Network capacity planning

Abstract

Data representing application deployment attributes, network topology, and network performance attributes based on a reduced set of element attributes is utilized to simulate application deployment. The data may be received from a user directly, a program that models a network topology or application behavior, and a wizard that implies the data based on an interview process. The simulation may be based on application deployment attributes including application traffic pattern, application message sizes, network topology, and network performance attributes. The element attributes may be determined from a lookup table of element operating characteristics that may contain element maximum and minimum boundary operating values utilized to interpolate other operating conditions. Application response time may be derived using an iterative analysis based on multiple instances of one or more applications wherein a predetermined number of iterations is used or until a substantially steady state of network performance is achieved.

1 . A method of simulating application and network performance comprising the acts of: 
 receiving data representing application deployment attributes;    receiving data representing network topology;    receiving data representing network performance attributes based on a reduced set of element attributes; and    simulating network performance based on the application deployment attributes, network topology, and network performance attributes.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reduced set of element attributes is received in a form of lookup tables of application response times.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising the act of providing a graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the acts of receiving and simulating are performed within the GUI.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising the act of depicting simulation results within a graphical user interface (GUI).  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the act of depicting comprises the act of depicting simulation results as a graph of network response time.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the act of depicting comprises the act of depicting simulation results as a bar chart of network response time.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the act of depicting comprises an act of depicting response times as a function of delays attributable to delay components.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 4 , comprising an act of receiving input altering at least one of application deployment attributes, network topology, and network performance attributes, wherein the act of depicting comprises the act of depicting new simulation results based on the altered attributes or topology.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the act of depicting comprises an act of depicting both of a previous and new simulation results within a single GUI.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the application deployment attributes are represented as transaction per hour (TPH).  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the application deployment attributes includes transaction intervals.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of simulating network performance comprises an act simulating the network performance iteratively based on multiple instances of an application.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the simulation is performed until a predetermined number of iterations.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the simulation is performed until a substantially steady state of network performance is achieved.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reduced set of element attributes includes a shortest path cost function attributed to each link of the network topology.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the shortest path function is modified by at least one of a link bandwidth and latency.  
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reduced set of element attributes includes modeling each hop within the network topology as a network cloud having simplified interaction attributes.  
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reduced set of element attributes includes modeling each router is modeled simply based on link buffer sizes.  
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reduced set of element attributes includes modeling each link having an attribute related to at least one of TCP window size, latency, bandwidth, packet loss, and utilization.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the application deployment attributes includes a designation of a number of sites supporting network deployment.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein each tier of application deployment is presumed to be selected randomly such that each tier supplies application deployment equally.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein application inter-arrivals are treated as exponential distributions.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein delay on servers is modeled by a utilization queuing model based on a number of simultaneous transactions on a server within a given time bucket.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein congestion on a router is modeled based on weighted fair queuing (WFQ) properties and the traffic flowing through the router.  
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a server is modeled ignoring congestion effects on server delay.  
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the act of receiving data representing network performance comprises an act of determining application response times from a lookup table of maximum and minimum application response times.  
   
   
       27 . An application embodied on a computer readable medium arranged to perform a network simulation, the application comprising: 
 a first portion arranged to receive data representing application deployment attributes;    a second portion arranged to receive data representing network topology;    a third portion arranged to receive data representing network performance attributes based on a reduced set of element attribute; and    a fourth portion arranged to simulate network performance based on the application deployment attributes, network topology, and network performance attributes.    
   
   
       28 . The application of  claim 27 , wherein the wherein the third portion is arranged to determine the reduced set of element attributes from a lookup table of maximum and minimum application response times.  
   
   
       29 . The application of  claim 27 , comprising a fifth portion arranged to provide a graphical user interface (GUI), wherein at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth portions are provided within the GUI.  
   
   
       30 . The application of  claim 27 , wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display simulation results within the graphical user interface (GUI).  
   
   
       31 . The application of  claim 30 , wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display the simulation results as a graph of network response time.  
   
   
       32 . The application of  claim 30 , wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display the simulation results as a bar chart of network response time.  
   
   
       33 . The application of  claim 32 , wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display simulation results wherein response times are displayed as a function of delays attributable to simulation elements.  
   
   
       34 . The application of  claim 30 , comprising a sixth portion arranged to receive input altering at least one of application deployment attributes, network topology, and network performance attributes, wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display new simulation results based on the altered attributes or topology.  
   
   
       35 . The application of  claim 20 , wherein the fifth portion is arranged to display both of a previous and new simulation results within a single GUI.  
   
   
       36 . The application of  claim 27 , wherein the fourth portion is arranged to simulate the network performance iteratively based on multiple instances of an application.  
   
   
       37 . The application of  claim 36 , wherein the fourth portion is arranged to perform the simulation results until at least one of a predetermined number of itrrations and until a substantly steady state of network performance is achieved.