Scoping of real time signals of remote communication systems over a computer network: systems, methods and program products

• US 6,889,346 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2001
• Issued: 05/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jeffries, Clark Debs, Ye, Hua, Ware, Malcolm Scott, Davis, Gordon Taylor, Hwang, Dongming, Abdelilah, Youssef, Derby, Jeffrey Haskell
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Damiano, Anne L.
• Application Number:
  US09/906,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20030014691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/18, 714/25, 714/46, 714/57, 709/224, 702/188
• US Class Current: 714/46
• 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 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226

Abstract

A remote controller is coupled to a target system via a computer network A real time probe is installed in software executing on a target system, typically a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The remote controller includes a “debugger user interface” which accepts and interprets scoping commands issued by a developer. A controller network driver constructs appropriate network packets to be sent over the network to the target system. The target system has a control processor which runs a target network driver for receiving the network packets containing the scoping commands. The scoping commands are sent to an “embedded debugger” which performs the requested probing/scoping. When the DSP code runs across an address where the probe is installed, the embedded debugger will collect the signal values. The collected scope data will be interleaved and sent to the target network driver which, will encapsulate the information into suitable packets to send back to the controller via the network.

Claims

1. System for remote scoping of real time signals of software systems via a network using interactive bandwidth allocation and data signals, comprising:

a controller coupled to the network accessible by a developer for generating a scoping command and collecting remote scoping data, the controller including a debugger user interface responsive to the developer for interpreting developer scoping commands and transmitting the commands to a controller network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent through the network;

a target system coupled to the network and including a target network driver which receives the network packets containing the scoping commands and transmits the collected scoping data from the target system;

an embedded debugger coupled to the target network driver for executing the controller scoping command and collecting the scoping data for transmission to the target network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent via the network to the controller and display to the developer; and

interactive bandwidth allocation software in the target system for guaranteeing that scoping data packets will not exceed the allocated network bandwidth wherein the interactive bandwidth allocation software further comprises;

down-sampling and selective sampling.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

filtering software for combating the loss of scope data packets due to “

Best Effort”

network transport behavior.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

interleaving software for combating the loss of scope data packets due to “

Best Effort”

network transport behavior.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a storage circular buffer at the target system for de interleaving and filtering the scope data to achieve meaningful display of collected scope data in the event of missing scope data packets.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a selected transport protocol used to transmit scoping commands through the network and enabling retransmission of packets in the event of packet loss or error.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a transport protocol for transmitting collected scoping data from the target system through the network and providing real time behavior of the scoping data.

7. System for remote scoping of real time signals of software systems via a network using interactive bandwidth allocation and data signals, comprising:

a controller coupled to the network accessible by a developer for generating a scoping command and collecting remote scoping data, the controller including a debugger user interface responsive to the developer for interpreting developer scoping commands and transmitting the commands to a controller network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to he sent through the network;

a target system coupled to the network and including a target network driver which receives the network packets containing the scoping commands and transmits the collected scoping data from the target system;

an embedded debugger coupled to the target network driver for executing the controller scoping command and collecting the scoping data for transmission to the target network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent via the network to the controller and display to the developer;

interactive bandwidth allocation software in the target system for guaranteeing that scoping data packets will not exceed the allocated network bandwidth; and

target control entity software which validates a remote scoping request and communicates to the controller an allocated network bandwidth.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the interactive bandwidth allocation apparatus sets the probing code address;

selects the signals to probe;

selects non-periodic or periodic sampling operation, sets the selective display block rate if periodic display is chosen; and

sets a down sampling ratio if non-periodic display option is selected.

9. The system of claim 7 further comprising:

remote real-time scoping session apparatus, which constructs transmit scoping command packets to the target system for installation in the target software.

10. System for remote scoping of real time signals of software systems via a network using interactive bandwidth allocation and data signals, comprising:

a controller coupled to the network accessible by a developer for generating a scoping command and collecting remote scoping data, the controller including a debugger user interface responsive to the developer for interpreting developer scoping commands and transmitting the commands to a controller network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent through the network;

a target system coupled to the network and including a target network driver which receives the network packets containing the scoping commands and transmits the collected scoping data from the target system;

an embedded debugger coupled to the target network driver for executing the controller scoping command and collecting the scoping data for transmission to the target network driver which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent via the network to the controller and display to the developer;

interactive bandwidth allocation software in the target system for guaranteeing that scoping data packets will not exceed the allocated network bandwidth; and

interleaved/filtering apparatus which stores test data sample in columns in a buffer and read out from the buffer in a row direction.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the a circular storage buffer for holding incoming scope samples at the controller comprises a de-interleaving buffer;

a next display block;

a display block and an indicator bit as a marker for each corresponding sample in the storage circular buffer.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the de-interleaving display circular buffer calculates a current sample pointer for de-interleaving and storing the “

ith”

sample in the scope data packet.

13. A method for remote scoping of real-time signals of software systems via a network using interactive bandwidth allocation and data signals, comprising the steps of:

accepting and interpreting scoping commands for remote software in a target system issued by a developer;

sending the interpreted scoping commands to a controller network driver, which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent through the network;

receiving the network packets containing scoping commands from the network at a target network driver;

performing the requested probing on the target software system using command probe signals;

collecting the scoping data for transmission to the target network driver;

constructing the appropriate network packets to be sent through the network back to the controller;

validating a user ID/password;

test software port number and communication bandwidth allocation;

removing an allocated bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS) level for the command probe signals; and

logging off the user.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

selecting a transport protocol to transmit scoping commands through the network to target software.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

selecting transport protocol for transmitting collected scoping data through the network to the controller.

16. A method of remote scoping of real-time signal of software systems, comprising the steps of:

issuing scope commands at a controller as TCP/IP packets for transmission to target software;

providing at the target system an aggregated bandwidth within an allocated bandwidth to the controller for transmitting the scope data;

interactive bandwidth allocation for limiting the aggregated bandwidth of the scope data to be within the allocated bandwidth;

transmitting the scope command as packets to the network;

receiving the command packets and unpacking them at the target software;

installing in a probe the scope command at a set code address in the target software;

collecting the scoping data when the software runs through the set code address;

interleaving and packing the scope data into RTP/UDP/IP packets;

transmitting the scope data packets to the controller via the network;

unpacking the scope data from the network.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of:

de-interleaving and filtering the unpacked scope data for display.

18. A program medium, executable on a computer system, for remote scoping of real-time signals of software systems via network using interactive bandwidth allocation and data signals comprising:

program instructions accepting and interpreting scoping commands for remote software in a target system issued by a developer;

program instructions sending the interpreting scoping commands to a controller network driver, which constructs appropriate network packets to be send through the network

program instructions providing at the target system an allocated bandwidth to the controller network driver for transmitting the scope data;

program instructions receiving the network packets containing scoping commands from the network at a target network driver;

program instructions performing the requested probing on the target software system; and

program instructions collecting the scoping data for transmission to the target network driver.

19. The medium of claim 18 further comprising

program instructions constructing the appropriate network packets to be sent through the network back to the controller.

20. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions selecting a transport protocol to transmit scoping commands through the network to target software.

21. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instruction selecting transport protocol for transmitting collected scoping data though the network to the controller.

22. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions validating a user ID/password;

test software port number and communication bandwidth allocation removing the allocated bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS) level for the command probe signals, and logging off the user.

23. The medium of claim 18 comprising

program instructions issuing scope commands at a controller as TCP/IP packets for transmission to target software.

24. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions providing interactive bandwidth allocation for limiting the bandwidth of the scope data to be within the allocated bandwidth.

25. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions transmitting the scope command as packets in the interactive bandwidth allocation to the network.

26. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions receiving the command packets and unpacking them at the target software,

27. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions installing the scope command at a set code address in the target software.

28. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions collecting the scoping data when the software runs through the set code address.

29. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions interleaving and packing the scope da into RTP/UDP/IP packets.

30. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions transmitting the data packets to the controller via the network.

31. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions unpacking the scope data from the network.

32. The medium of claim 18 further comprising:

program instructions de-interleaving and filtering the unpacked scope data for display.

33. A method for remote scoping of real-time signals of remote software, comprising the steps of:

generating scoping commands issued by a developer for real time analysis of software in a remote target system;

sending the scoping commands to a controller network driver, which constructs appropriate network packets to be sent through a network;

receiving the network packets containing scoping commands at the remote target system.

installing a probe in the remote target system;

performing probing of the software using the probe and collecting real time signals as the software is executed by the remote target system

constructing return network packets containing the real time signals for transmission via the network to the controller network driver;

minimizing packet loss in the transmission of the return network packets to the controller network driver; and

analyzing the real time signals in the return network packets by the developer.