Web Transaction Analysis via Network Activity Correlation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Evaluating web page performance is challenging due to the 'stateless' nature of HTTP and HTTPS protocols, making it difficult for service providers to monitor and diagnose issues related to web page access and interactions, as network communications do not reflect the overall downloading sequence of web page elements.
Innovation Solution
A processing method and system that correlates individual network activities with web page interactions using heuristics and rules to filter relevant activities, organizing them into a time-flow for performance analysis and diagnostics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If network communications are monitored to evaluate web page performance, then performance data can be collected, but the stateless nature of HTTP/HTTPS protocols makes it difficult to correlate individual network activities with overall web page transactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary analysis system that acts as a mediator between network communications and performance evaluation. This system correlates individual network activities with web page transactions by maintaining state information that bridges the gap created by the stateless HTTP/HTTPS protocols, enabling comprehensive performance monitoring without requiring changes to the underlying communication protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the web page transaction into individual network activities that can be separately monitored and then correlated. By breaking down the overall transaction into discrete network events (HTTP requests, responses, downloads), the system can track each component independently while maintaining the ability to reconstruct the complete transaction flow through the intermediary analysis layer.
2Productivity
If the browser downloads web page elements independently without reflecting the overall sequence, then individual element downloads can be processed efficiently, but service providers are unable to perform effective analysis and diagnostics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the analysis system monitors network communications and provides performance feedback about web page transactions. By capturing and analyzing the sequence and timing of individual element downloads, the system generates performance metrics that feed back to service providers, enabling them to diagnose issues and optimize web page delivery while maintaining efficient independent downloading.
Data Source
AI summary
Individual network activities are correlated to interactions with a target web page to facilitate an analysis of the performance of the web page. This correlation is preferably performed using a combination of heuristics and rules developed to filter network activities into those activities that are likely to have been caused by the particular transaction, and those that are unlikely to be associated with that transaction. The activities that are identified as being associated with the transaction are subsequently organized to identify a time-flow of these activities within the transaction, from which performance statistics can be determined and presented to a user. Because the individual activities within the transaction are identified and time-ordered, an analysis of the effects of each activity on the overall performance of the web page can be performed to identify potential problem areas, or to diagnose reported problems.