Monitoring levels of utilization of device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10169182-B2
Application number	US-201414447997-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2014
Priority date	Jul 31, 2014
Publication date	Jan 1, 2019
Grant date	Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

Monitoring a level of utilization is provided. A threshold is determined based, at least in part, on a count of service channels of a device. An upper boundary value of a numerical range is determined based, at least in part, on the count of service channels. A lower boundary value of the numerical range is determined based, at least in part, on the threshold. Whether a count of outstanding requests of the device is contained within the numerical range is determined. An estimated level of utilization of the device is determined based, at least in part, on the upper boundary value, the lower boundary value, the count of service channels, and the count of outstanding requests. The estimated level of utilization is reported.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a level of utilization, the method comprising:
determining, by one or more embedded processors of a device, a threshold based, at least in part, on a count of service channels of the device;
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, an upper boundary value of a numerical range based, at least in part, on the count of service channels;
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, a lower boundary value of the numerical range based, at least in part, on the threshold;
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, whether a count of outstanding requests of the device is contained within the numerical range;
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, an estimated level of utilization of the device based, at least in part, on the upper boundary value, the lower boundary value, the count of service channels, and the count of outstanding requests; and
reporting, by one or more embedded processors of the device, the estimated level of utilization.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the threshold is further based on a harmonic number of a value based on the count of service channels.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the threshold further comprises:
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, a harmonic value of a level of concurrency of the device, including:
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, a harmonic value of an integer that is greater, by less than one, than the level of concurrency;
subtracting, by one or more embedded processors of the device, from the harmonic value of the integer an amount based on a difference between the level of concurrency and the integer; and
adjusting, by one or more embedded processors of the device, the harmonic value of the level of concurrency based, at least in part, on a reciprocal of the level of concurrency.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprises:
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, that the count of outstanding requests of the device is not contained within the numerical range; and
repeatedly updating, by one or more embedded processors of the device, each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value such that the numerical range shifts toward the count of outstanding requests until the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprises:
determining, by one or more embedded processors of the device, that the count of outstanding requests of the device is not contained within the numerical range; and
repeatedly updating, by one or more embedded processors of the device, each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value such that the numerical range shifts toward the count of outstanding requests for a pre-determined number of repetitions.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprises:
determining that the count of outstanding requests is inclusively between the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value; and
repeatedly updating, by one or more embedded processors of the device, each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value for a pre-determined number of repetitions, by:
partitioning, by one or more embedded processors of the device, the numerical range into a plurality of portions; and
updating the upper boundary value and the lower boundary value based on a portion of the numerical range that contains the count of outstanding requests.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device is a network adaptor.

8. A computer program product for monitoring a level of utilization, the computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium and program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to determine a threshold based, at least in part, on a count of service channels of a device;
program instructions to determine an upper boundary value of a numerical range based, at least in part, on the count of service channels;
program instructions to determine a lower boundary value of the numerical range based, at least in part, on the threshold;
program instructions to determine whether a count of outstanding requests of the device is contained within the numerical range;
program instructions to determine, by an embedded processor of the device, an estimated level of utilization of the device based, at least in part, on the upper boundary value, the lower boundary value, the count of service channels, and the count of outstanding requests; and
program instructions to report the estimated level of utilization.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to determine the threshold is further based on a harmonic number of a value based on the count of service channels.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions to determine the threshold further comprise:
program instructions to determine a harmonic value of a level of concurrency of the device, including:
program instructions to determine a harmonic value of an integer that is greater, by less than one, than the level of concurrency;
program instructions to subtract from the harmonic value of the integer an amount based on a difference between the level of concurrency and the integer; and
program instructions to adjust the harmonic value of the level of concurrency based, at least in part, on a reciprocal of the level of concurrency.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to determine whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprise:
program instructions to determine that the count of outstanding requests of the device is not contained within the numerical range; and
program instructions to repeatedly update each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value such that the numerical range shifts toward the count of outstanding requests until the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to determine whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprise:
program instructions to determine that the count of outstanding requests of the device is not contained within the numerical range; and
program instructions to repeatedly update each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value such that the numerical range shifts toward the count of outstanding requests for a pre-determined number of repetitions.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein determining whether the count of outstanding requests is contained within the numerical range comprises:
program instructions to determine that the count of outstanding requests is inclusively between the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value; and
program instructions to repeatedly update each of the lower boundary value and the upper boundary value for a pre-determined number of repetitions, including:
program instructions to partition the numerical range into a plurality of portions; and
program instructions to update the upper boundary value and the lower boundary val

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Mcnutt Bruce
• Ripberger Richard A

Classifications

• G06F11/3433

  for load management (allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029) · CPC title

• G06F9/50

  Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title

• G06F11/3419

  by assessing time · CPC title

• G06F11/3006 Primary

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title

• G06F11/3442 Primary

  for planning or managing the needed capacity · CPC title