System and method for relating aborted client accesses of data to quality of service provided by a server in a client-server network

• US 8,392,499 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2002
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2002
• 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: Cherkasova, Ludmila, Fu, Yun, Tang, Wenting
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thuong
• Application Number:
  US10/146,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,946 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/218, 709/225, 709/229, 709/224, 709/237
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A system and method are provided for relating aborted client accesses of server information to the quality of service provided to clients by a server in a client-server network. According to one embodiment, a method comprises determining performance data for at least one aborted client access of information from a server in a client-server network, and using the performance data to determine whether the aborted client access(es) relate to the quality of service provided to a client by the server.

Claims

1. A method for relating aborted client accesses of server information to a quality of service provided to clients by a server in a client-server network, said method comprising:

identifying said aborted client accesses of server information from said server, wherein said aborted client accesses include accesses aborted by one or more of the clients, and wherein said identifying is based on detecting at least one indication of aborts by the one or more clients;

determining, by one or more processors, performance data for said aborted client accesses of server information from said server; and

using, by the one or more processors, said performance data to;

identify a first subset of the aborted client accesses relevant to the quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the first subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data violating at least one criterion; and

identify a second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the second subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data not violating the at least one criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a predefined threshold, and violating the at least one criterion comprises exceeding the predefined threshold, and wherein said using further comprises:

determining whether said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses exceeds the predefined threshold.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined to exceed the predefined threshold, then identifying said given aborted client access as being part of the first subset; and

if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined to not exceed the predefined threshold, then identifying said given aborted client access as being part of the second subset.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said performance data for said given aborted client access comprises a response time in communicating requested information from said server to the one or more clients, and wherein the predefined threshold is a predefined response time threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining performance data comprises:

determining latency attributable to said client-server network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining performance data comprises:

determining latency attributable to said server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a predefined threshold for latency attributable to said server, and violating the at least one criterion comprises exceeding the predefined threshold, and wherein said using further comprises:

determining whether said latency attributable to said server for a given one of said aborted client accesses exceeds the predefined threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

if said latency attributable to said server for said given aborted client access is determined to exceed the predefined threshold, then identifying said given aborted client access as being part of the first subset; and

if said latency attributable to said server for said given aborted client access is determined to not exceed the predefined threshold, then identifying said given aborted client access as being part of the second subset.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying based on detecting the at least one indication comprises identifying based on the at least one indication in network-level information.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said at least one indication includes a Transmission Control Protocol RST packet sent by one of the one or more clients to the server that explicitly indicates an aborted client access.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said at least one indication includes a Transmission Control Protocol FIN packet with ACK sent by one of the one or more clients to the server, wherein an acknowledged sequence number in the FIN packet is less than a maximum sequence number sent from the server to the one of the one or more clients.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said server comprises a web server.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said aborted client accesses comprise aborted Transmission Control Protocol connections to said web server for the one or more clients accessing one or more web pages from said web server.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said server information from said server comprises one or more web pages.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

acquiring information for a plurality of client-server transactions and using said acquired information to relate said client-server transactions to their corresponding client web page accesses.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

capturing network-level information for said aborted client accesses; and

using the captured network-level information to reconstruct said client aborted accesses, wherein said identifying and said determining are based on the reconstructed aborted client accesses.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service is considered to relate to a client browsing pattern.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the second subset of the aborted client accesses to determine a reason for poor quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data comprises server latency times attributable to said server for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, and the performance data further comprises total response times for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, where each of the total response times includes the server latency time attributable to said server and a network latency time attributable to said client-server network for the corresponding aborted client access, and wherein said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses violating the at least one criterion comprises the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeding a first threshold, and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeding a second threshold, the method further comprising:

in response to determining that the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeds the first threshold and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeds the second threshold, identifying the given aborted client access as being part of the first subset; and

in response to determining that either the total response time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the first threshold or the server latency time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the second threshold, identify the given aborted client access as being part of the second subset.

20. A system for measuring client-perceived quality of service provided by a server in a client-server network, said system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium storing instructions executable on the one or more processors to;

identify aborted client accesses of server information at said server, wherein said aborted client accesses include accesses aborted by one or more clients, and wherein said identifying is based on detecting at least one indication of aborts by the one or more clients;

determine performance data for said aborted client accesses of said server information; and

use said performance data to;

identify a first subset of the aborted client accesses relevant to the quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the first subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data violating at least one criterion, and

identify a second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the second subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data not violating the at least one criterion.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said one or more processors is part of said server.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a predefined threshold, and violating the at least one criterion comprises exceeding the predefined threshold, and wherein said instructions are executable to further determine whether said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses exceeds the predefined threshold.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein said instructions are executable to further:

identify said given aborted client access as being part of the first subset if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined to exceed said predefined threshold; and

identify said given aborted client access as being part of the second subset if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined not to exceed said predefined threshold.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said performance data for said given aborted client access comprises a response time in communicating said server information from said server to the one or more clients, and wherein the predefined threshold is a predefined response time threshold.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein said server comprises a web server.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein said aborted client accesses comprise aborted Transmission Control Protocol connections to said server.

27. The system of claim 20 wherein said server information comprises a web page.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein said at least one indication comprises a Transmission Control Protocol RST packet.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein said at least one indication comprises a Transmission Control Protocol FIN packet with ACK sent by one of the one or more clients to said server, wherein an acknowledged sequence number in the FIN packet is less than a maximum sequence number sent from said server to the one of the one or more clients.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein the second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service is considered to relate to a client browsing pattern.

31. The system of claim 20, wherein the instructions are executable to further use the second subset of the aborted client accesses to determine a reason for poor quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server.

32. The system of claim 20, wherein the performance data comprises server latency times attributable to said server for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, and the performance data further comprises total response times for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, where each of the total response times includes the server latency time attributable to said server and a network latency time attributable to said client-server network for the corresponding aborted client access, and wherein said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses violating the at least one criterion comprises the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeding a first threshold, and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeding a second threshold, wherein said instructions are executable to further:

in response to determining that the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeds the first threshold and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeds the second threshold, identify the given aborted client access as being part of the first subset; and

in response to determining that either the total response time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the first threshold or the server latency time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the second threshold, identify the given aborted client access as being part of the second subset.

33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable on one or more processors to:

identify aborted client accesses of server information at a server in a client-server network, wherein said aborted client accesses include accesses aborted by one or more clients, and wherein said identifying is based on detecting at least one indication of aborts by the one or more clients;

determine performance data for said aborted client accesses of said server information; and

use said performance data to;

identify a first subset of the aborted client accesses relevant to a quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the first subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data violating at least one criterion, and

identify a second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server, wherein the second subset includes aborted client accesses associated with performance data not violating the at least one criterion.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the at least one criterion comprises a predefined threshold, and violating the at least one criterion comprises exceeding the predefined threshold, and wherein said instructions are executable to further:

determine whether said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses exceeds the predefined threshold.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 34, wherein said instructions are executable to further:

identify said given aborted client access as being part of the first subset if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined to exceed said predefined threshold; and

identify said given aborted client access as being part of the second subset if said performance data for said given aborted client access is determined not to exceed said predefined threshold.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein said at least one indication comprises a Transmission Control Protocol RST packet.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein said at least one indication comprises a Transmission Control Protocol FIN packet with ACK sent by one of the one or more clients to said server, wherein an acknowledged sequence number in the FIN packet is less than a maximum sequence number sent from said server to the one of the one or more clients.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the second subset of the aborted client accesses not relevant to the quality of service is considered to relate to a client browsing pattern.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the instructions are executable to further use the second subset of the aborted client accesses to determine a reason for poor quality of service provided to the one or more clients by said server.

40. The computer-readable of claim 33, wherein the performance data comprises server latency times attributable to said server for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, and the performance data further comprises total response times for respective ones of said aborted client accesses, where each of the total response times includes the server latency time attributable to said server and a network latency time attributable to said client-server network for the corresponding aborted client access, and wherein said performance data for a given one of said aborted client accesses violating the at least one criterion comprises the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeding a first threshold, and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeding a second threshold, wherein said instructions are executable to further:

in response to determining that the total response time for the given aborted client access exceeds the first threshold and the server latency time for the given aborted client access exceeds the second threshold, identify the given aborted client access as being part of the first subset; and

in response to determining that either the total response time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the first threshold or the server latency time for the given aborted client access does not exceed the second threshold, identify the given aborted client access as being part of the second subset.