International Business Machines Corporation

Cathy Honghui Xia

Zhen Liu

Li Feng Zhang

Wuqin Lin

Mukund Raghavachari

Charalambos Stavropoulos

Bowei Xi

The invention is a method and apparatus for on-demand resource planning for unified messaging services. In one embodiment, multiple clients are served by a single system, and existing system resources are allocated among all clients in a manner that optimizes system output and service provider profit without the need to increase system resources. In one embodiment, resource allocation and job scheduling are guided by individual service level agreements between the service provider and the clients that dictate minimum service levels that must be achieved by the system. Jobs are processed in a manner that at least meets the specified service levels, and the benefit or profit derived by the service provider is maximized by prioritizing incoming job requests within the parameters of the specified service levels while meeting the specified service levels. Thus, operation and hardware costs remain substantially unchanged, while system output and profit are maximized.

Method and apparatus for on-demand resource allocation and job management

Techniques are provided for determining a capacity allocation in a multi-tiered computing system. In one aspect of the invention, a technique for designing capacity allocation for a multi-tiered computing system, each tier of the computing system having one or more computing devices (e.g., servers), comprises the following steps/operations. Input parameters relating to capacity allocation are obtained. A capacity allocation is computed based on at least a portion of the input parameters, the capacity allocation being computable such that one or more end-to-end performance measures are substantially satisfied for multiple service classes. The capacity allocation computation may minimize a cost function. The capacity allocation computation may also satisfy one or more mean delay guarantees for the multiple service classes, one or more tail distribution guarantees for the multiple service classes, or both one or more mean delay guarantees and one or more tail distribution guarantees for the multiple service classes.

Methods and apparatus for cost minimization of multi-tiered infrastructure with end-to-end delay guarantees

In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement. One embodiment of the inventive method involves formulating a black box optimization problem, and solving the optimization problem using an enhanced smart hill climbing method. The smart hill climbing method includes both a global and a more precise local search to identify an optimal solution. In one embodiment, one or both of the global and local searches employs a weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling method in combination with importance sampling techniques to yield improved search results.

Methods and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement

In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for automatic system parameter configuration for performance improvement. One embodiment of the inventive method involves formulating a black box optimization problem, and solving the optimization problem using an enhanced smart hill climbing method. The smart hill climbing method includes both a global and a more precise local search to identify an optimal solution. In one embodiment, one or both of the global and local searches employs a weighted Latin Hypercube Sampling method in combination with importance sampling techniques to yield improved search results

Several algorithms are provided to estimate and remove relative clock skews from delay measurements based on the computation of convex hulls. The algorithms are linear in the number of measurement points for the case with no clock resets. For the more challenging case with clock resets, i.e., the clocks are reset to some reference times during the measurement period, linear algorithms are provided to identify the clock resets and derive the best clock skew lines. The algorithms are also extended to environments in which at least one of the clocks is controlled by Network Time Protocol. These algorithms can also be extended for active clock synchronization to replace or further improve Network Time Protocol.

Clock synchronization for network measurements with clock resets

A method, computer program product, and data processing system for estimating and correcting the amount of clock skew in end-to-end network timing measurements is disclosed. Measured delays are combined with their time of measurement to create ordered pairs. These ordered pairs represent points within a Cartesian plane. The convex hull of these points is determined, and an optimal line segment from the resulting polygon is selected and extrapolated to create an affine function estimating clock skew over time. The optimal line segment of the polygon is one that optimizes a selected objective function. The objective function is selected so as to be an appropriate measurement of the accuracy of the resulting linear function as an estimate of the actual clock skew.

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Croton-on-Hudson, NY, United States of America

Cathy Honghui Xia