Patent Application
20060095563
This invention is related to the field of network management and more specifically to displaying network operations.
Methods for network management have continued to evolve as networks have become more complex, larger and essential to business operations. Fails in networks can cause businesses to incur significant losses as employees are not able to communicate with one another or customers and clients are not able to order a company's products. Hence, continuous monitoring of a company's network is critical so that problems may be detected, isolated and corrected before the severity of the problem escalates.
Numerous methods are known in the art for displaying critical network information for monitoring networks. Textual displays may be used to tabulate network components or elements and associated characteristics. For example, routers may be identified by name or number along with corresponding status or operating efficiency. Similarly, communications paths between routers may be identified by their data load capability along with a corresponding status or current data load. Another method is to present the network elements in a visual map that includes icons that represent routers and links that represent communication paths between the routers.
There are many ways to distinguish an element or path in a map that represents a collection of network nodes or routers and edges, wherein edges are representative of physical or logical connections between the nodes. One way is to highlight, for example, a communication path between a source node and a destination node, by tracing the path with a distinguishing color. Another way could be to change the look of the path by manipulating its widths or continuity, i.e., dashed or dotted lines. Direction of data flow is often shown by adding an arrow head in the direction of the destination node.
However, network and other maps can become very crowded as the size of the network or the number of elements increases. Often, there are many connections between two nodes, and changing colors to highlight a selected connection may not significantly distinguish it from the others.
Further, colors are also used conventionally in maps to denote the status of an element. For example, conventional status indicators are a red color to denote a device not operating correctly, and a green color for normal operation. Using another color for highlighting a path can also make the map very busy and hard to read. A disadvantage of using red/green colors is that operators who do not have the ability to distinguish red/green colors are able to see the highlighting.
Further, when there are multiple connections between two nodes, making one thicker connection may not be significantly distinguishable over the other connections between the same or different node.
Hence, there is a need in the industry for a means and apparatus for simplifying the presentation of network operations while providing sufficient information regarding network status.
A method and apparatus for presenting or displaying operations associated with a network is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of selecting a path that allows communications between two selected nodes in the network, wherein the path consisting of a plurality of communication paths providing communication between communicatively adjacent nodes, determining parameters for animating the selected path; and highlighting, alternately, selected portions of the display of the selected path based on the determined parameters, wherein the alternate highlighting provides a visual indication of a direction of data flow in the selected path. In one aspect of the invention, the rate of alternate highlighting may further be selected to provide an indication of the status of corresponding communication paths.
a illustrates a conventional network display;
b illustrates a conventional display of paths between the nodes shown in
c illustrates a conventional display of LSPs between customer nodes shown in
d illustrates a conventional display of collected LSPs between customer nodes shown in
a and 2b illustrates aspects of the present invention;
a-4c collectively illustrate operational aspects of the present invention;
a-5c collectively illustrate a second operational aspect of the present invention;
a illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary process in accordance with the principles of the invention;
b illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary process for determining animation parameters in accordance with the principles of the invention; and
It is to be understood that these drawings are solely for purposes of illustrating the concepts of the invention and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. The embodiments shown in the figures herein and described in the accompanying detailed description are to be used as illustrative embodiments and should not be construed as the only manner of practicing the invention. Also, the same reference numerals, possibly supplemented with reference characters where appropriate, have been used to identify similar elements.
a illustrates a conventional network 100 containing provider edge nodes (PE) 110, 120, 130, and 140 and provider nodes (P) 150, 155, 160 and 165. Provide edge nodes 110-140 represent ingress and egress points between network 100 and customer edge nodes 170, 175, 180, 185 and 190. The links connecting each node, e.g., 110.1, 110.2, 110.3 associated with node 110, represent communication paths among the nodes.
b illustrates a conventional method for displaying the communication paths between the nodes shown in
c illustrates another conventional method for displaying communication paths, which are referred to as LSPHops, in a Multiple-Protocol Label Switched (MPLS) network. MPLS networks are well-known in the art and need not be explained in detail herein.
In this illustrative representation of the MPLS network, the LSPHops are grouped together as paths, referred to as Label Switch Paths (LSPs) between customers. Limiting the display to LSPs 220, 230, 240 and 250, as shown, provides some clarity to the display shown in
d illustrates an even further improvement to the display of the LSPs shown in
a illustrates an exemplary aspect of the LSP display shown in
In one aspect of the invention (not shown), each LSP may be concurrently animated. In another aspect of the invention, only selected LSPs may be animated. Further, the underlying LSPHops in a selected LSP may be viewable and further selectable. Similarly, selection of the physical components represented by the selected LSPHop may further be selected.
b illustrates an exemplary aspect of the LSP display shown in
In another aspect of the invention, the speed or color of the animation may be a function of a data link bit rate transfer or a bandwidth. In this case, the animation speed/color may be representative of a status condition. For example, a link, LSPHop or LSP may be animated at a first rate when the associated link is determined to be operating above a first threshold of link data rate capacity and a second, slower, rate when operating above a second threshold of link data rate capacity, etc., where the first threshold level is higher than the second threshold. In still another aspect, the animation rate may be used to provide a visible indication of the data load on each LSPHop or LSP.
With regard to determining an LSPHop or LSP status, in one aspect data bit transfer rates or bandwidths of each physical link in an LSPHop or LSP may be normalized with respect to the link's capabilities. In this case, the speed of animation of an LSPHop or LSP may be set to the lowest value of all the links that comprise the LSPHop or LSP. In this case, if some physical links are operating at 100 percent data rate efficiency (normalized value 1.0) and others at 50 percent data rate efficiency (normalized value 0.5), then the animation speed may be set to indicate the lower data rate. Individual link performance may then be determined by reviewing each of the physical links represented by the LSPHop or LSP. Similarly, a color-coding may also be used in addition to the animation. In another aspect, the physical link data flow capacity may be animated. In this case, capacity of each link represented by the LSPHop or LSP may be represented by a normalized value and the animation speed altered to reflect the poorest capacity.
a-4c collectively illustrate an operation of the present invention.
b further illustrates a pull-down menu similar to that shown in
In still another aspect of the inventions, operations may be performed to present more detailed information regarding individual LSPHops or physical entities or components within the LSPHops or segments of LSPHops. In these cases the direction of the animation continues to represent the direction of data flow and the speed and/or color of the animation may represent the status of an individual link.
a-5c illustrate a second example of an operation in accordance with the principles of the invention.
b illustrates the selection and animation of the communication paths between bodes 525 and 510. In this illustrative case, a path is selected by a drop-down menu 570 that contains the identifications of each LSP in the network. For example, “LSP-Abbott->Costello” 575 is associated with the communication path 540 between nodes 510 and 515. Similarly, path, “LSP-Laurel->Abbott” 590 is associated with the communication path 555.1, 555.2 and 555.3. In this illustrative example, LSP-Laurel->Abbott 590 is selected and shown by dashed lines to indicate animation. As noted previously, the direction of the animation provides an indication of the data flow.
c illustrates a physical connectivity map displays associated with selected node 530. Physical connectivity map illustrates routers, switches and hosts electrically connected to node 530. In addition, interfaces, ports, and port/port, interface/port and/or interface/interface connections may be shown. In this illustrative example, the communication path between nodes 525 and 535 passing through node 530, which was selected in
Although not shown, but as discussed previously, multiple LSPHops or paths, associated with different nodes or communication paths may be selected and animated concurrently.
a illustrates a flow chart 600 of an exemplary process for providing animation in network displays in accordance with the principles of the invention. At block 610, a network map is selected and viewed. The map may be similar to one of those shown in
b illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary process for determining animation parameters, i.e., block 620, in accordance with the principles of the invention. In this exemplary process, a status of the selected operation is obtained at block 630. At block 635, the animation speed is determined. The speed is selected to provide a user with an impression of movement, in a selected direction. In one aspect of the invention, the speed may be determined as a function of an operational status. For example, the animation speed may be adjusted slower than a nominal, predetermined, speed, when a degraded status is determined. Similarly, at block 640 a determination may be made to determine whether the link status is indicated to be “good” or normal. In one aspect, the color of the animation may be selected to be a first color when the status is indicated to be good, i.e., block 645, and, may be selected to be a second color when the status is indicated to be degraded, i.e., block 650. At block 655, a determination of the direction of the animation based on the data flow direction is made.
Input/output devices 702, processors 703 and memories 704 may communicate over a communication medium 725. Communication medium 725 may represent, for example, a bus, a communication network, one or more internal connections of a circuit, circuit card or other apparatus, as well as portions and combinations of these and other communication media. Input data from the devices 701 is processed in accordance with one or more programs that may be stored in memories 704 and executed by processors 703. Memory 704 may be selected preferably from semiconductor memories such as a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM, a Random Access Memory, which is accessible through medium 725 or may be a cache memory in direct communication with processors 703. Processors 703 may be any means, such as general purpose or special purpose computing system, such as a laptop computer, desktop computer, a server, handheld computer, or may be a hardware configuration, such as dedicated logic circuit, or integrated circuit. Processors 703 may also be Programmable Array Logic (PAL), or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc., which may be “programmed” to include software instructions or code that provides a known output in response to known inputs. In one aspect, hardware circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, software instructions to implement the invention. The elements illustrated herein may also be implemented as discrete hardware elements that are operable to perform the operations shown using coded logical operations or by executing hardware executable code.
In a one aspect, the processes shown herein may be represented by computer readable code stored on a computer readable medium. The code may also be stored in the memory 704. The code may be read/downloaded from a memory medium 783, an I/O device 785 or magnetic or optical media, such as a floppy disk, a CD-ROM or a DVD, 787. The downloaded computer readable code may be stored in memory 704 or executed directly by processor 703.
Information from device 701 received by I/O device 702, after processing in accordance with one or more software programs operable to perform the functions illustrated herein, may also be transmitted over network 780 to one or more output devices represented as display 792, reporting device 790, e.g., printer, or second processing system 795. Network 780 may be physically be the same as network 750 or may be a different network that operates on the same or different communication principles as that of network 750.
While there has been shown, described, and pointed out fundamental novel features of the present invention as applied to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the apparatus described, in the form and details of the devices disclosed, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements that perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Substitutions of elements from one described embodiment to another are also fully intended and contemplated.
