Method and apparatus for quantitative diagnosis of performance problems using external representations
US5996090A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 29, 1997 |
| Grant date | Nov 30, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 29, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2201/87
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus are described for building diagnostic systems for performance problems in computer and communications systems. The diagnostic system outputs explanations that quantify contributions to performance problems, such as "90% of the increase in response time is due to increased LAN traffic." The preferred embodiment comprises: (1) a representation of the target system as a directed acyclic graph; (2) diagnostic techniques that compute numerical weights for arcs in the directed graph; and (3) a diagnosis engine that uses the directed graph and arc weights to output quantitative performance diagnoses. Nodes in the directed graph are measurement variables in the target system. Arcs in the graph indicate functional dependencies between measurement variables. Arc weights indicate the contribution of a child variable to performance problems manifested in the parent variable. The diagnosis engine searches the directed graph to find paths with the largest explanatory power, as computed from the arc weights.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.