Method and system for evaluating quality of service over the internet

• US 7,373,376 B1
• Filed: 12/30/1999
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dynatrace LLC (Dynatrace, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Keynote Systems (Dynatrace, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mueller, Frederick L., Aoki, Don, Hamer, Eric, Wolf, Ronald E., Yee, Kent, Gupta, Umang
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phuoc H.
• Application Number:
  US09/475,765
• Time in Patent Office: 3,057 Days
• Field of Search: 709/215, 709/207, 709/224, 709/320, 709/226, 709/203, 709/227, 717/127, 714/39, 714/45, 714/47
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/14 using software, i.e. software packages network security related monitoring H04L63/1408
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A method of measuring performance of a transaction over a network. The transaction includes requesting information from an information source connected to the network and interacting with the information source. The method includes connecting a data acquisition agent to the network, sending a request for information from the data acquisition agent to the information source, and loading data responsive to the request for information onto the data acquisition agent. The transaction is executed and performance measurements for the transactions are collected and sent to a storage device. A system for measuring performance of a transaction over a network is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of measuring performance of a web-site transaction between a data acquisition agent and an information source over a network, the transaction comprising requesting information from the information source connected to the network and interacting with the information source, the method comprising:

receiving at the data acquisition agent, a transaction previously recorded between a user machine and the information source;

sending a request for information to the information source from the data acquisition agent connected to the network to begin the transaction;

loading data responsive to the request for information onto the data acquisition agent from the information source;

continuing the transaction between the information source and the data acquisition agent by simulating said transaction previously recorded between the user machine and the information source, wherein simulating said transaction comprises updating state information on a web page and linking web pages together;

collecting performance measurements by the data acquisition agent for the transaction, wherein said performance measurements comprise download time of data during said transaction and includes browser execution time; and

sending the performance measurements collected by the data acquisition agent to a storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting performance measurements comprises collecting download time of the data in response to the request for information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting performance measurements comprises collecting number of bytes downloaded for the transaction.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein collecting performance measurements comprises identifying errors occurring during the transaction.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the information source is a web server and the request for information comprises requesting a web page.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein collecting performance measurements comprises collecting download time for each web page downloaded during the transaction.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein collecting performance measurements comprises collecting download time for individual components within each of the web pages.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the performance measurements on a web site.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein continuing the transaction comprises sending a query from the data acquisition agent to the information source after the data is loaded.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein continuing the transaction comprises submitting an order from the data acquisition agent to the information source after the data is loaded.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein continuing the transaction comprises updating state information to link web pages together within a transaction.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein updating state information comprises searching for a session ID.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein updating state information comprises searching for text.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein updating state information comprises searching for a frame.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein updating state information comprises searching for a URL.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein updating state information comprises substituting HTML text.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising

connecting the data acquisition agent to the network.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein connecting the data acquisition agent to the network comprises connecting a plurality of data acquisition agents to the network at a plurality of locations.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the data acquisition agent interacts with the information source with a browser.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein updating state information comprises performing a data substitution for a hidden variable.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising searching for data to substitute utilizing one of a frame search substitution, anchor URL search, or form action URL search.

23. A system for measuring performance of a web-site transaction between a data acquisition agent and a web server over a network, the transaction comprising requesting information from the web server connected to the network and interacting with the web server, the system comprising:

the data acquisition agent configured to receive a previously recorded transaction between a user machine and the web server, send a request for information to the web server to begin the transaction, load data responsive to the request for information onto the data acquisition agent from the web server, continue the transaction between the web server and the data acquisition agent by simulating the transaction previously recorded between the user machine and the web server, collect performance measurements for the transaction, and send the performance measurements to a storage device;

wherein said performance measurements comprise download time of data during said transaction and includes browser execution time, and simulating said transaction comprises updating state information on a web page and linking web pages together.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the data acquisition agent includes a browser embedded within the agent.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the data acquisition agent is configured to receive said recorded transaction over the network.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the data acquisition agent is configured to receive instructions specifying a plurality of said recorded transactions to execute.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the data acquisition agent is configured to repeat execution of said specified transactions until new instructions are received.

28. The system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurements include a list of errors occurring during the transaction.

29. The system of claim 23 wherein the performance measurements comprise download time for each web page downloaded during the transaction.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the performance measurements comprise download time for individual components within each of the web pages.

31. The system of claim 23 further comprising a monitoring device for recording when the agent last executed the transaction.

32. The system of claim 23 wherein the agent is operable to store the collected performance measurements.