System, method, and program for measuring performance in a network system

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to a method, system and program for measuring client performance in network system in general and the Internet in particular.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers represent corresponding parts throughout:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computing environment in which preferred embodiments of the present invention are implemented;

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of software components in which preferred embodiments of the present invention are implemented;

#In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and which illustrate several embodiments of the present invention. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and operational changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a hardware and software environment in which preferred embodiments are implemented. A computing environment 2 comprises a server 4, server probe 6, multiple remote probes 8a, b, c, d, and a network 10 providing communication therebetween. The server 4 may be any server device known in the art capable of servicing network requests, e.g., the IBM NETFINITY®, AS/400®, and RS/6000®; and POWEREDGE® from Dell Computer Corporation.** In preferred embodiments, the server 4 would include Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) software to service HTTP requests from the server probe 6 and remote probes 8a, b, c, d. Further, the server probe 6 would also include HTTP software to service requests for documents from the remote probes 8a, b, c, d. The server 4 and server probe 6 may also include software to handle document requests in data transfer protocols other than HTTP, such FTP, Gopher, WAIS, NNTP, SMTP, etc. The server probe 6 would additionally include software to function as a client generating document requests in any of the protocols. The server probe 6 and remote probes 8a, b, c, d include one or more browser programs 12 that can submit document requests to the server 4. In preferred embodiments, the browser programs 12 are Hypertext Markup-Language (HTML) browsers, e.g., NETSCAPE® Communicator, the MICROSOFT® Internet Explorer, Spry Mosaic, NCSA Mosaic, Lynx, Opera, GNUscape Navigator, etc.**, that include HTTP software to function as HTTP clients capable of transferring requests for documents to the server 4. The HTTP server protocol is described in “Hypertext Transfer Protocol—HTTP/1.1,” Network Working Group, Request for Comments No. 2068 (January, 1997), which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The browser program 12 may also include plug-ins or additional program features to process files in other media formats, such as sound files, movie files, JAVA™ applets**, etc. **NETSCAPE is a registered trademark of the Netscape Communications Corporation; WINDOWS and MICROSOFT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; OS/2, NETFINITY, AS/400, and RS/6000 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation; UNIX is a registered trademark licensed by the X/Open Company LTD; INTEL and PENTIUM are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; JAVA is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc; POWEREDGE is a registered trademark of the Dell Computer Corporation.

#The network 10 may be a TCP/IP network, such as the Internet and World Wide Web, or any other network system known in the art, e.g., LAN, Ethernet, WAN, System Area Network (SAN), Token Ring, LocalTalk, TCP/IP, the Internet, etc. Alternatively, there may be separate and different networks between the server 4, server probe 6, and remote probes 8a, b, c, d. Further, the computing environment 2 may include a separate network 14, such as an Intranet, to provide additional communication paths between the server 4 and server probe 6. In preferred embodiments, the server 4 and server probe 6 are in the same geographical location, i.e., location A, such as the same building, room, city, plant site, etc. In alternative embodiments, the server 4 and server probe 6 may be in separate geographical locations. The remote probes 8a, b, c, d may be dispersed throughout geographical locations, such as different cities, states, countries, etc.