Systems and methods for isolating local performance variation in website monitoring

• US 7,546,368 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2005
• Issued: 06/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vercara LLC
• Original Assignee: Neustar Incorporated
• Inventors: Taylor, Doug, Drees, Timothy, Rachitsky, Lenny
• Primary Examiner(s): Won; Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/142,890
• Publication Number:
  US 20060277001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/224, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for isolating performance variation in website monitoring. A set of geographically diverse monitoring agents are identified and a subset of baseline agents is selected from these monitoring agents. The baseline agents are those agents that are geographically close to the target website or otherwise enjoy reliable communications with the target website and are therefore less affected by network latencies. The frequency at which a target website is monitored is weighted in favor of the baseline agents in order to get an accurate baseline metric for the target website while also obtaining information regarding global accessibility of the website from the geographically disperse monitoring agents. The variations in sample frequency can be optimized for each particular set of baseline agents. The set of baseline agents can be pre-assigned or dynamically identified based on an analysis of the performance variation from each of the monitoring agents.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for isolating local performance variation in website monitoring, comprising:

identifying a target website to be monitored;

identifying a set of agents to conduct the monitoring of the target website;

conducting a series of network communication tests between each agent and the target website;

selecting a set of baseline agents from the set of agents, wherein the set of baseline agents comprise those agents having the most reliable responses to the series of network communication tests and wherein each baseline agent periodically monitors the target website;

selecting a set of monitor agents from the set of agents, wherein the set of monitor agents comprise the non-baseline agents in the set of agents and wherein at least one monitor agent periodically monitors the target website; and

monitoring the target website in a plurality of monitoring rounds, wherein each monitoring round comprises monitoring the target website from each baseline agent and from at least one monitor agent; and

compiling a monitor report for the target website based on increased monitoring from said baseline agents relative to the monitoring from said monitor agents, wherein the compiled monitor provides a monitor report having normalized local performance variation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising compiling a monitor report for the target website that isolates local performance variation based solely on monitoring from said baseline agents.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the most reliable responses are those responses having the fastest network round trip time.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the most reliable responses are those responses having the least performance variation in website load time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the most reliable responses are those responses received by agents having the closest physical proximity to the target website.

6. A system for isolating local performance variation in website monitoring, comprising:

a controller server communicatively coupled to a communication network;

a plurality of agents communicatively coupled to the controller server via the communication network;

a target website communicatively coupled to the plurality of monitor agents and baseline agents via the communication network;

wherein the controller server is configured to conduct a series of network communication tests between each agent and the target website and divide the plurality of agents into a set of baseline agents and a set of monitor agents, wherein the set of baseline agents comprise those agents having the most reliable responses to the series of network communication tests and the set of monitor agents comprise the non-baseline agents, and wherein the controller server is configured to cause the target website to be monitored in a plurality of monitoring rounds, wherein each monitoring round comprises monitoring the target website from each baseline agent and from at least one monitor agent such that there is an increased sample frequency of monitoring from the plurality of baseline agents than monitoring from the plurality of monitor agents, and wherein the controller server is further configured to compile a monitor report for the target website based on the increased sample frequency from said baseline agents relative to the monitoring from said monitor agents to provide a monitor report having normalized local performance variation.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller server is further configured to compile a monitor report for the target website to isolate local performance variation based solely on monitoring from said baseline agents.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the most reliable responses are those responses having the fastest network round trip time.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the most reliable responses are from those agents having the closest physical proximity to the target website.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the most reliable responses are from those agents having the fastest load time for the target website.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the most reliable responses are from those agents having the least performance variation of load time for the target website.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller server is further configured to logically divide the agents into two or more zones.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the two or more zones are defined by the geographic proximity of agents and the target website.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the two or more zones are defined by latency times of communications between an agent and the target website.