Hewlett-packard Company

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Other

Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Hewlett-packard Devolpment Company, L.p.

Srinivas Ramanathan

Deborah L Caswell

Preeti N Bhoj

Sharad Singhal

Mark D Smith

Tai Y Jin

Scott S Neal

Edward H Perry

Anna Maria Zara

James David Hunter

Manjari Asawa

Preeti N Bhoi

Frederick A Sieker

Marc Nijdam

Riccardo Gusella

Sreenivasa N Rao

A data service system includes a server system. The server system includes a request processor that schedules external requests to be serviced by the server system based on classification information contained in a tag of each of the requests. An application system is coupled to the server system. The application system includes an application engine that performs a transaction requested by an external request and provides response to the request to the server system. The application system also includes a business rule engine that stores business rules regarding classification for various transactions. The business rule engine also uses the business rules to analyze the response to the request. A tag generator is provided in the application system that generates the tag based on the analysis of the business rule engine. The tag is then attached to the response by the server system and sent to a requesting client that issued the request such that the tag is attached to subsequent requests from the requesting client to the data service system. A method of intelligently classifying requests is also described.

Intelligently classifying and handling user requests in a data service system

An adaptive admission control system for a server application system includes a request queue that stores incoming requests. A discard queue is provided to store requests to be discarded. An actuator is coupled to the request queue and the discard queue to determine the input rate of requests during a previous processing cycle. A controller is coupled to the actuator and the request queue to determine a target number of requests to be sent to the request queue during the next processing cycle based on the difference between the actual and desired queue occupancy of the request queue. The controller sends the target number to the actuator. The actuator sends the target number of requests to the request queue either from the listen queue or from the listen queue and the discard queue based on the input rate of requests from the listen queue.

Adaptive admission control system for a server application system

A TCP/IP-based application system includes an application module that performs predetermined functions based on external requests received from an external queue. The external queue is external to the application system and stores the external requests before the requests are fetched into the application system. A network interaction module is coupled to the application module and the external queue (1) to fetch the external requests from the external queue into the application system and (2) to determine which, if any, of the fetched requests will not be processed by the application module based on the processing capacity of the application module and the rate of the external requests arriving at the external queue such that when the application module is overloaded, TCP timeouts for requests stored in the external queue are minimized and the chance of those requests stored in the external queue from being dropped is also minimized.

Apparatus and method for processing requests from an external queue in a TCP/IP-based application system

An acceptor for admitting incoming requests to a server application includes a session manager that determines the class of an incoming request. The class includes a first class and a second class. A queuing module is provided to store the request if the incoming request is of the second class. A priority control module is provided to ensure that a predetermined number of requests are sent to the server application for service in each cycle. The priority control module allows (1) the predetermined number of the first class requests to be sent to the server application if the first class requests received in a cycle are at least equal to the predetermined number, and (2) a mixture of the first class requests and the second class requests to be sent to the server application if the first class requests received in a cycle are less than the predetermined number. A method of handling incoming requests to the server application is also described.

Request acceptor for a network application system and a method thereof

A method and system of modeling a selected service within a network environment includes forming a service model template that is not specific to the network environment, but identifies anticipated network elements and network services that cooperate to enable the selected service. The service model template includes specifications related to linking the anticipated network elements and network services. When the service model template is combined with discovered instance information that is specific to actual network elements and actual network services, a service model instance is generated for the selected service. The service model instance includes identifications of dependencies among the elements and services. Preferably, the service model instance also includes identification of the &ldquo;health&rdquo; of the different elements and services. A view generator may be used to configure the service model instance as a hierarchical graph of nodes that are linked to identify the dependencies among the nodes. The discovered instance information may be acquired using a discovery template that orchestrates the process. The discovery template may identify auto-discovery modules that are to be used to detect actual network elements and services and may identify dependencies among the modules. A user-configurable discovery engine accesses the discovery template and deploys the modules in order to acquire the discovered instance information.

Template-driven approach for generating models on network services

A method for identifying services, service elements and dependencies among the services and service elements includes executing first and second phases of discovery. In the first phase, the services and service elements are detected, as well as a first set of dependencies. The second phase is based on results of the first phase and is focused upon detecting inter-service dependencies, i.e., conditions in which proper operation of one service relies upon at least one other service. Various techniques may be used in executing the first phase, including accessing information in a domain name service (DNS) of the network to identify dependencies, as well as services and service elements. Discovery within the first phase may also be based upon recognizing naming conventions. Regarding the second phase, one approach to discovering inter-service dependencies is to deploy discovery agents implemented in computer software to access content of configuration files of applications detected in the first phase. Discovery agents may also be used to monitor connections completed via specified service elements detected in the first phase, such that other inter-service dependencies are identified. As an alternative or additional approach, network probes may be deployed to access information of data packets transmitted ted between service elements detected in the first phase, with the accessed packet information being used to detect inter-service dependencies. When information of the DNS is accessed in the first phase, the information is used as a basis for determining at least some of (1) groups of service elements that are generally equivalent with respect to executing a particular service within the network, (2) hosts supporting virtual hosting, (3) hosts supporting virtual servers, and (4) name servers.

Method and system for automatic discovery of network services

A method and system for modeling services available via a network include selecting a core service that is to be modeled, forming a discovery template that is specific to the selected core service, and automatically discovering the elements which cooperate to provide the core service. The discovery template includes instructions for implementing automated techniques for discovering service elements, and preferably services, which are anticipated as being cooperative in executing the core service. The system includes a number of discovery modules for generating outputs indicative of the services and service elements. A discovery engine is responsive to the discovery template to invoke the modules that are identified in the template as being relevant to discovering specified services and service elements. The template also identifies dependencies among the modules, so that the proper sequence of processing can be determined. In one embodiment, the discovery template is organized into sections, with each section (1) being specific to a type of service or service element, (2) specifying at least one discovery routine for identifying the specified type of service or service elements, and (3) specifying dependencies of the identified discovery routine on outputs of other discovery routines. Preferably, each section also includes instructions for configuring the data that is output from the identified discovery routine.

Automated service elements discovery using core service specific discovery templates

The dependancies of a computer service are modeled. The modeling hierarchically defines the relationships between the computer service and the hardware and software services which the computer service depends. These relationships may be contained in data structures defining a directed acyclic graph. The model also defines which measurements need to be taken to determine health and performance of the computer service and the health and performance of all the computer services upon which the computer service depends. Software agents that take these measurements may be deployed using the model to determine the measurement locations and functions. Data from measurement agents may be propagated up the model hierarchy. The model may also be visualized by a graphical interface to communicate the dependancies and the health and status of the services upon which the modeled service depends.

Modeling of internet services

A scheme of evaluating performance of a network connecting a remote terminal to a data service system is described. The scheme emulates a communication protocol to transfer data reliably and in sequence with congestion control. The communication protocol includes mechanisms for acknowledgment and retransmission and a dynamic window size. The scheme restricts the dynamic window size not to be greater than a predetermined maximum window size, and the amount of data transferred to a predetermined data transfer size, thereby accurately measuring user-perceived network throughput without significantly impacting network performance.

Method and system for evaluating user-perceived network performance

A scheme is described for a data service system having a number of modules. Some of the modules are interdependent. To measure the status of an individual module, the scheme first collects measurements from a number of measurement routes that involve the module. Then the scheme analyzes the interdependencies of the measurements to determine the status of the individual module. The scheme may also determine status of the data service system with a minimal number of measurement routes. This is done by determining (1) all possible measurement routes, (2) determining the dependency between the modules and the measurement routes, and (3) analyzing the dependency to select minimal number of the measurement routes. The scheme can diagnose whether a module is a problematic module or not by analyzing a number of measurements that involve the module. If one of the measurements is good, the module is identified as non-problematic. The data service system may also include a test target coupled to a networking module of the data service system to allow service test signals to be measured through the network module.

Method and system for managing data service systems

A diagnostic system for a data access networked system (e.g., an Internet/Intranet access networked system) is described. The data access networked system includes a number of data service systems coupled together. Each of the data service systems is independently administrated. The diagnostic system includes a number of diagnostic modules, each running a number of diagnostic tests within one of the data service systems upon receiving a diagnostic request. The diagnostic modules also transmit the diagnostic request and diagnostic results to one another using an open standard communication protocol. The diagnostic system also includes a diagnostic terminal that is coupled to a first diagnostic module of the diagnostic modules to generate the diagnostic request to the first diagnostic module and to display the diagnostic results received from the first diagnostic module. A diagnostic system for a data service system of a data access networked system is also described.

Diagnostic system for a distributed data access networked system

A method and system of monitoring throughput of a data access system includes logging each transfer of data from a content server to a remote site, with each log entry including information indicative of transfer size, date, times, source and destination. The method includes accessing the log information in a passive and non-intrusive manner to evaluate the performance of transfers to a selected subset of the remote sites. In another embodiment, the performance evaluation is implemented for system resource allocation planning. In the preferred embodiment, the data access system is a broadband data system and the content servers utilize Internet applications. Also in the preferred embodiment, the data throughput is measured by the transfer rate of useful data, rather than all data including retransmissions.

System for determining data transfer rates in accordance with log

An admission control scheme for real-time traffic requests in communication networks is disclosed. The scheme monitors tile performance of each link and predicts the traffic guarantees that can be offered when certain dummy traffic (pseudo traffic) mimicking the behavior of real-time streams is added to the existing traffic. When an application requests connection to the network, it specifies a Quality of Service (QoS) bound that it desires. A routing subsystem of tile network makes use of the predicted values while attempting to find a path over which tile application's QoS bound requirement will be satisfied. After the route is chosen, connection setup will involve verifying at each node along the route whether sufficient resources exist to support tile new connection. This explicit verification is likely to be necessary because the routing subsystem does not normally have up-to-date global state information. After admitting tile application, the network provides a soft guarantee that the QoS bound provided to it will be adhered to for most of the time. On the other hand, if no path through the network satisfies the QoS hound, tile application is denied connection to the network.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Srinivas Ramanathan