# US 7,610,327 B2 · Method of automatically baselining business bandwidth > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 7,610,327 B2 - Document ID: US7610327B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 10/223,067 - Filed: 2002-08-16 - Published: 2003-03-20 - Granted: 2009-10-27 - Earliest claimed: 2000-02-18 - Assignees: Infrastructure Innovations, LLC - Inventors: Joseph M. Kryskow, Jr. - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7610327B2 ## CPC - H04L 69/329: in the application layer [OSI layer 7] - H04L 41/5003: Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS - H04L 41/5009: Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] - H04L 43/00: Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks - H04L 43/0894: Packet rate - H04L 47/2408: for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service - H04L 67/62: Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests - H04L 41/5048: {Automatic or semi-automatic definitions, e.g. definition templates} - H04L 41/5067: Customer-centric QoS measurements - H04L 43/022: by sampling - H04L 43/0852: Delays - H04L 43/087: Jitter - H04L 43/0876: Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level - H04L 43/0888: Throughput - H04L 43/106: using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract An automatic baselining process for business bandwidth measures business bandwidth as monitored by a plurality of bandwidth monitoring devices positioned throughout a networked environment. The process includes autodiscovery of the business bandwidth sources and sinks (destinations), autolearning application bandwidth and utilization therefrom, and autobaselining end-to-end bandwidth. Autopartitioning of the observed data and end-to-end top level service level agreements into specific component metrics is also possible. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for use in a global network comprising two or more networks, wherein information is communicated via packets of one or more types associated with a corresponding application, each packet of the packets of the one or more types having a corresponding header with at least one portion of said header indicative of business bandwidth of the corresponding application, each of said two or more networks having various devices operating as sources of packets, destinations for packets, or both, each of said two or more networks interconnected to one or more other networks via at least one switch fabric, said method for providing on a run-time bases an indication of an actual service level in at least a portion of said global network for comparison with a service level agreement for at least said portion of said global network, said method comprising the steps of: on a run-time basis intercepting packets traversing said at least one switch fabric; on a run-time basis extracting information indicative of business bandwidth, including information concerning any new connection, break/disconnect, abort or timeout on a connection between a source of packets and a destination of packets, of said corresponding application from said at least one portion of said header of each of said intercepted packets as well as component modeling of components that make up an end-to-end path of said intercepted packets and returning each said intercepted packet to the switch fabric from which each intercepted packet was intercepted so as to allow the packet to continue to a destination associated with each said intercepted packet; on a run-time basis determining from said extracted information, information about application business bandwidth between a source and a destination of said intercepted packets; on a run-time basis providing said indication of the actual service level in said at least a portion of the global network according to the determined application bandwidth for comparing said indication to said service level agreement; utilizing the actual service level to determine if repartitioning of end-to-end metrics are required; and recommending a change in network service offering including a change in partitioning of end-to-end metrics to a user of the global network if said repartitioning is required. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining is for determining at least one utilization characteristic of the source and the destination of said intercepted packets. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of tallying instances of said at least one utilization characteristic of an endpoint of said global network acting as one or more sources, one or more destinations, or a combination thereof for providing a tally of said instances of said at least one utilization characteristic. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of: providing said tally of instances of said at least one utilization characteristic for evaluation by a user or by comparison to a predefined application template; and selecting said service level agreement according to said evaluation. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of tallying instances of said at least one utilization characteristic of at least one application regardless of source or destination for providing a tally of said instances of said at least one utilization characteristic. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of: providing said tally of instances of said at least one utilization characteristic for evaluation by a user or by comparison to a predefined application template; and selecting said service level agreement according to said evaluation. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining is for determining a list of applications. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of determining utilization characteristics of said listed applications. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of tallying instances of said utilization characteristics of said listed applications for providing a tally of said instances of said utilization characteristics. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of: providing said tally of instances of said utilization characteristics for evaluation by a user or by comparison to one or more predefined application templates; and selecting said service level agreement according to said evaluation. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining is for determining at least one utilization characteristic of a path over a global network physical media between a source and a destination. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of: tallying instances of said at least one utilization characteristic of said path for providing a tally of said instances of said utilization characteristic; providing said tally of instances of said utilization characteristic for evaluation by a user or by comparison to a predefined application template; and selecting said service level agreement according to said evaluation. ### Claim 13 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein said at least one utilization characteristic is of a path over a global network physical media between a source and a destination. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of: tallying instances of said at least one utilization characteristic of said path for providing a tally of said instances of said utilization characteristic; providing said tally of instances of said utilization characteristic for evaluation by a user or by comparison to a predefined application template; and selecting said service level agreement according to said evaluation. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining information about application business bandwidth comprises determining a user profile based upon user definable information contained with part of the extracted information. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein part of the definable information contained with the extracted information is user identification information. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein part of the user definable information contained within the extracted information is an IP address of the source of an associated packet. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein part of the user definable information contained with the extracted information is an IP address of the destination. ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein part of the user definable information contained with the extracted information is a domain of a device associated with the source of the intercepted packets. ### Claim 20 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein part of the user definable information contained within the extracted information is a domain of a device associated with the destination of the intercepted packets. ### Claim 21 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the user definable information contained within the extracted information is directed to a class of service of each intercepted packet. ### Claim 22 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the user definable information contained within the extracted information is directed to a type of packet including whether each intercepted packet is a broadcast, multicast or destination directed packet. ### Claim 23 (depends on 22) The method according to claim 22, wherein the extracted information is used to determine parameters associated with the transfer of packets. ### Claim 24 (depends on 23) The method according to claim 23, wherein the parameters include a length of time between sending a packet and receiving a packet in return, whether a packet is dropped in route to a destination of said packet, and a change in latency between packets intended for the same destination. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The method according to claim 24, wherein at least one of the parameters is partitioned amongst said two or more networks of the global network so that a magnitude of a parameter is measured within each of said two or more networks through which the intercepted packets traverse. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The method as defined in claim 25, wherein different parameters have different partition values for the same network over which intercepted packets traverse. ### Claim 27 (depends on 26) The method as defined in claim 26, further wherein a knowledge base is created which represents the values of the parameters for each network over which each intercepted packet traverses. ### Claim 28 The method as defined in clam 27, wherein said knowledge base is combined to form a template defining desired characteristics of the global network with respect to communication of particular packet types over said global network between sources and destinations. ### Claim 29 (depends on 28) The method as defined in claim 28, wherein said template is user defined. ### Claim 30 (depends on 29) The method as defined in claim 29, wherein the template is defined through accumulation of information associated with traverse of packets over the global network. ### Claim 31 (depends on 30) The method as defined in claim 30, wherein the values of the parameters are scaled based upon observing the parameters for the traverse of packets between a predetermined number of users and extrapolating the of the parameter for a different number of users. ### Claim 32 (depends on 31) The method as defined in claim 31, wherein an overall performance of each of said two or more networks is determined by combining the actual service level with additional loading of the global network based upon the addition of applications to one or more of said two or more networks within the global network. ### Claim 33 (depends on 32) The method as defined in claim 32, wherein a performance of each of said two or more networks with the addition of the applications is determined based upon the use of said applications by one or more users of the applications. ### Claim 34 (depends on 1) The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the indication of actual service level is compared to a service provider's network offering so as to allow a user of said network to determine if the user's network needs have changed or if the service provider's network offering has changed, so as to recommend a change of a service offering to the user. ### Claim 35 (depends on 34) The method as defined in claim 34, wherein a service level agreement of the user is automatically modified based upon a determined change in the user's network needs if implicit permission has been given by the user. ### Claim 36 A system for measuring business bandwidth representing an actual service level for comparison with a service level agreement, said business bandwidth associated with an interconnection of a plurality of networks forming a global network sending packets of information associated with a corresponding application from sources to destinations, said packets of one or more types, each packet of the packets of the one or more types having a corresponding header with at least one portion of said header indicative of business bandwidth of the corresponding application comprising: a plurality of bandwidth monitoring devices for determining characteristics of packets passing from at least one device on one of said plurality of networks to another device on the same network or a different network of said plurality of networks, each bandwidth monitoring device comprising: memory for saving monitored information; a bandwidth interconnection module connected to said one of the networks of the plurality of networks for retrieving information regarding part of substantially all packets of at least one type passing through said one of said plurality of networks at a first location, including information concerning any new connection, break/disconnect, abort or timeout on a connection between a source of packets and a destination of packets as well as component modeling of components that make up an end-to-end path of said extracted packets, and a master control module for analyzing said retrieved information; and at least one director console the director console having: means for communicating with at least one of the plurality of bandwidth monitoring devices, means for analyzing the retrieved information so as to determine business bandwidth baseline information regarding characteristics of said retrieved information analyzed so as to provide an indication of an actual service level in at least a portion of the global network, means for utilizing the actual service level to determine if repartitioning of end-to-end metrics are required; and means for recommending a change in network service offering including a change in partitioning of end-to-end metrics to a user of the global network if said repartitioning is required. ### Claim 37 (depends on 36) The system as defined in claim 36, further comprising means for comparing said indication of the actual service level to said service level agreement. ### Claim 38 (depends on 37) The system as defined in claim 37, further comprising means for modifying the service level agreement of the user based on said means for comparing said indication of the actual service level to said service level agreement. ### Claim 39 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising autopartitioning components that make up or offset any path between a source and a destination based on determined application business bandwidth. ### Claim 40 (depends on 36) The system as defined in claim 36 further comprising means for autopartitioning components that make up or offset any path between a source and a destination based on determined application business bandwidth.