System and method for determining network discrete utilization

Method for evaluating a network, comprising the steps of:

• communicating of a plurality of long packets and short packets through said network;
• determining a best time of said long packets;
• determining a best time of said short packets;
• responsive to a length of said long and short packets and their respective best times, determining Network Queue Wait Time (Tw) and a standard deviation of Network Queue Wait Time, (σTw);
• responsive to said Tw and σTw, calculating a discrete utilization (p) of said network.

Method for evaluating a network, comprising the steps of:

• sending test packets across said network;
• based upon number of test packets transmitted, number of bytes per test packet, send and receive time stamps of each test packet, and number of test packets lost in transmission, deducing a capacity of said network, its latency, and a current utilization of said capacity;
• calculating network hop count as a measure of a minimum number of hops of network bottleneck hop speed that could be in said network;
• responsive to said network hop count, determining a minimum network discrete utilization;
• responsive to said test packets, determining as a maximum network discrete utilization a number of messages queued per network hop count;
• and
• responsive to said minimum network discrete utilization and said maximum network discrete utilization, determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization.

A method for evaluating network characteristics from observations of work performed on packets by a system including said network, comprising the steps of

• determining a minimum network discrete utilization;
• determining as a maximum network discrete utilization a number of messages queued per network hop count;
• and
• responsive to said minimum network discrete utilization and said maximum network discrete utilization, determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization;
• determining average message service time;
• calculating a standard deviation of network queue wait time (σTw)=square root of (utilization*(2−utilization))*(average message service time/(1−utilization);
• and
• determining network queue wait time (Tw)=utilization*average message service time/(1−utilization).

A method for evaluating a discrete utilization of a network, comprising the steps of

• transmitting probative samples of at least two sizes through said network;
• time stamping said probative samples;
• responsive to said probative samples, calculating an average delay and a standard deviation of said average delay of said network;
• responsive to said probative samples, determining a minimum network discrete utilization and a maximum network discrete utilization as respective functions of ratios of said average delay of said network to a standard deviation of said average delay;
• and
• responsive to said minimum network discrete utilization and said maximum network discrete utilization, determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine for evaluating a network from observations of work performed on packets by a system including said network, comprising:

• a first program module for transmitting into said network a plurality of packets in isolation and of different lengths for measuring average message delay through said network;
• a second program module for determining a standard deviation of said message delay;
• and
• a third program module for calculating a discrete utilization of said network as a function of the ratio of said average message delay to said standard deviation.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for evaluating a network from observations of work performed on packets by a system including said network, said method steps comprising:

• transmitting into said network a plurality of packets in isolation and of different lengths;
• measuring average message delay through said network;
• determining a standard deviation of said message delay;
• calculating a discrete utilization of said network as a function of the ratio of said average message delay to said standard deviation;
• and
• determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization from minimum network discrete utilization and maximum network discrete utilization determined from said observations.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for evaluating a discrete utilization of a network from observations of work performed on probative samples by a system including said network, comprising:

• transmitting probative samples through said network;
• time stamping said probative samples;
• responsive to said samples, calculating the average wait time and a standard deviation of average delay of said network;
• deriving said discrete utilization as a function of a ratio of a wait time of said network to a standard deviation of the average wait time;
• determining a minimum network discrete utilization;
• determining as a maximum network discrete utilization a number of messages queued per network hop count;
• responsive to said minimum network discrete utilization and said maximum network discrete utilization, determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization;
• and
• fine tuning said discrete utilization by averaging dropped instances of said samples with successful transmissions of said samples to derive a measure of discrete utilization based upon a total set of said probative samples.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for evaluating a network, said operations comprising:

• communicating of a plurality of long packets and short packets through said network;
• determining a best time of said long packets;
• determining a best time of said short packets;
• responsive to said long and short packets and their respective best times, determining Network Queue Wait Time (Tw) and a standard deviation of Network Queue Wait Time, (σTw);
• responsive to said Tw and σTw, calculating a discrete utilization (p) of said network.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform operations for evaluating a network, said operations comprising:

• sending test packets across said network;
• based upon number of test packets transmitted, number of bytes per test packet, send and receive timestamps of each test packet, and number of test packets lost in transmission, deducing a capacity of said network, its latency, and a current utilization of said capacity;
• calculating network hop count as a measure a minimum number of hops of network bottleneck hop speed that could be in the network;
• responsive to said network hop count, determining the minimum network discrete utilization;
• responsive to said test packets, determining as a maximum network discrete utilization a number of messages queued per network hop count;
• and
• responsive to said minimum network discrete utilization and said maximum network discrete utilization, determining a best approximation of end to end discrete utilization.