Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
  • G06F3/01—Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer
  • G06F3/048—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
  • G06F3/0484—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
  • G06F3/04847—Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
  • G06F3/01—Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer
  • G06F3/048—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
  • G06F3/0481—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
  • G06F3/04817—Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance using icons
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06T—IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
  • G06T11/00—2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
  • G06T11/20—Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles
  • G06T11/206—Drawing of charts or graphs
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/04—Network management architectures or arrangements
  • H04L41/046—Network management architectures or arrangements comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/22—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
  • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
  • H04L43/0805—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability
  • H04L43/0817—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability by checking functioning

Definitions

• the present system is in the field of systems and articles of manufacture to administer and analyze complex, heterogeneous networked computer systems and other systems that can be monitored by computer technology. More specifically, the present system is directed to systems and articles for enabling user selection and presentation of a property of an object in a three dimensional graphic display.
• the visualization of the contents, configuration, and state of the managed system is usually based on some form of display, ranging from a list of items, to icons arrayed in some meaningful way, to 2-D diagrams, to 3- D views.
• the type of each object may be indicated with an icon of some sort, while the identity and/or state of the object is often rendered in text form.
• 3-D visualization to render objects conveys a more realistic view of managed objects and their configuration.
• system management applications typically only show 3-D images of the basic description of the objects, such as their type and inter-connectivity.
• Another problem is that common system management applications only show fixed properties of the managed objects.
• an indicator of its essential health ranging from NORMAL to CRITICAL and also taking on values such as UNKNOWN, it is common to use color, where green might indicate NORMAL, red might indicate CRITICAL and gray or black indicate UNKNOWN.
• Some systems generate 3-D bar charts, usually standing on a plane in a regular grid.
• these bar charts have many problems.
• the bars appear to be standing on a totally abstract floor plane, not one that represents the real-world objects interconnected through network links.
• such general charting systems are based on collected statistics, and not on real-time monitoring measurements coming out of a management system.
• it is commonplace to provide some mechanism for "drilling down," thereby retrieving more detailed information about the object from an information store, using a conventional user interface.
• Some system management applications provide for customizing the display in two areas.
• the information displayed in conjunction with the icon in typical displays may be selected from the properties of the objects, so that the icon shows various pieces of information in the form of text, color or other ways.
• moving the mouse cursor over a symbol in the display may bring up a configurable reticule with labeling, again displaying different properties.
• This customization is often done specific to each class of object, so different information is displayed about a server and a router, for example.
• this type of configuration is typically static, requiring the user to enter some sort of configuration utility. No known system provides a real time configuration of the display.
• a first method for presenting a status of an object in a three dimensional graphic display includes the step of determining a value of a property associated with an object.
• the method further includes the step of determining a status indicator associated with the property.
• a status indicator is then generated representing the property associated with the object, and displayed relative to the associated object.
• a second method for presenting a user selected status of an object in a three dimensional graphic display is disclosed.
• the method includes the steps of receiving a request to select a property of an object for display and displaying at least one property which may be displayed for the object.
• the method further includes the step of receiving a selection of a property.
• the value of the selected property for the object is determined and a status indicator is generated based on the value of the selected property.
• the status indicator is then displayed relative to the object.
• Figure 1 illustrates a system according to a preferred embodiment of the present system
• Figure 2 illustrates a display of the representation of a networked computer system or complex business operation according to a preferred embodiment of the present system
• Figure 3 illustrates a section of the display in Figure 2 with an additional information display according to a preferred embodiment of the present system
• Figure 4 illustrates a section of the display in Figure 2 with an additional information display and user interface according to a preferred embodiment of the present system
• Figure 5 illustrates a section of the additional information display of Figure 3 according to a preferred embodiment of the present system.
• Figure 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method according to a preferred embodiment of the present system.
• the various components that comprise a preferred embodiment of the disclosed network analysis system are shown in Figure 1.
• the system includes one or more of a visualization workstation 101, an object repository 102, one or more management applications 103, and one or more agents 104 on each such management application.
• the visualization workstation 101 interacts primarily with the object repository 102. It requests information from it, it sends commands to it, and it gets notification of events such as status change or object additions from it.
• the repository 102 in turn gets this information form the various management subsystems 103, which are fed by agents 104 on the managed systems.
• An important architectural consideration of the present system is that in normal operation, the visualization workstation 101 preferably interacts with the object repository 102. This minimizes network traffic, optimizes the performance of the rendering of the workstation, and minimizes the interconnectivity between the visualization workstation 101 and the multitude of management subsystems and agents existing in practical networks.
• the management system is based on some type of store, preferably the object repository 102, that holds the description of the structure of the network. This can include the momentary state, load, and performance of the network and the systems.
• This store may or may not be persistent, it may be populated with a manual process, or with an automatic discovery utility.
• a management system outputs a display 202 of the managed objects using 3-D models 204 of real-world objects, configured in suitable positions over 3-D sections 208 of a 3-D surface, and interconnected with at least one line 206 that shows a network link, where optional links are shown as dots and dashed lines.
• the status of each object 204 is indicated with a hovering light 212, whose color indicates status from green through yellow, orange and red.
• the status of network link 206 may be indicated by coloring the link itself.
• FIG 3 a more detailed view of the display 202 in Figure 2 is shown.
• the system generates additional objects 302, such as a vertical bar, next to each representation 204 of a "real-world" object.
• the present system uses these additional objects 302 to indicate in real time quantitative or qualitative measures of the managed objects.
• an alternative preferred embodiment includes an indicator section 302 that displays other indicators in the core display 202.
• the indicator section 302 can include color, animation effects, icon choice, text, bar, line or pie charts near the managed object, and others.
• the managed objects 204 have a set of properties, some numeric, some textual, and some categorical. Current system management applications support surfacing some fixed set of properties in the core display using fixed indicators, but other properties must be brought up through an explicit request, after which they are visualized using a technique determined by the application.
• the preferred embodiment of the disclosed system provides an interface 304, preferably a property selection control panel, that permits a user to select properties the user desires to monitor in the indicator section 302 using predetermined indicators.
• the user may select a type of indicator to be used from a menu of indicators, such as for example bar graph, indicator light and pie chart.
• a user can interact with interface 304 by point-and-click operations after placing a cursor 306 over a box 308, or any similar configuration or arrangement, in the interface 304. After clicking on the box 308, the area chosen by the user is correlated to a predetermined property to be displayed X n through X n+m 310, where n and m are integers.
• X n through X n+m are textual representations of the available properties.
• the indicators 310 are the actual textual names of the properties chosen.
• all properties are visualized in a standard way after being explicitly requested, so there is no need for customization of the secondary displays.
• the property selection control panel 304 preferably acts as an indicator of what information is currently displayed.
• distinct indicators for the various types of information are used through bars 312, preferably a yellow-orange-red color range indicates status and shades of blue indicate load.
• the control panel 304 shows the current indicators, such as colors or animation effects, as well as the corresponding property, identified by name. Providing both a textual description of the properties and their corresponding visual displays in control panel 304 assists a novice user who may know the meanings of the various visual displays employed by the system.
• the additional object 302a can be a solid bar 304 that reaches up to a corresponding percentage within an empty, transparent bar.
• this resembles a conventional bar chart, with the percentage scale 306 on an x axis above the bar 304, but combined with a 3-D display 202 of real-world objects that are arranged in a way that represents the real- world configuration of these managed objects.
• indicator 302 is made translucent. This avoids making the visualization 302 unreadable due to the large number of objects 204 and their quantitative indicators 302, such as the bars 304.
• the effect is that of "colored water” reaching up to a certain level in a "glass aquarium tank.”
• the colored area that represents the actual traffic load or performance is colored fairly solidly, just translucent enough to indicate the distinction between this quantitative measure and the real- world objects, and to prevent the quantitative measures from obstructing the view of other objects.
• the empty part of the tank, representing capacity of the system that is currently not exploited, is almost entirely transparent, rendered just opaque enough to give an impression of a glass tank.
• the system uses other advanced visualization techniques, such as reflections in the "glass surfaces” and the "edges of the glass tank” to increase the perceived realism and reduce the visual clutter between the managed objects 204 and the quantitative indicators 302.
• Figure 6 a preferred method 600 is shown.
• the method starts at 602, after which a request is received to select a property of an object to be displayed at 604.
• This request is preferably initiated by a user indicating that the user wishes to customize the display, for example by double-clicking on an object or by .right-clicking on an object and making a menu selection.
• the property selection control panel is displayed.
• the control panel contains at least one property which may be selected for display.
• a selection of a property from the control panel is received at step 608.
• the value of the selected property for the object is determined at 610. This determination is preferably performed in real-time with reference to data contained in object repository 102.
• a status indicator is generated based on the determined value of the selected property at step 612, and the status indicator is displayed at step 614.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
• User Interface Of Digital Computer (AREA)
• Devices For Indicating Variable Information By Combining Individual Elements (AREA)
• Testing And Monitoring For Control Systems (AREA)

Priority Applications (7)

Applications Claiming Priority (6)

Publications (1)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (2)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 2001
  • 2001-10-17 BR BR0114781-1A patent/BR0114781A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-10-17 AU AU2002214611A patent/AU2002214611A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-10-17 CA CA002426186A patent/CA2426186A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-10-17 EP EP01983162A patent/EP1334436A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-10-17 JP JP2002536886A patent/JP2004512597A/ja not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-10-17 KR KR10-2003-7005405A patent/KR20030068546A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-10-17 WO PCT/US2001/032489 patent/WO2002033568A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2001-10-17 IL IL15550101A patent/IL155501A0/xx unknown

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Non-Patent Citations (1)

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