FR3003664A1 - QUALITY OF SERVICE OFFERED BY A WEB SERVER - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of supervising the reception of at least one Web page by a terminal. According to the invention, the supervision method is adapted to determine at least one value representative of a reception time of at least one element of a web page, to determine whether at least one set of at least one criterion of predefined supervision is verified, at least one criterion of the at least one set being relative to the at least one determined value and to send or not to send an alert message according to the result of the verification. The invention also relates to a terminal (T) implementing the supervision method.

Description

Quality of service offered by a Web server The invention is in the field of telecommunications and more particularly in the field of access to web servers, hosting websites, from a browser installed on a terminal. The invention relates to the quality of the services offered by the web servers. A website is a collection of web pages. A web page is a resource with a web address to access this page. The pages of a website are hyperlinked together, that is to say that links, called hyperlinks, allow access to another page of the site from a page accessed. More precisely, a first request containing a URL (for "Uniform Resource Locator") transmitted from the browser of a terminal makes it possible to receive and display a first Web page. Manipulating a selected item in the received and displayed web page allows you to receive a second web page. And so on...

The quality of the service depends in particular on the download time of the web pages. This download time depends on the type of terminal, its capabilities and the communication link between the terminal on which the browser is installed and the server hosting the website. Existing systems measure this quality of service.

These systems are based on software installed on the terminal and / or the server and are based on the monitoring and calculation of statistics. On the one hand, the measurements made are not very precise. On the other hand, the quantity of measurements must be important to be representative of the service. Also, the collection of measurements by the server to a terminal requires a large number of exchanges between the terminal and the server. This is expensive in terms of using the network capacity between the terminal and the server. In addition, the analysis of the data received to judge the quality of service is tedious because of the large number of these data. Finally, these systems are only used in the test phase of the website and the analysis does not reflect the performance on a large scale use in very heterogeneous conditions in terms of terminal type, network type, location, mode One of the aims of the invention is to remedy shortcomings / disadvantages of the state of the art and / or to make improvements. The invention improves the situation. To this end, the invention relates to a method of supervising the reception of at least one Web page by a terminal, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: -2- - determination of at least one value representative of a reception time of at least one element of a web page; - checking to determine if at least one set of at least one predefined supervision criterion is verified, at least one criterion of said at least one set being relative to the at least one determined value; - sending or not sending an alert message according to the result of the verification. At least one set of at least one criterion is predefined. At least one criterion of a predefined set of criteria relates to a reception time of an element of a received web page.

The set of criteria defines the quality of service expected when receiving one or more web pages. Following the reception of a page, a verification step makes it possible to determine if the criterion (s) are checked. Depending on the result of the verification, an alert message, relating to the quality of service, can be sent.

No quality of service message is raised as long as the quality of service level is in line with the expected level. This avoids the transmission of a large volume of data. An alert message is transmitted only when the quality of service level is lower than expected.

The amount of information received by an entity receiving the alert messages is significant to the quality of service. A large number of alert messages indicate a significant problem in the quality of the service rendered. Thanks to the invention, the alerts are not embedded among the data signaling a good quality of service. Quality of service processing is facilitated.

According to a particular characteristic of the supervision method, a set of criteria comprises several criteria linked together by Boolean operators. The use of supervision criteria linked together by Boolean operators allows flexibility of the system. The criteria can thus be configured in different ways according to the service whose quality is observed and / or according to the level of quality expected.

According to one embodiment of the supervision method, said at least one set of criteria is received in a response to a request to download a page of a set of pages, said request being the first request sent by said terminal for said set of pages. The set of pages is for example a set of pages forming a website.

In this embodiment, the or sets defined for one or more pages of the set of pages are received by the terminal during a first access of the terminal to a page of the set of pages. Loading the one or more sets of criteria at one time simplifies the task of the server in charge of transmitting these sets of criteria. Received criteria sets are saved by the device and can be used for subsequent queries without requiring a new download of these sets of criteria.

According to another embodiment of the supervision method, said at least one set of criteria is received in a response to a request to download a page, said request being the first request sent by said terminal for said page. This embodiment is particularly suitable for websites containing a large number of pages.

The set of criteria criteria defined for a page are received during a first access of the terminal to the page. They are saved by the terminal and during a subsequent consultation of this page, it is not necessary to download these sets of criteria again. This makes it possible to reduce the access time to a page during a future consultation. According to a particular characteristic of the supervision method, the step of verifying a criterion comprises a step of comparing said determined value with a first predefined threshold value. Comparing a determined value representative of a loading time of an element of a page with a predefined threshold value is a simple way to check the quality of service.

According to a particular embodiment of the supervision method, the detection and determination steps are repeated at least once for said page and the verification step of a criterion comprises a step of comparing an average of the determined values with a second predefined threshold value. The use of criteria relating to several values representative of reception time of the same element determined during several receptions of the same web page allows the sending of alert messages only when the quality of service problem occurs several times. times. It thus makes it possible to avoid sending warning messages when the quality of service is occasionally degraded. According to a particular characteristic of the supervision method, said Web page being received via a communication network, a criterion of said set of criteria relates to a characteristic of the communication network. The use of criteria relating to one or more characteristics of the network makes it possible to define levels of quality of service in adequacy with the network used to receive the web pages.

According to a particular characteristic of the supervision method, a criterion of said set of criteria relates to a characteristic of said terminal. The use of criteria relating to one or more characteristics of the terminal makes it possible to define levels of quality of service in adequacy with the terminal used to receive the Web pages. The invention also relates to a terminal characterized in that it comprises a device for supervising the reception of at least one web page, said supervision device comprising: a module for determining at least one representative value of a time of reception of at least one element of a web page; a verification module for determining whether at least one set of at least one predefined supervision criterion is verified, at least one criterion of said at least one set relating to the at least one determined value; a module for sending or not sending an alert message according to the result of the verification. The invention finally relates to a computer program product comprising instructions for implementing the steps of the supervision method as described above, when it is loaded and executed by a processor. Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear in the following description of embodiments given as non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating a system according to a first embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the various steps of a supervision method according to a first embodiment; FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the various steps of a supervision method according to a second embodiment, - figure 4a is a diagram representing a first web page, - figure 4b is a diagram showing a second web page.

The invention is implemented by means of software and / or hardware components. In this context, the term "module" may correspond in this document to a software component, to a hardware component or to a set of hardware and / or software components, capable of implementing a function or set of functions, as described below for the module concerned.

A software component corresponds to one or more computer programs, one or more subroutines of a program, or more generally to any element of a program or software. Such software component is stored in memory then loaded and executed by a data processor of a physical entity (terminal, server, gateway, set-topbox, router, etc.) and is likely to access the hardware resources of this physical entity (memories, recording media, communication bus, input / output electronic boards, user interfaces, etc.).

In the same way, a material component corresponds to any element of a material set (or hardware). It may be a programmable hardware component or with an integrated processor for running software, for example an integrated circuit, a smart card, an electronic card for executing a firmware, etc.

A first embodiment of a supervision method will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. With reference to FIG. 1, a SYS system comprises a terminal T, an S server and an SP server capable of communicating with each other. via a communication network R. The server S is able to host web pages and to transmit a page in response to a received request. The terminal T is able to communicate with the server S, respectively the server SP, via the communication network R. The terminal T is for example a computer of the PC type. Typically, the terminal T is a computer, a communication terminal such as a mobile phone or more generally any multimedia equipment. The terminal T comprises a processing unit UT provided with a microprocessor, connected to a memory MEM. The processing unit UT is driven by a computer program PG. The computer program PG includes program instructions adapted to implement in particular a supervision method according to an embodiment of the invention described later with reference to FIG. 2. The processing unit UT is able to receive via a module ME input, instructions of an INT user interface, for example a touch interface, a computer mouse or any other means of selection by the user. The terminal T also comprises a NAV navigation module, a COM communication module and an ECR display screen. The navigation module NAV is able to transmit a request to download a web page to a remote server, for example the server S, via the communication module COM and the communication network R, and to receive a response. said request RQ.

The download request contains an address of a web page, for example a URL. The URL makes it possible to identify, on the one hand, the server S hosting the requested web page and, on the other hand, the web page. The URL is for example entered by a user, using the INT user interface. The response to the request contains a plurality of elements that constitute a web page. Such an element is for example an image, a script, a text zone.

More precisely, in a known manner, the request for a web page includes several download requests and the elements of the requested web page are received in several replies. However, in order not to burden the presentation, it is considered here that the request includes all the requests transmitted and that the answer is the set of responses received. The NAV navigation module includes an AFF display module able to display the web page received on the ECR screen. The NAV navigation module also includes an SPV supervision module. The SPV supervision module comprises a DET determination module, a verification module, a DCS decision module and an ALT alert sending module.

One embodiment of a supervision method implemented by the SPV supervision module of the terminal T is now described with reference to FIG. 2. During a prior step EO, an ENS set of criteria is defined, for example by an operator, and stored in a memory accessible by the server S. The set ENS contains at least one supervision criterion. The set ENS contains for example a single criterion of supervision CRI. The criterion CRI is for example "the download time of the element ET2 must be lower than the predefined value T1". The value T1 is a predefined value and represents a first threshold value. As an alternative, several sets of criteria are defined.

Each set of criteria defined is stored in a memory accessible by the server S, for example in association with a web page identifier, for example a URL address of a web page P. During a step E2, the navigation module NAV transmits a request RQ containing the address of the web page P and receives a response RP to the request RQ. The response RP comprises a plurality of elements, for example ET1, ET2 and ET3. The response RP also includes the ENS set of criteria recorded for the page P. During a step E4, the determination module DET of the supervision module SPV determines a value V1 representative of the loading time of the element ET2 by the NAV navigation module of the terminal T.

The value V1 representative of the download time of the element ET2 is for example determined by a module called "Resource Timing" defined in the HTML5 specifications -7- being developed by the standardization body W3C (for "World Wide Web Consortium ") and available at" http://www.w3.org/TR/resource-timing/ ". As an alternative, the value V1 is determined by a module called "User timing" available at the address "http://www.w3.org/TR/user-timing/", by a module called "Navigation Time". "Available at" http://www.w3.org/TR/navigation-timing/ "or by a module called" Performance Timeline "available at" http://www.w3.org/TR " / performance-timeline / ". During a verification step E6, the verification module VRF of the supervision module SPV determines whether the set of supervision criteria ENS is checked, that is to say if the criterion CRI of the set ENS is checked. . The criterion CRI is checked if the determined value V1 is lower than the threshold Ti. The criterion CRI is not checked if the determined value V1 is greater than or equal to the threshold T1. The verification consists in this embodiment of comparing the determined value V1 with the first threshold value T1.

Step E6 is followed by a step E8 in which the decision module DCS of the supervision module SPV commands the sending or non-sending of an alert message. In the case where the set ENS is not checked, the decision module DCS commands the sending of an alert message and during a step E10, the alert module ALT of the supervision module SPV sends to the SA server, a warning message MSG indicating that the set of criteria ENS is not verified. The MSG message contains, for example, an identifier of the entity ET2 and the determined value V1. In the case where the set ENS is checked, the decision module DSC commands the non-sending of an alert message. No message is then transmitted to the SA server. In the embodiment described, the server S and the server SP are two different equipments. As an alternative, the alert messages are sent to the server S having transmitted the page for which an alert message is transmitted. In the embodiment described, the set of criteria contains criteria to be respected and an alert message is sent if a set of criteria is not verified. In a first variant, the set of criteria contains supervision criteria that are alert criteria and an alert message is transmitted if the set of criteria is verified. In a second variant, a set of criteria comprises several criteria linked together by Boolean operators, for example "AND" or "OR". In the embodiment described, the set of criteria associated with a page are received each time the page is loaded.

As an alternative, sets of criteria are received only when the terminal first downloads the page. A second embodiment of a supervision method is now described with reference to FIG. 3. The supervision method is implemented by a terminal T, for example a PC-type computer, comprising a navigation module. NAV and able to communicate with a remote server, for example an S server, via an R communication network. The communication network is for example an ADSL type network (for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line"). Alternatively, the communication network is a wireless network, for example type WIFI (registered trademark). In this embodiment, a web site SW contains an EP set of web pages P1, P2... In a previous step E20, five sets EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4 and EC5 of supervision criteria are defined, for example by example by an operator, and stored in a memory accessible by a server S. The set EC1 contains a criterion CR1. Criterion CR1 is for example "the download time of a page must be less than the value T2". The value T2 is a predefined value and represents a first threshold value. The set EC2 contains a criterion CR2. The criterion CR2 is for example "the download time of the element ET3 of the page P1 must be lower than the value T3 if the communication network R is the ADSL network". The value T3 is a predefined value and represents a first threshold value. The set EC3 contains a criterion CR3. The criterion CR3 is for example "the download time of the element ET3 of the page P1 must be lower than the value T4 if the communication network R is the WIFI network". The value T4 is a predefined value and represents a first threshold value. The EC4 set contains two CR4 and CR5 criteria. The criterion CR4 is for example "the download time of the EV4 element of the page P2 must be less than the value T5". Criterion CR5 is for example "the download time of the image elements of page P2 must be less than the value T6". The values T5 and T6 are predefined values and represent first threshold values. The set EC5 contains a criterion CR6. The CR6 criterion is for example "the average of the download times of the EV1 element of the page P2, calculated on the last 3 downloads, must be lower than the value T7". The value T7 is a predefined value and represents a second threshold value. During a step E22, the navigation module NAV transmits a first request RQ1 containing the address of the web page P1 and receives a response RP1 to the request RQ1. The response RP comprises a plurality of elements, for example elements ET1, ET2, ET3, ET8. The plurality of received elements constitutes the web page Pl.

FIG. 4a represents the web page P1 received in response to the request RQ1. The response RP1 also includes an SPV supervision module and the sets of criteria EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, EC5. The SPV supervision module is a software module. It includes code instructions for implementing the steps of a supervision method. The SPV supervision module is for example in the form of a script. The request RQ1 is here the first access request to the website SW transmitted by the terminal T. It comprises, for example, a predefined data indicating to the server S that it must transmit the supervision module SPV and sets of criteria associated with the site. Web SW. As an alternative, the request RQ1 includes a value indicating the number of accesses made by the terminal T for said page. In this case, the server S determines, depending on the value received, whether or not to transmit the supervision module SPV and sets of criteria associated with the website SW As an alternative, at each access made, the server S increments and saves an access counter to the site SW containing the number of accesses to the website SW made by the terminal T and sends the supervision module SPV and the sets of criteria if the request is a first access to the site Web SW for the terminal T. During a step E24, the navigation module NAV commands the execution of the supervision module SPV. During a step E26, the supervision module SPV determines a value V2 representative of the download time of the page P1 by the navigation module NAV of the terminal T. It also determines a value V3 representative of the download time of the element ET3 by the NAV navigation module of the terminal T. The values V2 and V3 are for example determined by a Resource Timing module described in the HTML5 specifications defined by the standardization organization W3C.

During a verification step E28, the supervision module SPV determines whether the criteria of the sets EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4 and EC5 are checked. The set EC1 is checked if the value V2 determined is less than the preset value T2. As the network used is the ADSL network, the set EC2 is checked if the value V3 is lower than the predefined value T3.

The type of network is for example identified by the terminal T thanks to the HTML5 API "Network Information" available at "http://www.w3.org/TR/netinfo-api/". The network used being the ADSL network, the WIFI network is not used and the set of criteria EC3 does not apply. EC4 and EC5 sets pertaining to page P2 do not apply. Criteria sets that do not apply to the P1 Web page considered are considered respected. Step E28 is followed by a step E30 during which the SPV supervision module commands the sending or non-sending of an alert message. In the case where one of the sets of criteria EC1 or EC2 is not verified, the supervision module SPV commands the sending of an alert message MG to the server S. The warning message MG indicates the set of criteria not respected. The message MG contains for example an identifier of the set of unchecked criteria, an identifier of a non-respected criterion, the value or values determined in step E26 for the unverified criterion. In the case where the sets of criteria EC1 and EC2 are verified, the supervision module SPV controls the non-sending of an alert message. No alert message is then transmitted to the server S. During a step E42, following for example the display of the page P1 and a user action for a displayed element of the page P1, by For example the element ET1, the navigation module NAV transmits a second request RQ2 containing the address of the web page P2 and receives a response RP2 to the request RQ2. The response RP2 comprises a plurality of elements, for example the elements EV1, EV2, EV3 and EV4. FIG. 4b represents a second page P2 obtained after selection of the element ET1 of the web page P1. During a step E44, the supervision module SPV determines a value V4 representative of the loading time of the page P2 by the module navigation NAV terminal T.

It also determines a value V5 representative of the loading time of the element EV4 by the NAV navigation module of the terminal T, a value V6 representative of the loading time of the image elements of the page P2 and a value V7 representative of the time loading of the EV1 element. The values V4, V5, V6 and V7 are, for example, determined by a Resource Timing module defined in the HTML5 specifications. The determined values are stored in a memory accessible by the terminal T, for example a memory of the terminal T. This recording is for example carried out using an HTML5 WebStorage API defined by the standardization organization W3C and available at the address "Http://www.w3.org/TR/Webstorage/". The HTML5 WebStorage API is used to record the data relating to the SW website and the T terminal. This allows subsequent access to this data, that is to say a subsequent access to the criteria and values determined for the Web site. website considered. It avoids conflicts between data from different websites. During a verification step E46, the supervision module SPV determines whether the criteria of the sets EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4 and EC5 are checked. The set EC1 is checked if the value V4 determined is less than the preset value T2. Sets EC2 and EC3 relating to page P1 do not apply. The EC4 set is checked if the CR4 and CR5 criteria are checked. The criterion CR4 is checked if the determined value V5, representative of the download time of the EV4 element of the page P2 is less than the predefined value T5. The criterion CR5 is checked if the value V6 representative of the download time of the image-like elements of the page P2 is less than the predefined value T6. The set EC5 does not apply because the access to the page P2 is here a first access to the page P2 for the terminal T. The determined value V7 stored in memory, can be used during subsequent access to the page P2. Step E46 is followed by a step E48 in which the SPV supervision module commands the sending or non-sending of an alert message. In the case where one of the sets EC1 or EC4 is not verified, the supervision module SPV commands the sending to the server S, of an alert message MG containing information relating to the set of non-criteria. checked. In the case where the sets EC1 and EC4 are checked, the supervision module SPV commands the non-sending of an alert message. No alert message is then sent to the server S. Subsequently, for example after consulting other pages of the set of pages EP or when a new connection to the Web site SW, the NAV navigation module of the terminal T sends a new request RQ3 for page P2 and receives a response RP3 to request RQ3 (step E50). The request RQ3 is a second request for the P2 page. The response RP3 contains the entities EV1 to EV4 constituting the P2 page. Steps E44 to E48 are then repeated.

Subsequently, for example after consulting other pages of the set of pages EP or during a new connection to the server S, the navigation module NAV of the terminal T sends a new request RQ4 for the page P2 and receives an answer RP4 to the request RQ4 (step E52). The request RQ4 is a third request for the page P2. The response RP4 contains the entities EV1 to EV4 constituting the P2 page.

Steps E44 to E48 are then repeated. During these steps, the transmitted request RQ4 being a third request, during the step E46, the terminal T also determines whether the set of criteria EC5 is checked, that is to say if the criterion -12- CR6 is checked. The verification here comprises the calculation of an average of the last three values V7 determined respectively following the reception of the response RP2, the response RP3 and the response RP4 during the various steps E44, then a comparison of the average calculated with the preset value T7. The set of criteria EC5 is checked if the calculated average is lower than the predefined value T7. An alert message is sent if the EC5 set is not verified. In the embodiment, the sets of criteria defined for the set of pages EP of the website SW are transmitted during a first access of the terminal T to the website SW, that is to say during a first access by the NAV browser of the terminal T to a page of all EP pages constituting the SW website.

As an alternative, the sets of criteria are transmitted at each access to the website. Also as an alternative, only the sets of criteria relating to a page considered are transmitted during a first access to this page. The sets of criteria given in the embodiments described are given by way of example.

Other criteria can be used to define the sets of criteria. A first example is, for example, "the download time of the images must be less than N milliseconds on a predefined network type TR and a predefined TE type terminal". The type TR of the network is for example ADSL, WIFI, 3G ...

The TR type of the network is an example of a network characteristic. The TE type of the terminal is for example obtained by using the `useragent 'property accessible, in a known manner, from the NAV browser of the terminal T. The TE type of the terminal is for example" IPhone OS 4.3.2 "or" Android 4.0 .2 ". The type TE of the terminal is an example of a characteristic of the terminal.

A second example is for example "cumulative time redirections, DNS type requests (for" Domain Name System "in English) and connections type HTTP (for" HyperText Transfer Protocol "in English) must be less than N milliseconds ".30

Claims (10)

REVENDICATIONS1. A method of supervising the reception of at least one Web page (P, P1, P2) by a terminal (T), characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - determination (E4, E26, E44) of at least one value (V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6, V7) representative of a reception time of at least one element (ET1, ET2, EV1) of a web page; checking (E6, E28, E44) to determine if at least one set of at least one predefined supervision criterion (ENs, EC1) is verified, at least one criterion of said at least one set being relative to the at least one value determined; - sending (E10, E30, E48) or not sending (E8, E30, E48) an alert message (MSG, MG) according to the result of the verification. 2. Method of the supervision method according to claim 1 wherein a set of criteria comprises several criteria linked together by Boolean operators. The method of supervision according to claim 1 wherein said at least one set of criteria is received in a response to a request to download a page of a set of pages, said request being the first request sent by said terminal to said set of pages. 4. Supervision method according to claim 1 wherein said at least one set of criteria is received in a response to a request to download a page, said request being the first request issued by said terminal for said page. 25 5. Supervision method according to claim 1 wherein the step of verifying a criterion comprises a step of comparing said determined value with a first predefined threshold value. The supervisory method according to claim 1, wherein the detection and determination steps are repeated at least once for said page and wherein the step of verifying a criterion comprises a step of comparing an average of the determined values with a second predefined threshold value. 7. The supervisory method according to claim 1, wherein said Web page is received via a communication network (R), a criterion of said set of criteria relates to a characteristic of said communication network. 20-14- 8. Supervision method according to claim 1 wherein a criterion of said set of criteria relates to a characteristic of said terminal. 9. Terminal (T) characterized in that it comprises a supervisory device (SPV) for the reception of at least one web page (P, P1, P2), characterized in that it comprises: a module of determining (DET) at least one value representative of a reception time of at least one element of a web page - a verification module (VRF) for determining whether at least one set of at least one supervision criterion predefined is checked, at least one criterion of the at least one set being relative to the at least one determined value - a sending module (ALT) or non-sending (DCS) of an alert message (MSG, MG) in function of the result of the verification. A computer program product comprising instructions for carrying out the steps of the supervision method according to claim 1 when it is loaded and executed by a processor.