US5615323A — Displaying resource performance and utilization i…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 160 words

A method of displaying information relating to performance of a computer resource over a selected period of time, said computer resource connected to a communication network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, periodically sampling over said network data relating to performance of said resource so as to generate stored values for a selected performance variable for said resource, said periodic sampling taking place over the selected period of time and wherein said selected performance variable takes on values within a range of possible values; dividing the range of possible values for said selected performance variable into a plurality of subranges; for each subrange, determining for what proportion of the selected period, the values of the selected performance variable fall within that subrange; and for each subrange, displaying in graphical form the proportion of the selected period of time that the values of the selected performance variable fell within that subrange.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 160 words

A method of displaying information relating to performance of a computer resource over a selected period of time, said computer resource connected to a communication network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, periodically sampling over said network data relating to performance of said resource so as to generate stored values for a selected performance variable for said resource, said periodic sampling taking place over the selected period of time and wherein said selected performance variable takes on values within a range of possible values; dividing the range of possible values for said selected performance variable into a plurality of subranges; for each subrange, determining for what proportion of the selected period, the values of the selected performance variable fall within that subrange; and for each subrange, displaying in graphical form the proportion of the selected period of time that the values of the selected performance variable fell within that subrange.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 76 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining comprises: first determining for each of said stored values of said preselected performance variable within the preselected period of time which of said plurality of subranges it falls into; and then, counting the number of times that a stored value falls into each of said subranges to determine for what proportion of the preselected period the values of the preselected performance variable fall within that subrange.

Claim 4

Independent Claim 138 words

A method of reporting information about a resource that is connected to a communications network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, periodically sampling over said network data relating to performance of said resource so as to generate stored values for a selected performance variable for said resource; collecting stored values representing a baseline period of time; setting a threshold value for the selected performance variable; analyzing the stored values representing said baseline period to predict a time-to-threshold number, said time-to-threshold number being an amount of time that is expected to elapse from a present time to a later time at which a predicted value of the selected performance variable will reach said threshold value; and generating a report that presents the time-to-threshold number for the selected performance variable.

Claim 5

Independent Claim 138 words

A method of reporting information about a resource that is connected to a communications network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, periodically sampling over said network data relating to performance of said resource so as to generate stored values for a selected performance variable for said resource; collecting stored values representing a baseline period of time; setting a threshold value for the selected performance variable; analyzing the stored values representing said baseline period to predict a time-to-threshold number, said time-to-threshold number being an amount of time that is expected to elapse from a present time to a later time at which a predicted value of the selected performance variable will reach said threshold value; and generating a report that presents the time-to-threshold number for the selected performance variable.

Claim 6

Independent Claim 161 words

A method of displaying information relating to performance of a computer resource during a selected period of time, said computer resource connected to a communication network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, collecting over said network data relating to a selected performance variable for said resource so as to generate stored values for the selected performance variable at a plurality of times during the selected period of time, wherein the stored values for said selected performance variable fall within a range of possible values; dividing the range of possible values for said selected performance variable into a plurality of subranges; for each subrange, determining for what proportion of the selected period, the stored values of the selected performance variable fall within that subrange; and for each subrange, displaying in graphical form the proportion of the selected period of time that the values of the selected performance variable fell within that subrange.

Claim 7

Independent Claim 161 words

A method of displaying information relating to performance of a computer resource during a selected period of time, said computer resource connected to a communication network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, collecting over said network data relating to a selected performance variable for said resource so as to generate stored values for the selected performance variable at a plurality of times during the selected period of time, wherein the stored values for said selected performance variable fall within a range of possible values; dividing the range of possible values for said selected performance variable into a plurality of subranges; for each subrange, determining for what proportion of the selected period, the stored values of the selected performance variable fall within that subrange; and for each subrange, displaying in graphical form the proportion of the selected period of time that the values of the selected performance variable fell within that subrange.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 15 words

The method of claim 4 wherein the step of collecting comprises periodically sampling accumulated data.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 12 words

The method of claim 4 wherein the selected performance variable is utilization.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 13 words

The method of claim 4 wherein the selected performance variable is bandwidth utilization.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 18 words

The method of claim 4 wherein the step of displaying in graphical form comprises generating a stack bar.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 53 words

The method of claim 8 wherein the stack bar is divided into a plurality of regions each representing a corresponding one of said subranges and for each region, the stack bar shows a proportion of the selected period of time that an average of the performance variable actually spent in the corresponding subrange.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 59 words

The method of claim 8 wherein the selected performance variable is bandwidth utilization and wherein the stack bar is divided into a plurality of regions each representing a corresponding one of said subranges and for each region, the stack bar shows a proportion of the selected period of time that average actual bandwidth utilization spent in the corresponding subrange.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 56 words

The method of claim 10 wherein the step of displaying further comprises setting a length of each region of the stack bar to indicate the proportion of the selected period of time that average actual bandwidth utilization spent in the range of bandwidth utilization associated with that region spent in that range by the performance variable.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 47 words

The method of claim 8 wherein the stack bar is divided into a plurality of regions each representing a corresponding one of said subranges and wherein the step of displaying further comprises highlighting each region of the stack bar to identify the corresponding subrange for that region.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the step of highlighting comprises coloring each region of the stack bar with a different color.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the step of highlighting comprises shading each region of the stack bar with a different shading.

Claim 18

Independent Claim 141 words

A method of reporting information about a resource that is connected to a communications network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, gathering over said network data relating to a selected performance variable of said resource so as to generate stored values for the selected performance variable for said resource; collecting stored values representing a baseline period of time; setting a threshold value for the selected performance variable; analyzing the stored values representing said baseline period to predict a time-to-threshold number, said time-to-threshold number being an amount of time that is expected to elapse from a present time to another time at which a predicted value of the selected performance variable is expected to reach said threshold value; and generating a report that presents the time-to-threshold number for the selected performance variable.

Claim 19

Independent Claim 141 words

A method of reporting information about a resource that is connected to a communications network, said method comprising: from a location on said network that is remote from said computer resource, gathering over said network data relating to a selected performance variable of said resource so as to generate stored values for the selected performance variable for said resource; collecting stored values representing a baseline period of time; setting a threshold value for the selected performance variable; analyzing the stored values representing said baseline period to predict a time-to-threshold number, said time-to-threshold number being an amount of time that is expected to elapse from a present time to another time at which a predicted value of the selected performance variable is expected to reach said threshold value; and generating a report that presents the time-to-threshold number for the selected performance variable.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 13 words

The method of claim 15 wherein said another time is a positive number.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 13 words

The method of claim 15 wherein the performance variable is a utilization statistic.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 27 words

The method of claim 15 wherein the utilization statistic is selected from the group consisting of number of bytes transferred, broadcast utilization, bandwidth utilization, and multicast utilization.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 15 wherein the performance variable is selected from the group consisting of number of collisions, number of errors, number of hard errors, and number of soft errors.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 15 wherein the step of analyzing comprises using a statistical regression technique to model trends.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2000-03-24	2000-09-23	2001-03-25	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2004-03-24	2004-09-23	2005-03-25	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2008-03-24	2008-09-23	2009-03-25	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Displaying resource performance and utilization information

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