Apparatus and method for computing the processing delay of adaptive applications network terminals and applications thereof

Method for computing the processing delay of a terminal running a system of one or more adaptive applications, each adaptive application consisting of a set of executable tasks sharing system resources, said set of execution tasks having execution times depending on a particular adaptation level, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) modelling the adaptation of each adaptive application as an adaptation process having steady-state probability distribution representing the fraction of time spent by said application in a particular adaptation level;
• b) modelling execution time variations of tasks in each application, for a particular adaptation level, by a random variable of arbitrary and known probability distribution;
• c) modeling a system-wide computation by a state process X, said state process capturing transitions of executing tasks as said tasks currently use or contend for shared system resources, said state process being characterized as a stochastic process;
• d) calculating a stationary distribution .pi..sup.M from said stochastic state process;
• and,
• e) from said stationary distribution, calculating the processing delay of said adaptive applications.

An application manager for optimizing system resources of a terminal in an interconnected network, said terminal having one or more concurrently running adaptive applications, each adaptive application consisting of a set of executable tasks sharing said system resources, said set of execution tasks having execution times depending on a particular adaptation level, said application manager comprising:

• means for receiving feedback information from said network, said feedback indicating network performance;
• means for computing a processing delay distribution for said terminal, said processing delay distribution based upon any combination of adaptation levels;
• and,
• means for changing an adaptation level for a particular adaptation application in accordance with said feedback information and said processing delay distribution computed for said terminal, whereby system resources are optimized.