Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items and to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a direct contact racquet or “DCR.” In order to enhance the feel experienced by the player, the DCR is designed to maximize the contact between the player's hand and the ball, while still making use of a string-bed or other form of contact to provide a strike surface for the ball. In one embodiment, the strike surface is positioned on one side of the player's hand, such as the palm side or the back of the hand. In particular, a gripping surface for a player's hand is provided behind the string bed. The gripping surface may be shaped in various ways so that a player can comfortably grip it. In addition, the gripping surface may provide a clearance from the string bed when striking a ball. Therefore, the DCR places a user's hand directly behind the string bed surface used to strike the ball. In another embodiment, the player's hand is placed between two strike surfaces to allow striking of a ball using either side of the player's hand.

Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items and to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: In a network that includes static bandwidth and dynamic bandwidth links, traffic flow at the OSI network layer is simulated at a traffic-flow level at interfaces to fixed bandwidth links, and simulated at a discrete-packet level at interfaces to dynamic bandwidth links. The resultant discrete-packet reception events at the receiving interface(s) of the dynamic bandwidth link are processed to determine the effective bandwidth/throughput of the link, as well as the allocation of this bandwidth among the individual flows through the link. The discrete-packet level receptions are used to reconstruct the parameters of the traffic flow at the network layer of the receiving interface, and this determined traffic flow is simulated accordingly at the next link, depending upon whether the next link is a static or dynamic bandwidth link.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a direct contact racquet or “DCR.” In order to enhance the feel experienced by the player, the DCR is designed to maximize the contact between the player's hand and the ball, while still making use of a string-bed or other form of contact to provide a strike surface for the ball. In one embodiment, the strike surface is positioned on one side of the player's hand, such as the palm side or the back of the hand. In particular, a gripping surface for a player's hand is provided behind the string bed. The gripping surface may be shaped in various ways so that a player can comfortably grip it. In addition, the gripping surface may provide a clearance from the string bed when striking a ball. Therefore, the DCR places a user's hand directly behind the string bed surface used to strike the ball. In another embodiment, the player's hand is placed between two strike surfaces to allow striking of a ball using either side of the player's hand.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a direct contact racquet or “DCR.” In order to enhance the feel experienced by the player, the DCR is designed to maximize the contact between the player's hand and the ball, while still making use of a string-bed or other form of contact to provide a strike surface for the ball. In particular, a gripping surface for a player's hand is provided behind the string bed. The gripping surface may be shaped in various ways so that a player can comfortably grip it. In addition, the gripping surface may provide a clearance from the string bed when striking a ball. Therefore, the DCR places a user's hand directly behind the string bed surface used to strike the ball.

Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: A security policy database identifies the intended security policies within a network, a traffic generator provides test traffic that is configured to test each defined security policy, and a simulator simulates the propagation of this traffic on a model of the network. The model of the network includes the configuration data associated with each device, and thus, if devices are properly configured to enforce the intended security policies, the success/failure of the simulated test traffic will conform to the intended permit/deny policy of each connection. Differences between the simulated message propagation and the intended security policies are reported to the user, and diagnostic tools are provided to facilitate identification of the device configuration data that accounts for the observed difference. Additionally, if a network's current security policy is unknown, test traffic is generated to reveal the actual policy in effect, to construct a baseline intended security policy.

Abstract: Traffic flow between each pair of nodes in a network may be modeled based on loads measured at each link and based on gravity measures associated with each node. Gravity measures correspond to a relative likelihood of the node being a source or a sink of traffic. Gravity objectives are assigned to nodes to serve as an objective for a node's performance. These gravity objectives may be based on qualitative characteristics associated with each node. Because the assigned gravity objectives may be subjective, the gravity measures are used to generate a quantitative function for determining whether a network can achieve these gravity objectives. In one embodiment, link loads are allocated to traffic flows between nodes and current gravity measures are determined. Changes to link loads and traffic flows may then be modeled to minimize a difference between the assigned gravity measures and the gravity measures.

Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items and publisher declarations about the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.

Abstract: A first capture system that captures network communication events related to an application, and a second capture system that captures internal processing events related to the application. A visualization system analyzes the data captured by each of the capture systems, synchronizes and correlates the data, and presents an integrated display of these communication and processing events. In a preferred embodiment, the communicated messages include an identifier of the application, and the processing components also associate an identifier of the application to each recorded processing event. To facilitate the integrated display of the events, the visualization system synchronizes the recorded communication and processing events to a common time base.

Abstract: The embodiments facilitate the analysis of application delays, including delays that occur on multiple paths. A trace file of an application's network events is processed to categorize the causes of delays incurred in the propagation and processing of these events. The system identifies the amount of delay that can be eliminated by eliminating each of the components of delay individually, as well as the amount of delay that can be eliminated by eliminating combinations of the delay components. A user interface displays the amount of reduction that can be achieved by eliminating various delays alone or in combination. The interface also allows the user to view the individual delay components contained in combinations of delay components. In this manner, the user is provided a view of each of the delay components that would need to be addressed, either individually or in combination, to improve the overall application delay.

Abstract: Traffic flow between each pair of nodes in a network may be modeled based on loads measured at each link and based on gravity measures associated with each node. Gravity measures correspond to a relative likelihood of the node being a source or a sink of traffic. Gravity objectives are assigned to nodes to serve as an objective for a node's performance. These gravity objectives may be based on qualitative characteristics associated with each node. Because the assigned gravity objectives may be subjective, the gravity measures are used to generate a quantitative function for determining whether a network can achieve these gravity objectives. In one embodiment, link loads are allocated to traffic flows between nodes and current gravity measures are determined. Changes to link loads and traffic flows may then be modeled to minimize a difference between the assigned gravity measures and the gravity measures.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and method for assessing application performance and user satisfaction. In one embodiment, the system and method calculates an Operational Index (OPdex) representing user satisfaction with an application. The OPdex may be a number quantifying user satisfaction with an application, such as a web application, and system performance. The OPdex may be based on one or more measurable metrics having a range of values that may affect user satisfaction or performance of an application. The OPdex may comprise calculating the index based on a soft threshold, a hard threshold, and measurements indicating a perceived application response time. The OPdex calculation may also account for sensitivity of user satisfaction to response time. Based on the OPdex, the system and methods also provide information indicating the relationship among application response time thresholds set by the users, the user satisfaction level, and the mean response time.

Abstract: Network survivability is quantified in such a way that failure cases can be compared and ranked against each other in terms of the severity of their impact on the various performance measures associated with the network. The degradation in network performance caused by each failure is quantified based on user-defined sets of thresholds of degradation severity for each performance measure. Each failure is simulated using a model of the network, and a degradation vector is determined for each simulated failure. A comparison function is defined to map the degradation vectors into an ordered set, and this ordered set is used to create an ordered list of network failures, in order of the network degradation caused by each failure.

Abstract: A simulator simulates routing system protocols to build routing tables corresponding to a modeled network, and a comparator compares the routing tables in the actual network to these simulator-created routing tables. Because the modeled system represents a fault-free version of the actual system, and assuming that the modeled routing system protocols are representative of the algorithms used in the actual routers, these simulator-produced routing tables can represent steady-state routing tables that should be present in the routers of the actual network at steady state. By querying each router in the actual network for its routing table and comparing each routing table to the corresponding simulator-produced routing table, any differences from the steady state can be identified.

Abstract: The embodiments relate to modeling wireless communications in a network. In wireless communications, the nodes share one or more wireless communication channels. When a node has data to transmit, it must contend with the other nodes for access to the wireless communication channel. In the embodiments, the model is configured to simulate the throughput effects of contention including delays caused by retransmissions due to interference and collisions, listen-and-backoff, unavailability of time slots, etc. The occurrence of failed/dropped transmissions due to buffer overflows, excessive retransmission attempts, and unintended collisions are modeled as well. In addition, the embodiments may simulate the effect of mobility by the nodes and the effect of the location of the nodes relative to each other.

Abstract: A first capture system that captures network communication events related to an application, and a second capture system that captures internal processing events related to the application. A visualization system analyzes the data captured by each of the capture systems, synchronizes and correlates the data, and presents an integrated display of these communication and processing events. In a preferred embodiment, the communicated messages include an identifier of the application, and the processing components also associate an identifier of the application to each recorded processing event. To facilitate the integrated display of the events, the visualization system synchronizes the recorded communication and processing events to a common time base.