Method, computer program product, and system for deriving web transaction performance metrics

• US 6,701,363 B1
• Filed: 02/29/2000
• Issued: 03/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Halim, Nagui, Mills, W. Nathaniel III, Squillante, Mark S., Chiu, Willy W., Krueger, LeRoy Albert Jr., Hellerstein, Joseph L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US09/516,172
• Time in Patent Office: 1,463 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/067 using time frame reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The present invention comprises a method of relating characteristics gleaned by monitoring application transaction flows (and the decomposition thereof) to produce performance metrics useful to characterize the efficiency and performance of web transactions used in a web-based application. These metrics can assist application designers and developers in reorganizing their application content, programs, and transports to provide improved service to their consumer. Events are generated and composed into predefined activities on a web transaction basis. The performance metric is then derived that entails a relationship between at least two different activities that gives insight into the performance characteristics of the web transaction. By using the derived performance metrics, designers and developers of web pages can judge the effects of changes to their application relative to efficiency and performance. Different applications can also be compared and contrasted using these metrics. Furthermore, these metrics may serve as inputs to planning models used to project capacity, throughput, response time, and availability of the application.

Claims

1. A method for assessing performance of a web transaction comprising:

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of application data and measuring some amount of overhead data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the application data divided by the total of the application data and the overhead data, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

2. A method for assessing performance of a web transaction comprising:

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of application data devoted solely to images and measuring a total amount of application data including image and non-image data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the application data devoted solely to images divided by the total application data, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

3. A method for assessing performance of a web transaction comprising:

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of data used in negotiating security protocols and measuring an amount of encrypted application data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the encrypted application data divided by the sum of the encrypted application data plus the data used in negotiating the security protocols, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

4. A method for assessing performance of a web transaction comprising:

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of data used in negotiating security protocols, measuring an amount of encrypted application data, and measuring an amount of unencrypted application data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the unencrypted application data divided by the sum of the encrypted application data plus the data used in negotiating the security protocols, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

5. A method for assessing performance of a web transaction comprising:

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises tracking the total inactive time (I) for a set of at least two activities, tracking the total inattentive time (IA) for the set of at least two activities, and tracking the total execution time (E) for the set of at least two activities; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is (E−

(I+IA))/E, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

6. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium;

computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for assessing performance of a web transaction, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of application data and measuring some amount of overhead data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the application data divided by the total of the application data and the overhead data, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

7. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium;

computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for assessing performance of a web transaction, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of application data devoted solely to images and measuring a total amount of application data including image and non-image data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the application data devoted solely to images divided by the total application data, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

8. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium;

computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for assessing performance of a web transaction, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of data used in negotiating security protocols and measuring an amount of encrypted application data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the encrypted application data divided by the sum of the encrypted application data plus the data used in negotiating the security protocols, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

9. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium;

computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for assessing performance of a web transaction, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises measuring an amount of data used in negotiating security protocols, measuring an amount of encrypted application data, and measuring an amount of unencrypted application data; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is a ratio of the unencrypted application data divided by the sum of the encrypted application data plus the data used in negotiating the security protocols, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium;

computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for assessing performance of a web transaction, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;

generating events relative to the web transaction selected from a plurality of concurrently operational web transactions;

organizing the generated events into a plurality of predefined activities, each activity associated with the web transaction, and wherein said plurality of predefined activities comprises tracking the total inactive time (I) for a set of at least two activities, tracking the total inattentive time (IA) for the set of at least two activities, and tracking the total execution time (E) for the set of at least two activities; and

deriving a single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric is (E−

(I+IA))/E, the metric defining a characteristic of the web transaction.

11. A method for facilitating a performance evaluation of a client web application, said method comprising:

deploying one or more tools wherein said tools monitor state changes and generate events within a computer system related to a web transaction;

organizing a first plurality of said events to form a first activity;

organizing a second plurality of said events to form a second activity;

utilizing a first metric associated with said first activity and a second metric associated with said second activity to calculate a non-cumulative single numeric performance metric, wherein the performance metric equals (E−

(I+IA))/E and wherein said performance metric defines a characteristic of said web transaction; and

making said performance metric available to said performance evaluation.