System and method for dynamically analyzing and improving the performance of a network

Claim 1

A method of operating a client-server computer system, comprising the steps of: 1) establishing a saturation response time RT sat of a server computer in the computer system, the saturation response time RT sat representing a maximum acceptable time by which the server computer should respond to a service request from any of client computers in the computer system; 2) performing the following steps once per successive plotting intervals; i) measuring, for each of client computers in the computer system labelled (a, b, . . . ) and a number N of successive sampling intervals labelled (1, 2, . . . , N), sets of actual response times {RT a , RT b , . . . } 1 , {RT a , RT b , . . . } 2 , . . . {RT a , RT b , . . . } N , each element of each set representing an actual response time required for the server computer to respond to a service request from the corresponding client computer during the corresponding sampling interval; ii) calculating the average value of the elements in each set of measured actual response times, the calculated values representing a set of average actual response times labelled {RT 1 , RT 2 , . . . , RT N }; iii) creating a set of ordered pairs of average actual response times {(RT 1 , RT 1 ), (RT 2 , RT 1 ), (RT 3 , RT 2 ), . . . , (RT N , RT N-1 )} from the calculated average actual response times; iv) creating a 2-dimensional array of M 2 macrostates of the computer system, wherein M is an integer whose value is chosen so that the quantity RT sat /M is an increment of response time that is meaningful to an operator of the computer system, each macrostate representing a pair of actual average response times of the server computer during two corresponding adjacent sampling intervals and having a unique pair of indices each selected from the set of response times {0, RT sat /M, 2RT sat /M, 3RT sat /M, . . . , RT sat }; v) assigning each of the ordered pairs of average actual response times to a corresponding macrostate whose indices are both the highest among those macrostates whose indices are both less than the corresponding response times in the ordered pair; vi) counting the number of ordered pairs assigned to each macrostate; vii) calculating the proportion of ordered pairs assigned to each macrostate; and viii) calculating an entropy value S equal to the negative of the sum over all macrostates of the product of the proportion of ordered pairs assigned to that macrostate and the logarithm of that proportion; 3) plotting entropy as a function of time using the entropy values S calculated during each plotting interval; and 4) determining from the plot of entropy as a function of time whether the entropy has reached a maximum acceptable threshold value, and if so notifying the operator.

Claim 2

A method of operating a client-server computer system, comprising the steps of: 1) establishing a saturation response time RT sat of a server computer in the computer system, the saturation response time RT sat representing a maximum acceptable time by which the server computer should respond to a service request from any of client computers in the computer system; 2) performing the following steps once per successive plotting intervals; i) measuring, for each of client computers in the computer system labelled (a, b, . . . ) and a number N of successive sampling intervals labelled (1, 2, . . . , N), sets of actual response times {RT a , RT b , . . . } 1 , {RT a , RT b , . . . } 2 , . . . {RT a , RT b , . . . } N , each element of each set representing an actual response time required for the server computer to respond to a service request from the corresponding client computer during the corresponding sampling interval; ii) calculating the average value of the elements in each set of measured actual response times, the calculated values representing a set of average actual response times labelled {RT 1 , RT 2 , . . . , RT N }; iii) creating a set of ordered pairs of average actual response times {(RT 1 , RT 1 ), (RT 2 , RT 1 ), (RT 3 , RT 2 ), . . . , (RT N , RT N-1 )} from the calculated average actual response times; iv) creating a 2-dimensional array of M 2 macrostates of the computer system, wherein M is an integer whose value is chosen so that the quantity RT sat /M is an increment of response time that is meaningful to an operator of the computer system, each macrostate representing a pair of actual average response times of the server computer during two corresponding adjacent sampling intervals and having a unique pair of indices each selected from the set of response times {0, RT sat /M, 2RT sat /M, 3RT sat /M, . . . , RT sat }; v) assigning each of the ordered pairs of average actual response times to a corresponding macrostate whose indices are both the highest among those macrostates whose indices are both less than the corresponding response times in the ordered pair; vi) counting the number of ordered pairs assigned to each macrostate; vii) calculating the proportion of ordered pairs assigned to each macrostate; and viii) calculating an entropy value S equal to the negative of the sum over all macrostates of the product of the proportion of ordered pairs assigned to that macrostate and the logarithm of that proportion; 3) plotting entropy as a function of time using the entropy values S calculated during each plotting interval; and 4) determining from the plot of entropy as a function of time whether the entropy has reached a maximum acceptable threshold value, and if so notifying the operator.