Apparatus and methods for determining availability and performance of entities providing services in a distributed system using filtered service consumer feedback

Abstract

The invention concerns apparatus and methods that determine availability and performance of entities providing services in a distributed system using filtered service-consumer feedback. In particular, apparatus and methods of the invention filter service-consumer feedback in order to reduce the effect of circumstances unique to individual service consumers or to groups of service consumers that do not accurately reflect the actual availability or performance of service-providing entities. In this way an accurate appraisal is gained regarding the performance and availability of a service-providing entity. Reactive methods of the invention can be combined with proactive methods such as, for example, active status probing, to further improve the accuracy of data concerning the status and availability of service-providing entities.

1 . A signal-bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus of a computer to perform operations for determining status of entities providing services in a distributed system, the operations comprising:
 collecting feedback from service consumers concerning the entities providing services in the distributed system;   analyzing the feedback collected from the service consumers; and   determining the status of entities providing service in the distributed system in dependence on the analysis of the collected feedback.   
     
     
         2 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the operations further comprise:
 maintaining a credit account for each entity providing service in the distributed system;   adding to an entity's credit account when positive feedback is received from service consumers consuming services provided by the entity; and   subtracting from an entity's credit account when negative feedback is received from service consumers consuming services provided by the entity.   
     
     
         3 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 2  wherein the operations further comprise:
 when an entity's credit account falls below a predetermined threshold, removing the entity from a list of entities authorized to provide services in the distributed system.   
     
     
         4 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 2  wherein the operations further comprise:
 when an entity's credit account falls below a predetermined threshold, sending a probe to actively determine status of the entity.   
     
     
         5 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 4  wherein the operations further comprise:
 when it is determined that the status of the entity has risen above the predetermined threshold, returning the entity to the list of entities permitted to provide services in the distributed system.   
     
     
         6 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the operations further comprise:
 formulating a diagnostic model using collected feedback information concerning past performance of entities providing service in the distributed system; and   wherein determining the status of entities providing service in the distributed system further comprises:
 using the diagnostic model and the analysis of the collected feedback to determine the status of entities providing service in the distributed system. 
   
     
     
         7 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 6  wherein the operations further comprise:
 using an active probe to gather actual performance information concerning actual performance of an entity providing service in the distributed system; and   adjusting the diagnostic model in view of the actual performance information.   
     
     
         8 . The signal-bearing medium of  claim 1  wherein the distributed system comprises a grid computing system. 
     
     
         9 . Apparatus for managing activities of entities providing services in a distributed system, the apparatus comprising:
 a communications interface for connecting to the distributed system, the communications interface for communicating with service consumers;   at least one computer memory, the computer memory storing:
 feedback information collected from service consumers, the feedback information concerning performance of entities providing services in the distributed system; 
 credit information concerning current credit status of entities providing services in the distributed system; 
 a provider list of entities permitted to provide services in the distributed system; and 
 at least one computer program to perform operations for determining status of entities providing services in the distributed system based, at least in part, on analyzing the feedback information collected from service consumers; and 
   a digital processing apparatus coupled to the communications interface and the at least one memory, the digital processing apparatus for executing the at least one computer program.   
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 9  wherein when the at least one computer program is executed by the digital processing apparatus the following operations are performed:
 accessing the at least one computer memory to retrieve the feedback information, wherein the feedback information further comprises past performance of entities providing service in the distributed system; and   formulating a diagnostic model using the feedback information.   
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein the diagnostic model comprises at least a classification model, wherein the classification model is used to classify the status of an entity providing service in the distributed system in dependence on feedback received from service consumers. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11  wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving in real time feedback information concerning status of an entity providing service in the distributed system;   analyzing the real-time feedback information; and   using the classification model and the analyzed real-time feedback information to determine a current status of the entity providing service in the distributed system.   
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 12  wherein the feedback is negative, and wherein the entity has a credit account contained in the credit information stored in the at least one memory, the operations further comprising:
 debiting the credit account associated with the entity providing service in the distributed system.   
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13  wherein the operations further comprise:
 after debiting the credit account associated with the entity providing service in the distributed system, comparing a current value of the credit account with a threshold value; and   if it is determined that the current value of the credit account is less than the threshold value, removing the entity associated with the credit account from the provider list stored in the at least one memory.   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14  further comprising:
 an active probe system for actively probing status of entities providing service in the distributed system.   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15  wherein the operations further comprise:
 after debiting the credit account associated with the entity providing service in the distributed system, comparing a current value of the credit account with a threshold value;   if it is determined that the current value of the credit account is less than the threshold value, issuing an active probe of the entity associated with the credit account, the active probe determining an actual status of the entity; and   adjusting the current value.   
     
     
         17 . A method for determining status of entities providing services in a distributed system, the method comprising:
 collecting feedback from service consumers concerning the entities providing service in the distributed system;   analyzing the feedback collected from the service consumers; and   determining the status of entities providing service in the distributed system in dependence on the analysis of the collected feedback.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the status concerns at least the availability of an entity providing service in the distributed system. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the status concerns at least the performance of an entity providing service in the distributed system. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the feedback information comprises numeric metric information quantizing aspects of an entity's performance.