Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Distributed data processing – Processing agent
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-02
2001-10-16
Harrell, Robert B. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Distributed data processing
Processing agent
Reexamination Certificate
active
06304892
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to data access network (e.g., Internet and/or Intranet) systems. More particularly, this invention relates to a management system for accessing selective management data from a number of independently administered data service systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid growth of the Internet, widespread use of the World Wide Web, and a trend toward deployment of broadband residential networks have led to the development of new services such as interactive shopping, home banking, and electronic commerce. These services are federated since the underlying service components (e.g., network, applications, etc.) span multiple independently administered control domains.
FIG. 1
shows a prior art data access network system
10
. The data access network system
10
can be, for example, an Internet or Intranet system. As can be seen from
FIG. 1
, the data access network system
10
typically includes a data service system
13
which is typically an Internet/Intranet service provider (ISP) system. The data access network system
10
also includes remote Internet and Intranet systems
14
-
15
connected to the data service system
13
. Each of the systems
13
-
15
is an independently administered system when each of the Internet and Intranet systems
14
and
15
may include a number of independently administered systems. The system administrator of one such system does not know the structure and configuration of another system.
The data service system
13
provides Internet or Intranet service to its user terminals (e.g., user terminal
11
) via an interconnect network
12
. The data service system
13
typically includes a number of functional servers, such as proxy servers, web servers, news servers, domain name servers, etc. (e.g., servers
13
a
though
13
n
in FIG.
2
). Subscribers connect directly to the data service system
13
from their user terminals (e.g., personal computers, Macintoshes, Web terminals, etc.) via the interconnect network
12
. The data service system
13
typically employs the Internet Protocol (IP) for data communication to and from various servers, as well as with the remote systems
14
and
15
. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) operates above the IP layer and ensures reliable delivery of information to the content servers in the systems
13
-
15
. The application protocols that operate above the TCP layer are specific to the applications being accessed by the subscribers. For example, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used for file transfers and the Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP) is used for web accesses.
When the data service system
13
tries to grow or expand its services, it may be necessary or desirable for the data service system
13
to outsource some of the services it provides. For example, it may be desirable for the data service system
13
to outsource its web services to another data service system (e.g., the data service system
18
in FIG.
2
). There are a number of advantages for the data service system
13
to outsource its services. First, the data service system
13
can be maintained at a desirable size. Secondly, the data service system
13
can increase its services without increasing its system resources and maintenance. In addition, the data service system
13
can concentrate on other services while the data service system
18
can try to best perform the outsourced services. This allows each of the data service systems
13
and
18
to provide its own specialty while the user can receive the best of the two systems.
The federated system, however, causes problems in service and system management and maintenance because each data service system within the federated system is independently administered and the entire system spans multiple independently administered control domains. The system administrator of one control domain is not able to access another control domain to detect problems in that control domain, or to measure service performance of the other data service system unless the system administrator is given access to the other control domain. For example, as can be seen from
FIG. 2
, because each of the data service systems
13
and
18
is an independently administered system, the data service system
13
cannot have the service performance information of the data service system
18
unless the data service system
13
is given access to the resources of the data service system
18
. Providing complete access to service system
18
may be undesirable to the system administrator of the data service system
18
as the data service system
18
may contain technology or trade secrets that the system administrator of the data service system
18
does not want to disclose to the data service system
13
.
Existing management tools such as Openview from Hewlett-Packard Co., Tivoli from IBM Co., and Unicenter from Computer Associates Co. may be used in each of the data service systems. These tools do not permit partial access to management information in the independently administered data service systems in the federated system. Moreover, it is also difficult for the users of the federated system to validate that their service provider is meeting its obligations in the federated system. This thus makes it difficult to provide effective customer support for, for example, the data service system
13
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One feature of the present invention is to share selective system management information between various data service systems that are independently administered.
Another feature of the present invention is to allow selective sharing of information of a data service system with external sources without allowing the external sources to have complete access to the data service system.
A further feature of the present invention is to selectively provide management and/or measurement information of a data service system to an external source in accordance with a predetermined service agreement between the data service system and the external source.
A further feature of the present invention is to verify service level guarantees specified in a predetermined service level agreement and to provide access to the verification results to customers or other data service systems.
Described below is a service management system in a federated system having a first and a second independently administered data service systems. The service management system includes a service manager that provides selective measurement data of the second data service system to the first data service system in accordance with a predetermined service level agreement between the first and second data service systems without giving the first data service system complete access to the second data service system.
A method of selectively providing measurement data from one independently administered data service system to another independently administered data service system in a data access network system is also described. The method includes the step of identifying a predetermined service level agreement between the first and second data service systems when the first data service system receives a request for its management data from the second data service system. Then the first data service system selectively provides the management data to the second data service system in accordance with the predetermined service level agreement without giving the second data service system complete access to the first data service system.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6049819 (2000-04-01), Buckle et al.
Bhoj Preeti N.
Chutani Sailesh
Singhal Sharad
Harrell Robert B.
Hewlett--Packard Company
Li Thomas X.
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