send the first request when a browser application is idle.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, said one or more processors automatically report the first time and a second time in a second automatically request to the first server.

23. A method for determining performance, comprising:

receiving a network page by a browser application on a client, the network page including performance monitoring code;

automatically sending a request to a first server by the browser application, the request sent in response to executing the performance monitoring code by the browser application;

storing a first time at which the request was sent to the server;

receiving a response from the first server by the browser application, the response including a first number of bytes of data;

processing the data contained in the response by the browser application, wherein said step of processing does not include changing content displayed to a user by the browser application;

storing a second time at which the browser application has processed the response; and

transmitting the first time and second time by the client.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of automatically sending a request includes:

determining the browser application is idle.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of automatically sending a request includes:

sending the request automatically upon execution of the performance monitoring code.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of processing the data includes:

parsing the data.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein said first time and second time are stored in a text file on the client

28. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of transmitting the first time and second time includes:

transmitting the first time and the second time by the client to the first server.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of transmitting the first time and second time includes:

sending a content request to the first server in response to user input; and

transmitting the first time and the second time within the content request.

30. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

automatically initiating a request to a first server by a client;

storing a first time associated with the request;

accessing a response from the first server, the response including a first number of bytes of data;

processing the data contained in the response by a browser application;

storing a second time at which the browser application has processed the response; and

transmitting time data associated with the first time and second time.

31. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 30, wherein said step of initiating a request includes:

generating random bytes of data at the client; and

including the random bytes of data in the request.

32. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 31, wherein said step of processing the data includes:

determining whether the random bytes of data are included in the response.

33. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 31, wherein the time data indicates whether the response included the random bytes of data

34. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 31, wherein the time data includes the first time and the second time.