Method and system for assigning priority among network segments

• US 6,675,209 B1
• Filed: 07/19/1999
• Issued: 01/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Britt, Steven V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell, Robert B.
• Application Number:
  US09/356,477
• Time in Patent Office: 1,632 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/022 by sampling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control

Abstract

This invention specifies a mechanism that can be used by network management system (“NMS”) applications, running on a single workstation or personal computer, which continuously monitor the flow of traffic on some or all segments of their attached network. The invention enables an application to determine whether enough system resources are available to monitor all segments in the network. If not all of the segments can be monitored, the invention specifies an algorithm that can be used to intelligently select a subset of segments for monitoring. If all of the segments can be monitored the same algorithm may instead be applied to determine which segments should be monitored at a more detailed level than the rest. In effect, this invention will allow one application running on a workstation or personal computer to monitor networks that range in size from one to several thousand segments while consuming a bounded portion of its host system'"'"'s resources. This not only allows the same NTAS application to be marketed to a wider spectrum of customers, but permits the application to adapt its function to a much broader set of conditions as the network being monitored evolves over time.

Claims

1. A process for adapting the operation of a network management system to optimize the operational relationship between the host computer and the coupled network, the process comprising:

survey the network to establish segments of nodes within the network;

prioritize said segments of nodes from a highest to a lowest importance for the system to manage;

retrieve and organize said segments of nodes into lists, each one of said lists having a distinct traffic data acquisition method;

prioritize said lists from a highest to a lowest importance for the system to manage;

acquire a protocol data unit (“

PDU”

) credit limit for regulating the amount of traffic information obtained from the prioritized segments;

apportioning said PDU credit limit amongst the highest prioritized list of said lists;

determine the remaining PDU credit limit available after the step of apportioning; and

apportioning said remaining PDU credit limit amongst the next highest prioritized lists of said lists one segment at a time until said remaining PDU credit limit is similar to zero.

2. The process of claim 1, further including acquire an analysis period for regulating the amount of time that can be expended to collect traffic information from said prioritized segments.

3. The process of claim 2, further including establishing a retrieval period being less than said analysis period for collecting traffic information from at least one of said lists.

4. The process of claim 3, further including adjusting the duration of said retrieval period to provide enough time to collect traffic information from said lists within said analysis period.

5. The process of claim 3, further including establishing a frequency for collecting traffic information from each one of said prioritized segments within said retrieval period.

6. The process of claim 3, further including adjusting said frequency to provide enough time to collect traffic information from each one of said prioritized segments within said retrieval period.

7. The process of claim 1, further including apportioning said PDU credit limit among said prioritized segments of nodes to determine the number of prioritized segments that can exchange traffic information without exceeding said PDU credit limit.

8. The process of claim 1, further including prioritize the nodes of each one of said segments of nodes within each one of said lists from a highest to a lowest importance for the system to manage.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein said step of survey further includes categorize said segments of nodes into lists of segments having a different network topology characteristic selected from the group including network communication technology, data acquisition method, number of nodes, and device types.

10. A network traffic analysis system operable on a host computer being coupled to a network, said network having multiple segments that may utilize various data acquisition methods, the system comprising:

a network organizer that categorizes the multiple segments of the network;

a protocol data unit (“

PDU”

) distributor that determines the number of PDUs necessary to obtain traffic information form one of said multiple segments;

a network prioritizer that ranks said categorized segments amongst themselves according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis; and

a system optimizer that determines how many of the ranked segments can provide data traffic information without exceeding a set PDU credit limit by an apportioning element that subtracts said determined number of PDUs for each prioritized segment from said PDU credit limit until the value of the PDU credit limit is similar to zero.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said network organizer categorizes said multiple segments into lists of segments according to the data acquisition method that the associated segments use for obtaining network traffic information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said network prioritizer further includes a segment prioritizer that ranks said segments of each one of said multiple segment lists among one another according to a highest to lowest importance to collect traffic information.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said system optimizer further includes a duplicate node eliminator that ignores a segment of at least one of said lists of segments that can be found in another one of said lists of segments having a higher ranking.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said system optimizer further includes a utilization element to determine which of said multiple segments should provide detailed traffic information according to previously collected basic traffic information.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said network prioritizer further includes a segment prioritizer that ranks the nodes within each one of said multiple segment lists according to a highest to lowest importance to collect traffic information.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein said network organizer categorizes said multiple segments into lists of segments according to at least one network topology characteristic selected from the group including network communication technology, data acquisition method, number of nodes, and device types.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein said network prioritizer ranks the nodes of each categorized segment according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein said PDU credit limit dictates an optimal operating condition for the host computer to communicate with the network and any software or device associated therewith.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein said PDU credit limit is an arbitrary value selected by the user.

20. The system of claim 10, wherein said PDU credit limit being related to the operational characteristics of the hardware and software of the host computer while interacting with an active network to optimize system resources.

21. The system of claim 10, wherein said system optimizer further includes a frequency element that adjusts the number of times traffic information is collected from each one of said ranked segments to avoid exceeding said PDU credit limit.

22. The system of claim 10, wherein said system optimizer further includes collection timer that adjusts a retrieval period for collecting traffic information from each one of said ranked segments to avoid exceeding said PDU credit limit.

23. A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions to implementing a method for adapting the operation of a network management system to optimize the operational relationship between a host computer, the programmed instructions, and a coupled network, said method comprising:

categorize the multiple segments of the network by organizing said segments into lists of segments according to the data acquisition method used to obtain network traffic information;

rank said categorized segments amongst themselves according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis and mark to ignore any duplicate segments from said lists; and

determine how many of the ranked segments can provide data traffic information without exceeding a set protocol data unit (“

PDU”

) credit limit.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of rank further includes prioritize said categorized lists amongst themselves according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said step of rank further includes prioritize the nodes of each one of said categorized segments according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of rank further includes determining the number of PDUs necessary to obtain traffic information from each one of said multiple segments.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said step of determining further includes subtracting said determined number of PDUs for each prioritized segment from said PDU credit limit until the value of the PDU credit limit is similar to zero.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of categorize further includes organizing said multiple segments into lists of segments according to at least one network topology characteristic selected from the group including network communication technology, data acquisition method, number of nodes in segment, and device types.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of determining further includes adjusting the number of times traffic information is collected from each one of said ranked segments to avoid exceeding said PDU credit limit.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of determining further includes adjusting a retrieval period for collecting traffic information from each one of said ranked segments to avoid exceeding said PDU credit limit.

31. The method of claim 23, further including a step of determining which of said multiple segments should provide detailed data traffic information according to previously collected basic traffic information.

32. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of determining further includes establishing how many of the ranked segments from a highest to lowest importance for the system to manage can provide detailed data traffic information without exceeding said set PDU credit limit.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of determining further includes calculating how many of the ranked segments can provide detailed traffic information after the highest priority list provides data traffic information without exceeding said set PDU credit limit.

34. A network traffic analysis system operable on a host computer being coupled to a network, said network having multiple segments that may utilize various data acquisition methods, the system comprising:

a network organizer that categorizes the multiple segments of the network into lists of segments according to the data acquisition method that the associated segments use for obtaining network traffic information;

a network prioritizer that ranks said categorized segments amongst themselves according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis;

a system optimizer that determines how many of the ranked segments can provide data traffic information without exceeding a set protocol data unit (“

PDU”

) credit limit; and

a duplicate node eliminator that ignores a segment of at least one of said lists of segments that can be found in another one of said lists of segments having a higher ranking.

35. A network traffic analysis system operable on a host computer being coupled to a network, said network having multiple segments that may utilize various data acquisition methods, the system comprising:

a network organizer that categorizes the multiple segments of the network into lists of segments according to the data acquisition method that the associated segments use for obtaining network traffic information;

a network prioritizer that ranks said categorized segments amongst themselves according to a necessity to obtain data traffic information for analysis;

a system optimizer that determines how many of the ranked segments can provide data traffic information without exceeding a set protocol data unit (“

PDU”

) credit limit; and

a utilization element to determine which of said multiple segments should provide detailed traffic information according to previously collected basic traffic information.

36. A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions to implementing a method for adapting the operation of a network management system to optimize the operational relationship between a host computer, the programmed instructions, and a coupled network, said method comprising

categorize the multiple segments of the network;

rank said categorized segments amongst themselves by determining the number of protocol data units (“

PDU”

) necessary to obtain traffic information from each one of said multiple segments; and

determine how many of the ranked segments can provide data traffic information without exceeding a set PDU credit limit by subtracting said determined number of PDUs for each prioritized segment from said PDU credit limit until the value of the PDU credit limit is similar to zero.