Performance measurement system for large computer network

A method for measuring the performance of a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a survey of network nodes;
• creating at least one sampling list representative of at least a portion of the nodes;
• performing a process comprising the steps of,
• running a sending procedure which sends signals from a beacon to a plurality of nodes on the sampling list, the signals requesting responses from the plurality of nodes,
• simultaneously running a receiving procedure which receives return signals from responding nodes, such that the signal being received at any particular time could correspond with any of the signals sent to one of the plurality of nodes, and
• simultaneously running a recording procedure which records data characterizing the corresponding sent and received signals;
• performing data reduction on the data to create data streams comprising information indicative of the performance of at least a portion of the network;
• and
• presenting information derived from the data streams to a user such that the user is able to draw conclusions about the performance of at least a portion of the network.

A method of creating a sampling list for measuring performance of a group of nodes of interest on a large computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a population survey of the nodes on the network;
• gathering data regarding topology of the network;
• creating a list of nodes in the group of nodes of interest based on the gathered data;
• trimming the list of nodes by excluding from the list those nodes which are not important to the performance of other nodes;
• testing the remaining nodes on the list of nodes to determine reachability of each node;
• removing unreachable nodes from the list;
• categorizing the nodes on the list according to the service type the node provides;
• excluding nodes on the list that fall within over-represented service types for the particular emphasis of the group of nodes of interest.

A method of correcting data collected about one or more nodes remotely located from a data collection point, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing data comprising performance metrics, the data having been collected by a beacon at the collection point by sending signals to and receiving signals from one or more nodes;
• determining a great circle distance over which the signals traveled between the collection point and one or more nodes;
• calculating the time required for the signal to traverse the distance using the speed of light within the link and the determined distance for one or more nodes to find a geographic distance factor;
• and
• subtracting the appropriate geographic distance factor from the metric values within the data to provide corrected data.

A method of combining data streams comprising:

• providing two or more input data streams, the data streams representing data collected over a time interval, and each data stream comprising one or more records, each record including a start time indicating the time at which a collection process began collecting the data within the record and a value for one or more metrics;
• defining sequential time slices, each time slice comprising a piece of the interval and being the duration of the interval divided by a frequency;
• sorting the records from the two or more data streams by the start time;
• allocating each record into the time slice in which the start time for each record falls;
• calculating one or more statistics for each time slice, each statistic representing the value of one or more metrics for the records allocated to each time slice;
• and
• outputting a data stream comprising records which include the calculated statistics.

A method of selectively notifying interested users of a performance event, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a signal indicating that an event has been detected and the type and magnitude of the event;
• composing an email message indicating that an event has been detected and the type and magnitude of the event;
• comparing the indications to records within a file comprising conditions in which users desire to be notified of performance events;
• automatically sending the email to users whose records included a condition met by the indications.

A method of collecting data from a large number of nodes on a computer network in a short time, the method comprising:

• providing a sampling list comprising information indicative of the addresses of nodes about which data is to be collected;
• and
• performing a process comprising the steps of,
• running a sending procedure which sends signals from a beacon to a plurality of nodes on the sampling list, the signals requesting responses from the plurality of nodes,
• simultaneously running a receiving procedure which receives return signals from responding nodes, such that the signal being received at any particular time could correspond with any of the signals sent to one of the plurality of nodes, and
• simultaneously running a recording procedure which records data characterizing the corresponding sent and received signals.

A method of collecting topological information about a large number of nodes on a computer network in a short time, the method comprising:

• providing a sampling list comprising information indicative of the addresses of example nodes;
• and
• performing a process comprising the steps of,
• running a sending procedure which sequentially sends a predetermined number of signals from a beacon toward each of a plurality of nodes on the sampling list, the sequentially sent signals being sequentially encoded with a time to live parameter,
• simultaneously running a receiving procedure which receives return signals from responding hops along the route to each destination, the hops reporting an expired time to live, such that the signal being received at any particular time could correspond with any of the signals sent toward the plurality of nodes, and
• simultaneously running a recording procedure which records data characterizing the corresponding sent and received signals.