Methods, systems and computer program products for determining and visually representing a user's overall network delay in collaborative applications

A system for providing information about a user's communications with a site in a network, comprising:

• means for determining an estimated overall delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• and
• means for providing the user a visual representation of the estimated overall delay value;
• wherein said determining means comprise:
• means for estimating a round-trip delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• means for estimating a transmission delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• and
• means for determining the estimated overall delay value based on the estimated round-trip delay value and the estimated transmission delay value.

A computer program product for providing information about a user's communications with a site in a network, comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising:
• computer-readable program code means for determining an estimated overall delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for providing the user a visual representation of the estimated overall delay value;
• wherein said computer-readable program code determining means comprise:
• computer-readable program code means for estimating a round-trip delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• computer-readable program code means for estimating a transmission delay value associated with the user's communications with the network site;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for determining the estimated overall delay value based on the estimated round-trip delay value and the estimated transmission delay value.

A method of displaying information to a user of a first data processing system that communicates with a second data processing system over a communications network, the method comprising:

• displaying an overall delay indicator associated with communications between the first data processing system and the second data processing system, wherein the communications are originated by an application executing on the first data processing system and wherein the overall delay indicator is displayed so as to provide a user of the application executing on the first data processing system an indicator of expected communications delay for communications originated by the application executing on the first data processing system, wherein the displaying step comprises the steps of:
• providing a predefined set of overall delay indicators;
• obtaining an estimate of overall delay associated with communications, originated by the application, from the first data processing system to the second data processing system;
• selecting one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators based on the obtained overall delay estimate;
• and
• displaying the selected one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators on a display device associated with the first data processing system.

A system for displaying information to a user of an application executing on a first data processing system, wherein the first data processing system communicates with a second data processing system over a communications network, the system comprising:

• means for determining an expected communications delay between the first data processing system and the second data processing system for communications originated by the application executing on the first data processing system;
• and
• means for displaying an indicator of the expected delay for communications, wherein the displaying means comprises:
• means for providing a predefined set of overall delay indicators;
• means for obtaining an estimate of overall delay associated with communications, originated by the application, from the first data processing system to the second data processing system;
• means for selecting one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators based on the obtained overall delay estimate;
• and
• means for displaying the selected one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators on a display device associated with the first data processing system.

A computer program product for displaying information to a user of a first data processing system, wherein the first data processing system communicates with a second data processing system over a communications network, comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising:
• computer-readable program code means for displaying an overall delay indicator associated with communications between the first data processing system and the second data processing system, wherein the communications are originated by an application executing on the first data processing system and wherein the overall delay indicator is displayed so as to provide a user of the application executing on the first data processing system an indicator of expected communications delay for communications originated by the application executing on the first data processing system, wherein the computer-readable program code means for displaying a latency indicator comprises:
• computer-readable program code means for providing a predefined set of overall delay indicators;
• computer-readable program code means for obtaining an estimate of overall delay associated with communications, originated by the application, from the first data processing system to the second data processing system;
• computer-readable program code means for selecting one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators based on the obtained overall delay estimate;
• and
• computer-readable program code means for displaying the selected one of the predefined set of overall delay indicators on a display device associated with the first data processing system.