International Business Machines Corporation

Raymond F Daugherty

John Gary Waclawsky

Paul C Hershey

Robert H Springsteen

The invention features a system and method to enable real-time establishment and maintenance of a standard of operation for a data communications network. The standard is a data set which includes network activity which is historically categorized by traffic type and by activity. The process begins with monitoring the network media or some network component over some period of time. The monitoring information is used to build benchmark data sets. The benchmark data sets contain a standard of operation for the network, which are historically categorized by either traffic type or activity. This standard of operation is constantly built by the intelligent monitoring facilities. After some period of time which is referred to as the benchmark data set refresh interval, the benchmark that was created is employed in a fashion to allow a determination as to whether the data that is taken from the current monitoring activity indicates normal network behavior. If the current network operating characteristics are outside the bounds or normal behavior, then alerts and logs of information can be sent to the expert system. The expert system can then effect some network control. In this manner, auto benchmarking is accomplished with self customization.

Intelligent realtime monitoring of data traffic

A dynamic realtime routing mechanism for a data communications network, which provides an Event Driven Interface to perform realtime routing of data frames over one of a plurality of destination paths. The Event Driven Interface is programmed with control vectors to identify routing bit patterns in the data frames on the data communications network. Enabling signals produced by the Event Driven Interface are applied to the control input of a multiplexer whose data input is connected to the data communications network. The multiplexer will steer the data frames from the data communications network to one of a plurality of output routing paths, in response to the enabling signals it receives from the Event Driven Interface.

Dynamic realtime routing in a data communications network

A system is disclosed for the dynamic switching between a first Event Driven Interface and a second Event Driven Interface based upon inband information contained in the data frames of a data communications network. This enables the selective realtime transfer of routing control based upon diverse communications protocols, for example. A first routing table can be contained in a first Event Driven Interface and a second routing table can be embodied in a second Event Driven Interface, and in this example, by means of the first Event Driven Interface identifying the switchover pattern contained within a switching segment of the data frame, the system can automatically switch over to connect a second Event Driven Interface to the data communications network, containing a second routing table configuration. In this manner, realtime control of routing, for example, can be accomplished with inband information in a data communications network.

Dynamic switching system for switching between event driven interfaces

The method enables realtime establishment and maintenance of a standard of operation for a data communications network. The process begins by monitoring the network over some period of time to build benchmark data sets. The benchmark data sets contain a standard of operation for the network, which is historically categorized by either traffic type or activity. This standard of operation is accumulated by the intelligent monitoring facilities. After a period of accumulation, the benchmark is used to determine whether data taken from current monitoring activity indicates normal network behavior. Network monitoring information is analyzed using criteria in modules that have an interface to an expert system. The criteria modules evaluate the current monitored data against the prior benchmark collected data. The criteria module determines if the current network operating characteristics are outside the bounds of normal behavior. If they are, then alerts and logs of information can be sent to the expert system. The expert system can perform network control routing changes, or close down applications, or allocate additional bandwidth as required. In addition, the expert system can modify the characterization of the currently monitored data for historical purposes by supplying information to the benchmark manager regarding traffic types, activity, heuristic accuracy and changes between current and past behavior. In this manner, auto benchmarking can be accomplished with self customization, in an improved manner.

Automated benchmarking with self customization

An expert system method is disclosed for analyzing window protocol-based data flows in a data communications network. The method includes the use of a data flow efficiency state variable S which is a binary number having at least three bits which reflect the number of packets transmitted by a node, the queuing of packets within a node, and the congestion of the packets within the node or in the node connected to the node of interest. After having assigned a value to the state variable, a knowledge base is accessed containing network problem determination recommendations for optimizing data flow efficiency within the network.

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Mt. Airy, MD, United States of America

Raymond F Daugherty