(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,584,501 Bi
Cartsonis et al. (45) Date of Patent: Jun. 24,2003
(54) METHOD TO DISPLAY INFORMATION
REPRESENTING NETWORK TRAFFIC ON A
COMPUTER DISPLAY MONITOR
(75) Inventors: Michael Cartsonis, Litchfield Park, AZ
(US); John Graham-Cumming, Menlo
Park, CA (US); Willem A. Koulman,
San Francisco, CA (US); Steven J.
Schaffer, Foster City, CA (US); Jacob
Weil, Palo Alto, CA (US)
(73) Assignee: Compuware Corporation, Farmington Hills, MI (US)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/244,274
(22) Filed: Feb. 3, 1999
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 15/173
(52) U.S. CI 709/224; 709/223; 370/233;
370/234
(58) Field of Search 709/223, 224;
370/233, 234, 241-245, 250-254
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,740,355 A * 4/1998 Watanabe et al 714/45
5,787,253 A * 7/1998 McCreery et al 9/202
5,802,302 A * 9/1998 Waclawsky et al 709/224
5,862,335 A * 1/1999 Welch, Jr. et al 395/200.54
5,946,302 A * 8/1999 Waclawsky et al 370/252
6,182,146 Bl * 1/2001 Graham-Cumming, Jr. . 709/238
6,219,050 Bl * 4/2001 Schaffer 345/340
6,233,256 Bl * 5/2001 Dieterich et al 370/506
6,240,452 Bl * 5/2001 Welch, Jr 709/224
* cited by examiner
Primary Examiner—Saleh Najjar
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
(57) ABSTRACT
A user interface and computer-implemented method for analyzing and displaying network traffic performance assessment data in a computer network. Packet trace data is organized into application-level threads for display in a visual thread diagram. The user can manipulate the visual thread diagram to configure it in a number of ways in a dynamic manner.
27 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets
