U.S. Department

of Commerce

National Bureau

of Standards

Computer Science

and Technology

NBS

PUBLICATIONS

l^lir(|j|j||nL,°!,,??!*'^P * TECH

NBS Special Publication 500-83

Proceedings of the

Computer Performance

Evaluation Users Group

1 7th Meeting

"Increasing Organizational

Productivity"

100

'no. 500-83

1981

c. 2
NATIOI^AL BIJREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards' was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1901. The Bureau's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology

and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts

research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade, and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau's technical work is per- formed by the National Measurement Laboratory, the National Engineering Laboratory, and

the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology.

THE NATIONAL MEASUREMENT LABORATORY provides the national system of

physical and chemical and materials measurement; coordinates the system with measurement

systems of other nations and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform

physical and chemical measurement throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry,

and commerce; conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement,

standards, and data on the properties of materials needed by industry, commerce, educational

institutions, and Government; provides advisory and research services to other Government

agencies; develops, produces, and distributes Standard Reference Materials; and provides

calibration services. The Laboratory consists of the following centers:

Absolute Physical Quantities^ — Radiation Research — Thermodynamics and

Molecular Science — Analytical Chemistry — Materials Science. THE NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY provides technology and technical ser- vices to the public and private sectors to address national needs and to solve national problems; conducts research in engineering and applied science in support of these efforts; builds and maintains competence in the necessary disciplines required to carry out this research and technical service; develops engineering data and measurement capabilities;

provides engineering measurement traceability services; develops test methods and proposes

engineering standards and code changes; develops and proposes new engineering practices;

and develops and improves mechanisms to transfer results of its research to the ultimate user. The Laboratory consists of the following centers:

Applied Mathematics — Electronics and Electrical Engineering^ — Mechanical

Engineering and Process Technology^ — Building Technology — Fire Research —

Consumer Product Technology — Field Methods.

THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts

research and provides scientific and technical services to aid Federal agencies in the selection, acquisition, application, and use of computer technology to improve effectiveness and

economy in Government operations in accordance with Public Law 89-306 (40 U.S.C. 759), relevant Executive Orders, and other directives; carries out this mission by managing the Federal Information Processing Standards Program, developing Federal ADP standards

guidelines, and managing Federal participation in ADP voluntary standardization activities; provides scientific and technological advisory services and assistance to Federal agencies; and

provides the technical foundation for computer-related policies of the Federal Government.

The Institute consists of the following centers:

Programming Science and Technology — Computer Systems Engineering.

'Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, MD, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, DC 20234. ^Some divisions within the center are located at Boulder, CO 80303.
comre~ Computer Science

National Bureau onri Tor*hnr>lr>nw wATioifAL BUREAU

of Standards allU I tJUl II lUIUy y or sTANDAaua

UBRAirr

NBS Special Publication 500-83 V ' ^^^l

Proceedings of the

^ Computer Performance m^'^

Evaluation Users Group (CPEUG)

1 7tli Meeting

San Antonio, Texas

November 1 6-1 9, 1 981

Proceedings Editor

Terry W. Potter

Conference Host

Headquarters, Air Training Command

Department of the Air Force

Sponsored by

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, DC 20234

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary

National Bureau of Standards

Ernest Ambler, Director

Issued November 1 981
Reports on Computer Science and Technology

The National Bureau of Standards has a special responsibility within the

Federal Government for computer science and technology activities. Tne

programs of the NBS Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology are designed to provide ADP standards, guidelines, and technical advisory services to improve the effectiveness of computer utilization in the Federal sector, and to perform appropriate research and development efforts as foundation for such

activities and programs. This publication series will report these NBS efforts to the Federal computer community as well as to interested specialists in the

academic and private sectors. Those wishing to receive notices of publications in this series should complete and return the form at the end of this publication.

National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 500-83

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Spec. Publ. 500-83,320 pages (Nov. 1981)

CODEN: XNBSAV

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 81-600155

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1981

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402

Price $9.00

(Add 25 percent for other than U.S. mailing)
Foreword

The theme of CPEUG addresses the principal challenge of the 80 's INCREASING ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY —as well as the direct

challenge to information processing professionals of increasing data

processing service and quality while minimizing cost. The relevance of

this theme is reflected in the topics of recent news accounts and

magazine articles touching on the management challenge in all sectors of

our economy. Congress and the President clearly set forth the challenge

as a goal for the Federal Government in the Paperwork Reduction Act of

1980:

"automatic data processing and telecommunications technology

shall be acquired and used in a manner which improves service

delivery and program management, increases productivity,

reduces waste and fraud, and reduces the information

processing burden on the public and private sectors."

Productivity growth in both the private and public sectors is an important factor in achieving our stated national goals of: — reducing inflationary pressures, — raising living standards, — making U.S. goods competitive in world markets, and — protecting the quality of the environment.

Productivity is defined as the relationship between the quantity of

goods or services produced (output) at a given level of quality and the resources used (input). This relationship can be measured over time for

an organizational unit or for an economy as a whole by comparing a specific period with a preselected base period. Productivity

improvement, therefore, is an increase in the ratio of outputs to inputs; that is, a higher quantity and/or quality of goods or services

at the same cost, or the same quantity of goods or services at a lower

cost, without sacrificing quality.

It is obvious that productivity improvement is important. For a company, productivity means producing at a lower cost than the

competition. For a government, productivity means providing more

service for a tax dollar. For a nation, productivity means improving

the standard of living, controlling inflation, and competing effectively

in world markets. From 1945 to 1970, U.S. productivity increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent. However, from 1966 on, productivity in the

U.S. grew at a much more modest rate of 1.6 percent, and in 1978, the rate slipped below 1 percent. This trend continued in 1979, when

productivity actually declined by almost 1 percent.
The major factors which affect productivity growth are:

Human resources; constituting 70 percent of the input cost in

the U.S. economy. Business Week projects that 45 million jobs will

be affected by increasing automation before the year 2000 — that's

half of the present total.

Technological progress; better products, processes, and

systems. Promises of office automation and workflow steamlining

challenge management to improve the productivity of the 55 million

white collar workers in the U.S. (white collar worker productivity increased only 4 percent from 1968-1978, while blue collar

productivity improved 84 percent during that period).

Investment and economic growth; new tools and capital equipment and expanding or declining market for outputs. Business Week

recently projected a tripling of U.S. investment in computer-aided

design and computer-aided manufacturing equipment to about $5

billion in 1985. The greatest impediment to reaping the productivity gains from these tools was seen by many experts to be software development. The theme of CPEUG 80 ~ CPE Trends in the 80 's — reflected on the spectacular growth, progress, and changes in

computers and computer applications in the 70 's as well as future

trends of the 80 's. This year's theme suggests where the direction

of computer usage and performance improvement efforts should be

going. Increasing organizational productivity will be a focus of

both Federal and commercial management for years to come. Our contributions to both increased efficiency and effectiveness in computer utilization — from microcomputers to supercomputers to digital switches in communications — will be of much importance in the drive for increased productivity. Our sensitivity and ingenuity in increasing the productivity of the user and his results,

not just high CPU utilization levels and greater channel utilization, will be a key factor in our organizations' ability to succeed

in increasing productivity.

I hope you both enjoy and greatly benefit from this year's

conference. A truly fine team on this year's conference committee

dedicated their time, talent, and effort unstintingly to bring it

about. To all of them, their names appear elsewhere in these proceedings, my sincerest thanks for a job well done. I especially

thank Peter J. Calomeris for an excellent job of keeping us to our deadlines and the painstaking job of arranging for all of the

publications. A special thank you also goes to our hosts — the u. S. Air Force, Air Training Command.

Carl R. Palmer

CPEUG 81 Conference Chairperson

November 1981

iv
CP

Preface

The theme of CPEUG 81 directly addresses the principal

challenge of the 80 's ~ INCREASING ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY, To meet this challenge, information managers and performance specialists

must ensure that their organizations increase the quantity and quality

of automated information services while minimizing costs. The Conference

program reflects the critical role of information services in the

productivity and survival of today's organizations, as well as such

trends as increasing personnel costs, limited budgets, and the

convergence of data processing, word processing, and communications

technologies. The keynote address ( Business Automation and

Productivity — Fact, Fiction, and Prediction ) and the keynote panel

( Impact of Changing Technology on Productivity ) will clearly focus

the Conference on this challenge.

As in previous Conferences, CPEUG 81 has expanded the size and

scope of the technical program to encompass the expanding role of CPE. There are three parallel sessions instead of two, and new areas such as Office Automation are included. Track A is devoted to

performance-oriented management throughout the life cycle, and includes

sessions in such areas as Requirements Analysis, Capacity Planning,

Systems Development, and Acquisition. Track B concentrates on special

technologies (data base machines, data communications, etc.) and

analysis tools/techniques important to good performance and

productivity. Track B also spotlights several special application

areas, including state and local government, medical, welfare, and

personnel systems. Track C consists of tutorials and case studies

that offer familiarization and training in the major areas addressed in the other two tracks. The program also includes three receptions

and expanded Birds-of-a-Feather special interest sessions to promote the

informal exchange of ideas and experiences that is a trademark of

CPEUG. Many people contributed to the success of the CPEUG 81 program. Carol B. Wilson, Program Vice-Chairperson, organized the

tutorial track and several sessions in other tracks. The Conference

Cormittee, session chairpersons, authors, tutors, and referees all

deserve special recognition for their time and patience. The

invaluable administrative support of Sylvia M. Mabie merits special

thanks

.

Thomas F. Wyrick

CPEUG 81 Program Chairperson

November 1981

V
Abstract

These Proceedings record the papers that were presented at the

Seventeenth Meeting of the Computer Performance Evaluation Users Group

(CPEUG 81) held November 16-19, 1981, in San Antonio, TX. With the

theme, "Increasing Organizational Productivity," CPEUG 81 reflects the

critical role of information services in the productivity and survival

of today's organization, as well as such trends as increasing personnel

costs, limited budgets, and the convergence of data processing,

communications, and word processing technologies. The program was

divided into three parallel sessions and included technical papers on previously unpublished works, case studies, tutorials, and panels.

Technical papers are presented in the Proceedings in their entirety.

Key words: Benchmarking; capacity planning; chargeback systems;

computer performance management; data base machines; end user

productivity; human factors evaluation; information system management;

office automation; performance management systems; resource measurement

facility; simulation; supercomputers.

The material contained herein is the viewpoint of the authors of

specific papers. Publication of their papers in this volume does not necessarily constitute an endosement by the Computer Performance

Evaluation Users Group (CPEUG) or the National Bureau of Standards. The

material has been published in an effort to disseminate information and

to promote the state-of-the-art of computer performance measurement,

simulation, and evaluation.

vi
CPEUG Advisory Board

Dennis M. Conti, Executive Secretary

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, DC

Richard F. Dunlavey

National Bureau of Standards

Washington , DC

Dennis M. Gilbert

Federal Computer Performance Evaluation

and Simulation Center

Washington, DC

Carl R. Palmer

U.S. General Accounting Office

Washington, DC

James E. Weatherbee

Federal Computer Performance Evaluation

and Simulation Center

Washington, DC

vii
Conference Committee

CONFERENCE CHAIRPERSON

PROGRAM CHAIRPERSON

PROGRAM VICE -CHAIR PERSON

PUBLICATION CHAIRPERSON

PUBLICITY CHAIRPERSON

PROCEEDINGS EDITOR

ARRANGEMENTS CHAIRPERSON

REGISTRATION CHAIRPERSON

AWARDS & VENDOR PROGRAM CHAIRPERSON

LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS CHAIRPERSON

FINANCE CHAIRPERSON

Dr. Carl R. Palmer

U.S. General Accounting Office

(202) 275-^797

Thomas F. Wyrick

Federal Computer Performance

Evaluation and Simulation Center

(703) 274-7910

Carol B. Wilson

Fiscal Associates, Inc.

(703) 370-6381

Peter J. Calomeris

National Bureau of Standards

(301) 921-3861

Theodore F. Gonter

U.S. General Accounting Office

(202) 275-5040

Terry W. Potter

Digital Equipment Corporation

(617) 493-9749

Dr. Jeffrey M. Mohr

Arthur Young & Company

(202) 828-7176

Alfred J. Perez

U.S. Air Force Data Systems

Design Center

(205) 279-4051

Robert G. Van Houten

U.S. Army Command & Control

Support Agency

(202) 695-6272

William R. Hunsicker

Headquarters, ATC/ACDMX

(512) 652-6471

James G. Sprung

The MITRE Corporation

(703) 827-6446

viii
Referees

Barbara Anderson L. Arnold Johnson

H. Pat Artis John C. Kelly

Duane R. Ball Howard S. Kresin

V. David Cruz David Lindsay

Jeffey Gee Bobby L. McKenzie

Thomas P. Giammo Jim Mulford

Dennis M. Gilbert Paul R. Nester

Theodore F. Gonter Terry W. Potter

Gregory Haralambopoulos Peter Robson

John E. Hewes Dennis Shaw

Phillip C. Howard Thomas F. Wyrick

ix

CP

Table of Contents

FOREWORD iii

PREFACE V

ABSTRACT vi

CPEUG ADVISORY BOARD vii

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE viii

CPEUG 81 REFEREES ix

EFFECTIVE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT - TRACK A

REQUIREMENTS & WORKLOAD ANALYSIS

SESSION OVERVIEW

Jim Mulford

International Computing Company 5

LONG-RANGE PREDICTION OF NETWORK TRAFFIC

William Alexander

Richard Br ice

Los Alamos National Lab 7

FUNCTIONAL GROUPING OF APPLICATION PROGRAMS IN A TIMESHARE ENVIRONMENT

Paul Chandler

Wilson Hill Associates 15

CLUSTER ANALYSIS IN WORKLOAD CHARACTERIZATION FOR

VAX/VMS

Dr. Alex S. Wight

University of Edinburgh 21

xi
CAPACITY. DISASTER RECOVERY & CONTINGENCY PLANNING

SESSION OVERVIEW

Theodore F. Gonter

U.S. General Accounting Office 37

CAPACITY MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS

J. William Mullen

GHR Energy Companies 39

CAPACITY CONSIDERATIONS IN DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING

Steven G. Penansky

Arthur Young & Company 45

END USER PRODUCTIVITY

SESSION OVERVIEW

Terry Potter Digital Equipment Corporation 57

SERVICE REPORTING FOR THE BOTTOM LINE

Carol B. Wilson

Fiscal Associates, Inc.

Jeffrey Mohr/Chan Mei Chu

Arthur Young and Company 59

AUTOMATING THE AUTOMATION PROCESS

Lou El sen Evolving Computer Concepts Corp 67

METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYZING COMPUTER USER PRODUCTIVITY

Norman Archer

Digital Equipment Corporation 71

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE

SESSION OVERVIEW

Phillip C. Howard

Applied Computer Research 83

DESIGN OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS USING SENARIO-DRIVEN

TECHNIQUES

W. T. Hardgrave/S. B. Salazar/E. J. Beller , III National Bureau of Standards 85

CONTAINING THE COST OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE TESTING-AN

EXAMINATION OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE ROLE WITHIN U.S. ARMY COMPUTER SYSTEMS COMMAND

Maj. Steven R. Edwards

U. S. Army Computer Systems Command 93

HISTORICAL FILES FOR SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Walter R. Pyper

Tracer, Inc 101

xii
ADP COST ACCOUNTING & CHARGEBACK

A STEP-BT-STEP APPROACH FOR DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING A DP CHARGING SYSTEM

Kenneth W. Giese/Dean Hal stead/Thomas Wyrick

FEDSIM 109

CONTROL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESOURCE THROUGH

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

SESSION OVERVIEW

John C. Kelly

Datametrics Systems Corporation 121

INCREASING SYSTEM PRODUCTIVITY WITH OPERATIONAL

STANDARDS

David R. Vincent

Boole & Babbage, Inc „ 123

BENCHMARKING

SESSION OVERVIEW

Barbara Anderson

FEDSIM 141

UNIVERSAL SKELETON FOR BENCHMARKING BATCH AND INTERACTIVE WORKLOADS: UNISKEL BM Walter N, Bays/William P. Kincy, Jr. Mitre Corporation 143

COMPARING USER RESPONSE TIMES ON PAGED AND SWAPPED

UNIX BY THE TERMINAL PROBE METHOD

Luis Felipe Cabrera

University of California, Berkeley

Jehan-Francois Paris

Purdue University 157

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF REMOTE TERMINAL EMULATION

IN THE PHASE IV COMPETITIVE SYSTEM ACQUISITION

Deanna J. Bennett

AF Directorate of System Engineering 169

COST /PERFORMANCE EVALUATION - METHODS & EXPERIENCES

AN EVALUATION TECHNIQUE FOR EARLY SELECTION OF COMPUTER HARDWARE

Bart D. Hodgins/Lyle A. Cox, Jr. Naval Postgraduate School 181

DEFICIENCIES IN THE PROCESS OF PROCURING SMALL COMPUTER

SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY

Andrew C. Rucks/Peter M. Ginter

University of Arkansas 191

COST/PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

SOFTWARE ON MINI- AND MAINFRAME COMPUTERS

Anneliese K. von Mayrhauser/Raphael T. Haftka

Illinois Institute of Technology 199

xiii
SPECIAL TECHNOLOGIES & APPLICATIONS - TRACK B

FOCUSING ON SECONDARY STORAGE

SESSION OVERVIEW

H.Pat Artis

Morino Associates, Inc 221

EXPERIENCES WITH DASD, TAPE, AND MSS SPACE MANAGEMENT

USING DMS

Patrick A. Drayton

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company 223

DASD CAPACITY PLANNING 3350 DASD

Keith E. Silliman

IBM Corporation 231

AN ANALYSIS OF A CDC84U-m DISK SUBSYSTEM

J. William Atwood/Keh-Chiang Yu University of Texas at Austin 239

PERFORMANCE PREDICTION & OPTIMIZATION

- METHODS & EXPERIENCES

SESSION OVERVIEW

Thomas P. Giammo

FEDSIM 249

TUNING THE FACILITIES COMPLEX OF UNIVAC 1100 OS

John C. Kelly

Datametrics Systems Corporation

Jerome W. Blaylock

System Development Corporation 251

APPROXIMATE EVALUATION OF A BUBBLE MEMORY

IN A TRANSACTION DRIVEN SYSTEM

Wen-Te K. Lin

Computer Corporation of America

Albert B. Tonik

Sperry Univac 259

COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS—TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS & APPLICATIONS

SESSION OVERVIEW

Jeffrey Gee Network Analysis Corporation 269

LOCAL INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: THE KEY TO FUTURE PRODUCTIVITY

Andrew P, Snow

Network Analysis Corporation 271

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A FLOW CONTROLLED COMMUNICATION

NETWORK NODE

P, G. Harrison

Imperial College, London 277

xiy
CASE STUDIES

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN A DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING

ENVIRONMENT—COMPUTER RESOURCE SELECTION GUIDELINES

Eva T. Jun

U.S. Department of Energy 293

PANEL OVERVIEWS

OFFICE AUTOMATION AND PRODUCTIVITY

Chairperson

:

Mary L. Cunningham

National Archives & Record Service 305

COMMAND, CONTROL, AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

CHALLENGES IN THE 80 'S Chairperson:

Robert G. Van Houten

HQ Army Command & Control Support Agency 309

ADP COST ACCOUNTING & CHARGEBACK

Chairperson

:

Dennis M. Conti

National Bureau of Standards 311

SUPERCOMPUTERS, CPE^ AND THE 80 'S PERSPECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

Chairperson

:

F. Brett Berlin

Cray Research, Inc 313

ADP CHALLENGES IN MEDICAL, PERSONNEL, AND WELFARE SYSTEMS

Chairperson

:

Dinesh Kumar Social Security Administration 315

INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTIVITY IN STATE & LOCAL

GOVERNMENT

Chairperson:

Ron Cornel ison

State of Missouri 317

THE ADP PROCUREMENT PROCESS - LESSONS LEARNED

Chairperson

:

Terry D. Miller

Government Sales Consultants, Inc 319

DATABASE MACHINES

Chairperson

:

Carol B. Wilson

Fiscal Associates 321

XV
TUTORIAL OVERVIEWS

MEASUREMENT, MODELING, AMD CAPACITY PLANNING: THE SECODARY STORAGE OCCUPANCY ISSUE

H. Pat Artis

Marino Associates 325

MICRO-COMPUTERS IN OFFICE AUTOMATION

Wendell W. Berry

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 327

COMPUTER PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE ADP SYSTEM

LIFE CYCLE

James G. Sprung

Mitre Corporation 329

SIMULATION TOOLS IN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Doug Neuse/K. Mani Chandy/Jay Misra/Robert Berry

Information Research Associates 331

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR QUEUEING NETWORK MODELS

Charles H. Sauer

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center 335

PRODUCTIVITY IN THE DEVELOPMENT FUNCTION

Phillip C. Howard

Applied Computer Research 337

ACQUISITION BENCHMARKING

Dennis Conti

National Bureau of Standards 339

SOFTWARE CONVERSION PROCESS AND PROBLEMS

Thomas R. Bushback

General Services Administration 3^*1

RESOURCE MEASUREMENT FACILITY (RMF) DATA:

A REVIEW OF THE BASICS

J. William Mullen

The GHR Companies, Inc 3^3

Papers in this volume, except those by National Bureau of Standards authors, have not been edited or altered by the National Bureau of Standards. Opinions expressed in non-NBS papers are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Standards. Non-NBS authors are solely responsible for the content and quality of their submissions. The mention of trade names in the volume is in no sense an endorsement or recommendation by the National Bureau of

Standards.

xvi
Effective Life Cycle Management

Track A

1

Requirements and Workload Analysis

SESSION OVERVIEW

REQUIREMENTS & WORKLOAD ANALYSIS

James 0. Mulford

International Computing Company

3150 Presidential Drive

Fairborn, OH 45324

Accurate definition and analysis of ADP requirements and

their resultant system workload is probably the most difficult

issue to be addressed by performance analysts. Requirements

may be defined in numerous ways (e.g., user terminology,

existing system workload, existing prograns, new concepts of

operations) and the performance analyst must translate these

definitions into terms that can be applied in system sizing,

performance analysis, benchmark definitions, or other CPE

tasks. Many problems are encountered during this translation,

including the following:

large amounts of data must be analyzed

requirements are defined in various forms

user terminology must be understood by the analyst new requirements are often not fully defined

These requirements and workload analysis complexities will

continue to haunt performance analysts into the 198's. In fact, expanded use of automation to improve complexities of

this analysis. Fortunately, tools and techniques that aid in requirements and workload analysis are receiving increased

emphasis. Advances in ADP technology (e.g., processing speed,

memory size and management, telecommunications, DBMS) have

allowed this renewed emphasis on new tools and techniques.

Better and more complete data on system workload can now be

maintained. Advanced analysis techniques (e,g., cluster

analysis, data reduction and characterization) are now being

applied. Automated requirements definition tools (e,g,,

PSL/PSA ) are now available.

The following papers illustrate this renewed emphasis on innovative methods for analyzing requirements and system

workload. All three papers demonstrate productive, cost

effective approaches which can be applied in many environments,

I sincerely hope that these papers will be followed (in future

years) by additional and increasingly sophisticated approaches

to requirements and workload analysis,

^ Problem Statement Language/Problem Statement Analyzer,

University of Michigan

5

LONG-RANGE PREDICTION OF NETWORK TRAFFIC

William Alexander

Richard Brice

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Computing Division

Los Alamos, NM 87544

A method of making long-range computer system workload predictions is presented. The method quantifies the effect of qualitative

changes in computing by identifying assumptions and by considering the

effect of a change on individual users. The method is illustrated by

an example involving message traffic in a large computer network.

Key words: Computer networks; long-range forecasting; user behavior;

workload forecasting.

1 . Introduction

Management planning procedures sometimes

require computer system workload forecasts

for five or even ten years in the future.

Present workload prediction methods are inadequate at such long ranges because the

changes in system use are likely to be qualitative rather than just quantitative.

Perhaps a computer measurement professional

should be reluctant to make such long-range

predictions if, possibly, too much credence

will be given them. However, when you must

make these predictions, how do you proceed?

In this paper we present a method for

making long-range workload predictions that

quantifies the effects of qualitative changes

in computing. Naturally, such predictions

are somewhat speculative, and we claim only

to provide a framework with which to organize

and quantify assumptions. The method con- sists of constructing a polynomial expression

for the workload in which each term

represents the effects of one change. The

terms are constructed by concentrating on the

effect that the change will have on individual users. This method explicitly represents

assumptions and allows parametric ranges of

results

.

Some papers on workload forecasting for

management planning look at current workload

analysis; others study the extent of growth

or change in computing activities. Determination of the current workload is heavily

represented, probably because it is the most

straightforward process in forecasting.

Prediction methods include measurement techniques [1-5],-^ abstraction of synthetic workloads from the measurements [4,6,7], and

reduction of the measurement data to manageable magnitude, for example, clustering

analysis [8-10]. A second category addresses

forecasting from a management perspective.

These papers attempt to determine growth or change in activities that may affect computing needs. Isolated approaches exist that

attempt to bridge the gulf between qualitative changes in the activities and their

quantitative effects on computer resource re- quirements. Prediction methods in this area include extrapolation from resource requirements of existing application programs

[11-13], forecasting of resource requirements

for applications that are not yet completely

implemented [14,15], and also some effects of

Figures in brackets indicate the

literature references at the end of this paper .

7
feedback between workload and level of ser- vice provided to users [16].

The essence of these approaches is to determine the nature of the current computing

workload and, using this information, to project the amount of similar work that will be

done at some future time. There are differences in how the current workload determinations are made and in the fundamental units

of measure used to describe the workload.

The units of measure range from resource utilization data for specific computer com- ponents to characterizations of project ac- tivities. These approaches seem best suited

for short term (1-2 year) forecasts, because

the effects of quantitative changes are likely to outweigh the effects of qualitative

changes during this interval.

These methods are not suited to our specific problem, which is to forecast effects of qualitative changes in computing.

In particular, these approaches do not address the influence that revolutions in com- puting hardware and services exert on how a user does his work. A second difficulty in

forecasting is that long-term forecasts are

almost certain to be wrong. This difficulty

suggests that these forecasts should be cast

in a form that is easy to update as new information arrives. Some problems that may

occur if updating is not anticipated are described in Reference 17.

In Part II, we describe the need to predict message traffic in the Los Alamos Na- tional Laboratory (Los Alamos) Integrated

Computing Network up to 1990. In Part III, we explain our method and illustrate its use.

2. The Problem

2.1 Integrated Computing Network

At Los Alamos, the Central Computing Fa- cility (CCF) includes an Integrated Computing

Network (ICN) that allows all validated com- puter users at the Laboratory access to almost any of the machines or services of the

CCF.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the

ICN. At the "front end" of the Network (the

right side of the diagram) an arbitrary

CFS

IBM 3850

IBM 3350

IBM 434 1 IBM 370/ 148

PAGES

VAX 11/780 (2) VERSATEC PLOTTER (2) FR 80 (3) XEROX 9700 PRINTER (2)

FILE TRANSPORT

SWITCHES

SEL32/55 (4)

WORKERS

CRAY 1 (4) CDC 7600 (4) CDC CYBER 73 (2) CDC 6600 (1)

DEVELOPMENT MACHINES

VAX 11/780 (3) VAX 11/780 (1) POP 11/70 (1)

SYNC

POP 11 (3)

TERMINAL CONCENTRATOR

POP 11 (12)

SECURITY CONTROL

P0P11 (1)

WORK STATION CONCENTRATOR

VAX 11/780 (1)

DISTRIBUTED PROCESSORS

GATEWAY

VAX 11/760 (3)

DATA COMM

CENTER

-TERMINALS

WORD

-PROCESSING SYSTEMS

external

"networks

L .......i

INTELLIGENT WORK

STATIONS

VAX -OlSTRlBUTEO PROCESSORS

Figure 1. Functional Diagram of the ICN

8
number of terminals (currently about 1350)

and remote entry stations are concentrated in

stages to front end switches (the SYNCs), so that traffic can be routed between any terminal and any worker computer. Thus, aside

from administrative restrictions, a user can

log in on any worker from any terminal. The

worker computers include three Cray-Is, four

CDC 7600s, one CDC 6600, and two CDC Cyber-73

computers. Each of the worker computers is

connected to the File Transport (FT) switches

and, by the FT switches, to the "back end" of

the Network (left side of the diagram) . The

FTs allow the workers to send files to each

other and to the special service nodes in the

Network. The special services provided by

the Network at present include

o an output station (PAGES) to which are attached a wide variety of printing and

graphics devices,

o a mass storage and archival facility

(CFS) [18] , and

o XNET, which handles file traffic between

workers and computers outside the ICN.

Messages between workers and SYNCs are usually quite small and are never larger than

1000 bytes. Messages routed through the FTs

can be as large as 25,976 bytes; large files

are broken by the sending machine into messages no larger than this, and the messages

are sent sequentially (the ICN is not a packet-switching network).

In this paper, a "message" is one useror program-defined group of bytes (plus net- work header) transferred together from a source node to a destination node in the ICN. "Nodes" include terminals, worker computers,

and special service stations, but not concentrators or switches (SYNCs and FTs). From

the point of view of network implementation,

messages are certainly the appropriate unit

of workload. From a larger view, considering

the ICN as a unit, one might first think of

workload in terms of terminal sessions, tasks

submitted for execution on worker computers,

etc. We believe that messages are an additional valid measure of workload, because

there is a fairly direct correspondence

between user or user program commands and

messages generated. Messages result from a carriage return at the terminal and from cer- tain explicit program functions or worker

computer command language commands.

With colleagues we have just begun a new network performance measurement and evaluation project on the ICN. This project includes measurement and characterization of

message traffic in the Network and analytic

and simulation models of the Network. With

these models we are beginning to identify the

critical resources in the Network as well as to investigate the effects of increased

traffic load, new equipment, and alternate

configurations. Both the measurements and

the models are at present rather crude.

In some of the following analysis we treat short messages (less than 100 bytes)

and long messages separately, because our models indicate that different resources are critical in handling them. The critical

resource limiting the Network's capacity to carry large messages seems to be buffer space

in the switches, while line capacity and

switch processor capacity are critical for

small messages.

At present there are about 3000 users of

the CCF. We measure approximately 20 large

and 80 small messages per second in the back

end of the Network and about 100 small messages per second in the front end. This is 0.06 small and 0.007 large messages per

second per user.

2.2 The Forecasting Assignment

Recently we were asked by management to predict what the network traffic in the ICN would be at various points in the future up

to the year 1990, 10 years from now. Current

management forecasts indicate that the number

of users of the Network will grow linearly

from the present 3000 to 5700 in 1990;

managers also anticipate a certain number of

large worker computers in the Network by that

year

.

If the kind of work people do and how

they go about doing it both remained con- stant, then the problem would be relatively

straightforward. We might, for example, simply predict that the load in 1990 would be

(5700/3000) * (present load)

ignoring the different number and kinds of

worker machines in 1990 on the assumption

that messages are generated by programs and

people, not primarily by machines. However,

computing habits have changed significantly

in the past 10 years, and they are likely to again in the next 10. Timesharing radically

altered the way people used computers in the

1970s, distributed processing and networks

are doing it now, and there may be time for

two more revolutions by 1990. Change seems

to be a given in computing, and no one has

developed a model to predict it. Thus we preceded our response with numerous caveats,

and, when management promised to heed them,

... --^ work.

9
Clearly, the traditional PME predictive

tool, namely a model of the Network, does not apply directly to this problem; models are designed to take workload as input, not to predict it. Furthermore, there exists at present no characterization of our computer

workload in terms of "worksteps" or "activity

units" [12,13], nor any formula for translating from these to network activity. Finally,

even if we had such workload characterization

and such a translation formula, it is not clear that the formula would be valid for

computing conditions 10 years hence. In fact, the nature of the problem and the lack

of data force us into the role of futurists,

a role for which a systems analyst may be no better qualified than the next person.

3. The Solution

3.1 The Method

The central idea of our method is to concentrate on the individual user, that is, to predict the effect on the user of future

changes in network equipment, topology, and

services. This is clearly risky, because

people are the least understood and least

predictable element in computing systems.

Nevertheless, this focus seems necessary, be- cause we do, in fact, believe that network

traffic is affected more by what people

choose to do and how they choose to do it

than by the equipment they use. Of course, network topology, equipment, and services

make certain tasks easy and others more difficult, but so do other factors. We are not trying to literally predict human behavior;

we are trying to orient and focus our thinking in the face of too much uncertainty.

The first step is to identify factors

that will change computing in our network.

Then we quantify the effect of each factor on network traffic that individual users generate. Finally, we collect the terms representing each factor into a polynomial

expression

.

3.2 Five Factors

We were able to identify five factors

that we believe will affect the way people

use the ICN in the next few years. They are

as follows.

1. Specialization of the Network. At present, CFS and PAGES are specialized

nodes to which users from any worker

can send files for permanent storage

or for output. In the future, specialized nodes for word processing,

for a network status and performance

data base, and for other unanticipated

functions may exist. (In fact, word

processing software is available on a PDP-11/70 in the Network now, but this

software is not yet widely used.) In addition, the worker computers themselves may become more specialized

with some machines serving mostly as number crunchers and others as general-purpose front ends to the

number crunchers

.

2. Increased use of intelligent and

graphics terminals.

3. Proliferation of distributed processors (DPs) and local networks of DPs within the Laboratory but outside the

ICN. For a variety of reasons, the

number of mini- and midicomputers out- side the ICN continues to grow. They

are used both for specialized purposes, such as process control, and

for general computing; some are con- nected in small local networks. Typically these can communicate with any

node in the ICN via XNET.

4. Electronic mail. Some electronic mail

system will probably be installed at the Laboratory within the next few

years, although it may be implemented

as a separate mechanism rather than

through the ICN.

5. Connections with remote networks. The

most likely candidates are the computing facilities at other Department of

Energy laboratories. Since these installations tend, at present, to have

sufficient computing power for their

own needs , the connections will probably be used to transfer data, programs, reports, etc., rather than to allow remote use of our computers.

Similar connections to additional net- works are possible.

Each of these five factors is either a trend that we see now in computing at Los Alamos or a capability currently being discussed and considered for inclusion here. In other words, we did not attempt any serious

long-range crystal ball gazing, although the

method allows this if you have the courage

(see Section E) . In the next section, we discuss the effect of each of these five fac- tors on network message rates.

3.3 Analysis of Factors

It seems easiest to break the estimation

of the effect that a change will have on any

10
system measure into two steps. First, one can analyze the qualitative aspects of the

effect. For example, is the effect most na- turally expressed as a ratio to the present

number of messages a user generates or as an addition to that number? Is it independent

of the user's current activity? Is it independent of the number of users? Answers to these questions will determine the position

of the factor, which represents a given

change in the polynomial formula for computing the value that the measure is expected to have in the future. The second step is then 2 to plug in a numeric value for each factor,

or perhaps a range of numeric values.

We will illustrate this two-step process

for each of the factors described in the previous section.

1. The specialization of the Network will

clearly increase message rates. As specialized service nodes are added

one by one, an individual user doing

tasks functionally equivalent to present tasks will generate, perhaps

even unknowingly, more network messages as his files are shipped to these nodes. The portion of a user's

messages due to specialization will

grow in proportion to the increased

specialization of the Network. Therefore, a formula for the number of

small messages in the Network should

contain a multiplicative factor a in a term

a*m*Ny

,

where Ny is the number of ICN users in

the future year in question and m is

the observed rate of small messages

per user today. That is, specialization will increase small messages per

user per unit time by some factor a. There will be a similar term

A"-M"Ny

in the formula for large messages.

The way specialized nodes are now used

indicates that the users will mostly

ship large files that will appear as large messages; this is partly a matter of economics. For every large

message in our network there is at least one small protocol message, so 3 that the absolute increase in the two types may be about equal; however, because there are presently more small

than large messages, A is greater

than a.

If we observe that 80% of large messages currently go to or from specialized nodes, and if we believe that a user will generate 50% more messages

because of network specialization by

year y, then the value for A in the

formula for that year should be 1.4. We might plug in values of 1.2, 1.4,

and 1.8 to get a range of answers corresponding to a range of assumptions about future network specialization.

The effect of intelligent and graphics

terminals will be limited almost en- tirely to the front end of the Network. The use of graphics terminals

will increase the large message rate from workers to terminals, because

terminal output will sometimes consist

of plot information for a full screen

instead of one line of text. The effect of intelligent terminals, whether

graphics or not, may be complicated.

On the one hand, the ability to do local processing, especially screen

editing, should result in fewer messages of much larger average size. On

the other hand, some users may program

their terminals to issue very frequent

program or network status checks on a background basis and take some action

only when a certain response is obtained, thus greatly increasing the

small message rate.

In any case, the factors b and B representing this effect should probably be multiplicative as are a and A above. Management projections indi- cate that 1000 of the terminals in the

Lab will be intelligent in 10 years. We have observed that, at present,

about one-fourth of all terminals are logged in on any morning. An assumption of an upper bound of 2.5 large

messages per minute at these terminals

gives 625 large messages per minute,

which is about half the present rate; thus, we used values of from 1.1 to

1.5 for B. We used values of from 0.9

to 1.1 for b. The small range of

values for b indicates that not all

terminals will be intelligent and that

most messages are already small.

The increased use of distributed pro- cessors and of local networks will

certainly decrease the ICN message

rate per user. Almost all of these

users' terminal traffic, which con- sists mostly of small messages, will

be eliminated from the ICN. They will

still use the ICN for executing large

11
programs prepared locally and for special services mostly involving large

files

.

Once again, we decided that the fac- tors c and C should be ratios of the

present message rates per user. Values of from 0.5 to 1 for C and 0.25

to 1 for c seem reasonable.

4. If electronic mail is implemented using the ICN, then, obviously, message

traffic will increase. It is not at all clear that there is any correlation between the rate at which users currently generate messages and the

rate at which they wil] receive mail.

However, mail traffic will probably be

proportional to the number of people

using the system. We assumed the re- lationship will be linear (although

there are certainly other plausible

possibilities). Thus we included

terms

d"Ny and D"Ny

SMy = a*b*c*m*Ny + d*Ny + e

LMy = A"B*C*M*Ny + D-Ny + E

(1)

(2)

where

SMy and LMy

m and M

Ny

are the number of small

and large messages per

second in the ICN in year

y;

are the current (1980)

number of small and large

messages per second per

user

;

is the number of CCF users

that year;

is the factor by which

network specialization

will affect the number of

small messages per second

per user that year;

in the formulas for the number of

small and large messages. We eventually decided that people would send

and receive less than five large mailings per day, which is a negligible

addition to our load; therefore, we used the value zero for D.

5. The additional message traffic caused

by connecting our network to others

would depend very much on the administrative nature of the connection. If

remote users were given essentially

the same capabilities as local users, then the appropriate adjustment to the

formulas is simply to increase the

value of N by the number of remote

users. If use of the connection is

restricted to sharing programs, data,

and reports between sites, in other

words, if the link is used as a fast

substitute for the Postal Service,

then the message rate might be independent of the number of users altogether and might depend instead on programmatic schedules. We assumed

that the latter was more likely and

added a simple term & to each formula

to account for some small constant

number of messages due to this connection.

3.4 Formulas

Collecting all the terms defined in the

previous section resulted in the following

formulas

:

b represents the effect of

intelligent terminals;

c represents the effect of

distributed processing;

d is the number of small

messages per user per

second due to electronic

mail

;

e is the number of additional small messages per

second due to connections

to external networks; and

A, B, C, D, and E are the corresponding fac- tors for large messages.

We can now plug various values for each

of the factors into the formula and get "best

guess," "worst case," and other values for

message traffic. We can also experiment with

the effects of particular assumptions; for

example, we can assume that all terminals

will be intelligent in 10 years or that electronic mail traffic is proportional to the

square of the number of users. We can investigate "disaster" scenarios; to illustrate,

we can determine the rate at which intelligent terminal owners would have to generate

status queries to the Network to saturate its

message handling capacity. Finally, we can determine by inspection or by trial which as- sumptions are most critical, for example, the

above formulas are clearly more sensitive to the value of a than to the value of e.

12
3.5 Other Possible Factors

The five change factors discussed above

are certainly not the only ones that will affect computing in the Laboratory in the next

few years. Since we constructed the above

formulas, we have learned that, unknown to us, others in the Laboratory were already

planning another change, namely a Laboratory-wide automated information management system (AIMS). Some of the pieces of

such a system, such as accounting programs

and some inventory programs, are already run on worker computers in the ICN. Their integration into a comprehensive, widely used

management information system would certainly

increase network message rates. The point of

this example is that as many people as possible, from a variety of disciplines, should be

included in the process of thinking of

changes in computing.

More speculative changes than those we have given might also be included in a projection. Very powerful processors on a single chip will soon be available at very low

cost. The use of high-quality graphics out- put devices may become much more widespread

at the Laboratory to display movies (16

frames of graphics output per second) used to study simulation modeling programs. Although

present worker computers are not capable of

producing 16 frames per second from these

programs, long sequences of frames could be

generated and stored in CFS; these could be

fetched and fed to the graphics device by the

cheap powerful processor at such a rate. If

this happens, it will greatly increase the

large message rate.

4. Conclusions

Inserting our "best guess" factor values

into the above formulas resulted in message

rates for 1990 of five to six times the

present observed rates. To anyone familiar

with the history of computing, it might seem unlikely that any workload measure on any

system will grow by "only" 500% in 10 years.

If this projection, in fact, turns out to be

low, the reason will probably be that we failed to anticipate some development in com- puting that radically affects network use. The necessity of anticipating such changes

is, of course, the greatest weakness of our method; however, this weakness is inherent to the problem. It can be overcome somewhat by

requesting input from as many people as possible.

Our method of prediction presented in

this paper identifies specific assumptions.

It allows experimenting with different values

of factors to see the part each plays in the

total prediction. More accurate data about

the effect of a given change can be easily

incorporated into the formulas so that predictions grow more accurate in an evolutionary

way. Concentrating on the effects on individual users might also work well for shortterm predictions, but we found this method

especially helpful as a way of isolating and

organizing the uncertainties and shakey as- sumptions inherent in long-range prediction.

References

[1] Lindsay, D. S., A Hardware Monitor Study

of a CDC KRONOS System, Proceedings,

International Symposium on Computer Per- formance Modeling Measurement and

Evaluation, Harvard University, March

1976, pp. 136-144.

[2] Partridge, D. R. and Card, R. E.,

Hardware Monitoring of Real-Time Computer Systems, Proceedings, International

Symposium on Computer Performance Modeling, Measurement and Evaluation, Harvard

University, March 1976, pp. 85-101.

[3] McDougall, M. H. , The Event Analysis

System, Proceedings, 1977 SIGMETRICS/CMG

VIII, Washington, D.C., November 1977,

pp. 91-100.

[4] Keller, T. W. and Lindsay, D. S.,

Development of A Performance Evaluation

Methodology for the CRAY-1, Proceedings,

1977 SIGMETRICS/CMG VIII, Washington,

D.C., November 1977, pp. 169-176.

[5] Abrams, M. D. and Neiman, D. C, NBS

Network Measurement Methodology Applied

to Synchronous Communications, Proceedings, CPEUG80, Orlando, Florida, No- vember 1980, pp. 63-70.

[6] Hughes, J. H. , A Functional Instruction

Mix and Some Related Topics, Proceedings, International Symposium on Computer Performance Modeling Measurement and

Evaluation, Harvard University, March

1976, pp. 145-153.

[7] Terman, F. W. , A Study of Interleaved

Memory Systems by Trace Driven Simulation, Proceedings, Symposium on Simulation of Computer Systems, Boulder,

Colorado, August 1976, pp. 3-10.

[8] Mamrak, S. A. and Amer, P. D. , A Feature

Selection Tool for Workload Characterization, Proceedings, 1977 SIGMETRICS/CMG

VIII, Washington, D.C., November 1977,

pp. 113-120.

13
[9] Agrawala, A. K. and Mohr, J. M. , The Re- lationship Between the Pattern Recognition Problem and the Workload Characterization Problem, Proceedings, 1977

SIGMETRIC/CMG VIII, Washington, D.C.,

November 1977, pp. 131-139.

[10] Artis, H. P., A Technique for Establishing Resource Limited Job Class Structure, Proceedings, CMC X, Dallas, Texas,

December 1979, pp. 249-253.

[11] Linde, S. and Morgan, L. , Workload Forecasting for the Shuttle Mission Simulator Computer Complex at Johnson Space

Center, Proceedings, CMC XI, Boston,

Massachusetts, December 1980, pp. 10-15.

[12] Mohr, J. and Penansky, S. G., A Framework for the Projection of ADP Workloads, Proceedings, CMG XI, Boston, Mas- sachusetts, December 1980, pp. 5-9.

[13] Perlman, W. and Jozwik, R. , DP Workload

Forecasting, Proceedings, CMG X, Dallas,

Texas, December 1979, pp. 469-475.

[14] Smith, C. and Browne, J. C, Modeling

Software Systems for Performance Predictions, Proceedings, CMG X, Dallas, Texas, December 1979, pp. 321-342.

[15] Smith, C. and Browne, J. C, Performance

Specifications and Analysis of Software

Designs, Proceedings, Conference on Simulation Measurement and Modeling of

Computer Systems, Boulder, Colorado, Au- gust 1979, pp. 173-182.

[16] Axelrod, C. W. , The Dynamics of Computer

Capacity Planning, CMG Transactions,

Number 29, September 1980, pp. 3.3-3.21.

[17] Tomberlin, R. D. , Forecasting Computer

Processing Requirements: A Case Study,

Proceedings, CPEUG80, Orlando, Florida,

November 1980, pp. 255-261.

[18] Blood, M. , Christman, R. , and Collins,

B. , Experience with the LASL Common File

System, Digest of Papers from Fourth

IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems,

Denver, Colorado, April 1980, pp. 51-54.
FUNCTIONAL GROUPING OF APPLICATION PROGRAMS

IN A TIMESHARING ENVIRONMENT

Paul Chandler, CCP, CDF

Wilson Hill Associates

1025 Vermont Ave., N.W., #900

Washington, DC 20005

The ability to adequately describe the computing

environment is important in the selection of timesharing

services. A method is presented by which the user can functionally describe the workload in terms of requirements for processing, data input, and data output.

Large numbers of programs can thereby be reduced to

only eight functional categories which are sufficient

to characterize the workload. Unsophisticated non-ADP

oriented users who are unable to use traditional performance or resource oriented groupings can use this

functional method satisfactorily.

1. Introduction

Procurement of a timesharing

service can be a lengthy and costly

process in many large procurement efforts. The primary objective of such

procurements usually is to provide

the most cost effective computer system which will meet both current and

future needs.

The acquisition of a computer

system presupposes that the workload

is well defined. Typical parameters

used include turnaround time, core

size or segment, CPU time, number of

I/O transfers, number of lines

printed, etc. However, many of these

parameters are available only through

specially implemented hardware or software monitors. These monitors

require knowledgeable ADP personnel

sensitive to procurement needs, as well as a thorough understanding of

system requirements.

Many procurement efforts suffer

from a lack of specific resource or performance areas and are left with

only a functionally-oriented benchmark which does not lend itself well

to a lowest cost acquisition. Also,

many procurements must deal with a sizable workload and cannot simplify

their workload easily. Additionally,

the procurement specialist who is

conducting the computer acquisition

process may be far removed from daily

processing requirements or else be

faced with relatively unknowledgeable

ADP users who do not understand the

details of machine processing.

This inability to characterize

the workload is the subject of this

paper. Outlined is a method by

which the benchmark workload can be

segmented by a reduction in the number of programs into distinct

classes

.

2. Methodology

This method provides for a functional grouping of application programs using three representative criteria. A dichotomous classification

exists already in the minds of many

ADP personnel of I/O versus CPU.

This method separates the "I" from

15
the "O" and uses the three parameters

of

o Processing

o Input

o Output

By using a selection method by

which each criteria is judged to be

either an important or less important functional attribute of each

application program, a clustering of

programs emerges which share similar

functionally oriented characteristics . Figure 1 shows the eight possible ratings using the three criteria

described

.

Class Rating Factors

ID CPU Input Output

Al Low Low Low

A2 Low Low High

A3 Low High Low

A4 Low High High

A5 High Low Low

A6 High Low High

A7 High High Low

A8 High High High

Figure 1. Criteria Classes

The assignment of application

programs to a class depends upon the

relative rating of each of the three

criteria to the application. In

order to perform this classification,

standardized and descriptive data

must be collected for each application system.

Data typically can be collected

by means of a comprehensive data

collection effort which results in

each application being described in

functional terms. Such a description will include a narrative description of the program's primary

purpose, an estimate of required

data input and output, and general

qualitative descriptions of program

processing.

Additional data may be collected for some quantitative data such

as number of files, number of re- cords or transactions processed,

size of the data base, language

type, and number of tape mounts.

Not included are specific performance oriented data such as speed

of execution or elapsed seconds for

a file I/O, or resource oriented

data such as CPU seconds, core size

used, number of bytes transferred

from disk to core, etc. Only generally available data obtained from

a knowledgeable user is required

without specific hardware or soft- ware monitoring.

Following this qualitative data

collection, each of several knowledgeable ADP persons reviews the

collected data. These persons neednot be users or persons from whom

data was collected. These persons

then make a binary high/low choice

for each of the three criteria identified earlier for each application

program. Each person is asked to

work alone for the initial selection. Upon completion, for each

person, there will be a rating for

each program as to their evaluation

of program functionality in each of

three categories.

The ratings of each application

program are compared and the persons

asked to reevaluate their assignments if conflicts arise. Additionally, some information as to data or other interdependencies between programs might be used to classify an application, as well.

The result of the selection

process is that for each application

there are three descriptors. For

the binary high/low judgment re- quired for this model across all

three criteria, eight different com- binations are possible. Figure 2 shows these eight combinations in a spatial relationship.

A8 A7

Figure 2. Spatial Relationship

of Criteria

16
Each of these dimensions can be

thought of in a spatial relationship

in such a way that the selection of

these criteria will define a larger

group of applications.

3. Application of Method

This method anticipates that a natural grouping of programs will

occur, and that groups of applications will tend to have similar

characteristics based solely on the

qualitative ranking of individual

applications

.

An example is drawn from a re- cent Federal procurement effort of

around 6.5 million dollars including

96 application programs in a commercial timesharing environment. This

procurement effort was characterized

by a wide geographic dispersion of

the user community, little or no information about application systems,

or any other good, well-defined

quantitative measurements.

Following the application of

this method, the 96 programs were classed in eight functional categories out of which one or two programs could be selected for benchmarking. Figure 3 shows the distribution of these programs across

groups

.

ID Group Name

little or no requirement for

either CPU, input or output.

These application systems

tend to be either in use at

remote sites or of an infrequent nature, or used at a central location for selected

special purposes. Included

are those applications which

query current operating

system status, perform rudimentary reports or text

storage of small files, or simple computational programs . A2 - Display Oriented Output

This group relies to a greater

extent on some kind of formatted output either in

tabular, report, or plotted

form. Computational usage

appears to be low, and

most applications seem to be

parameter driven with small

operator input required. The

data bases used for this group

appear to be fixed and well

defined with infrequent updates. Also included are applications with high

volume, repetitive type output .

Number of Rating Factors

Applications CPU Input Output

Al System Support 19 Low Low Low

A2 Display Oriented Output 17 Low Low High

A3 Data Entry 1 Low High Low

A4 Information Manipulation 7 Low High High

A5 Basic Analysis 29 High Low Low

A6 Display Oriented Analysis 9 High Low High

A7 Complex Data Entry/Edit 7 High High Low

A8 Complex Data Manipulation 7 High High High

Figure 3. Group Distribution

Also included in this example is an assignment of a group name for each

of the eight classes. The paragraphs describe each functional

group as used in this illustration.

Similar names and characteristics

could be defined for another set of

applications

.

Al - System Support

This group comprises those

application programs with

A3 - Data Entry

Although only one program was classed in this group for the

applications surveyed, this

group might be characterized

by those programs which are primarily input dependent,

and which include a substantial processing of data in

file building.

17
A4 - Information Manipulation

This group depends on a fair

amount of operator supplied

input and produces voluminous

output. Computational re- sources are used in the building of file indexes, but no inter-file relationships or permanent index structure

(such as in DBMS applications)

occurs. Simple statistical

methods may be used in some applications

.

A5 - Basic Analysis

This group contains those

applications in which a fairly

sophisticated computational

usage of machine resources is

needed, either through direct

number crunching or in the

building of file indexes.

Both input and output are equally weighted, but form

a low part of the resources

used

.

A6 - Display Oriented Analysis

This group represents a sophisticated usage of output facilities to the exclusion of

operator supplied input.

Proprietary display packages

are used in some applications.

The computational resources

used appear to be high.

A7 - Complex Data Entry/Edit

Unlike the Data Entry group

(A3) , these applications

utilize on-line input of data

with on-line correction and

validation of input. The

computational usage is also

high. Output is a secondary

consideration here from the user viewpoint, since the

primary purpose of these

applications is to facilitate

data entry and validation.

A8 - Complex Data Manipulation

This group was judged to have

the highest need and use of all

three criteria measured. The

overriding concern addressed

here is the apparent need for

high volume input and output

together with complex data

manipulation or index

structures

.

Once the initial grouping was

made, a second pass was made of each

group in order to generalize common

features among programs. Of the 96

applications to which this method

was applied, less than 7 of these

had to be reevaluated, and then only

a shift in one criterion resulted.

4. Discussion

A possible problem with the

validity of this method might occur when only small application program

environments are considered. In

the example presented, a good distribution occurred across all

groups but one, and the distribution

appeared to be non-random. In procurement efforts where there are only a limited number of programs,

it might be difficult to be certain

that the best grouping had been

achieved

.

The familiarity of the evaluation with ADP was initially considered to be a potential problem,

but did not prove to be insurmountable in this study as knowledgeable

personnel who had some ADP background were available. In those

instances where the evaluators

are non-ADP oriented, it seems likely that additional qualitative

data must be collected.

An interesting extension of

this method would include the quantification of each workload criteria

into small discrete steps. Each

step could represent an increment

of the respective criteria such

that all values between an arbitrarily low and high point would be

represented. The workload could

then be divided up using the method

presented here.

For the example given, by far

the greatest time was spent in data

collection. The actual evaluation

of applications only required a few

days. It. seems likely that those

procurement specialists faced with

knowledgeable ADP persons will be

in a better position than those

faced with unfamiliar users.

In the environment where there

is a scarcity of information, this

18
approach appears to offer some help

in workload quantification. This

method provides a method acceptable

from a procurement specialty where

a savings of time and money can be

obtained in environment where there

is little information.

The author is grateful to Dr. Shahla

Butler for her inspiration in this

effort, and to Thomas Mink for his

review of the manuscript.

References

[1] Bayraktar, A. N. Computer

Selection and Evaluation , June 1978, U.S. Dept. of

Commerce, NTIS #AD-A061-070

.

[2] Ferrari, Domenico, Computer

Systems Performance Evaluation , Prentice-Hall, 1978.

[3] National Bureau of Standards,

Guidelines for Benchmarking

ADP Systems in the Competitive

Procurement Environment , FIPS

PUB 42-1, May 15, 1977.

[4] National Bureau of Standards,

Guideline on Constructing

Benchmarks for ADP System

Acquisitions , May 19, 1980.

CLUSTER ANALYSIS IN WORKLOAD

CHARACTERISATION FOR VAX/VMS

Alex S. Wight * ,**

Department of Computer Sciences

Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN 47907

Permanent address : Department of Computer Science

, University of Ed inburgh , Ed inburgh , U.K. EH9 3JZ

**This work was done while the author was with Digital Equipment Corporation ,Maynard

,

MA 01754

Accurate models of computer system workloads are desirable for system modelling, performance evaluation

studies, capacity planning, benchmarking, tuning and system selection. The use of cluster analysis for workload

characterisation has received much attention recently.

In this paper we explore the use of cluster analysis for

characterisation of workloads on VAX systems running the

VMS operating system. In a largely interactive environment we take as our basic workload unit the program or executable image invoked by a command from a terminal

user e.g. file directory manipulation, editor, compiler,

application program. We discuss some of the problems of

cluster analysis and the possible uses of cluster

descr iptions

.

Key words: Cluster analysis. Workload characterisation.

1. Introduction

There are many reports of studies of computer system workload

characterisation

[3,4,5,6,10,13,24,25,27,31]. Accurate models of workloads are desirable for system modelling, performance evaluation stud ies , capacity

planning, benchmarking, tuning and

selection. The use of cluster

analysis in this work is not new

[28]. Clustering algorithms have

been developed as tools in a wide

range of disciplines where extensive

data analysis and recognition and

classification of patterns are important. There exist both good

surveys [12,14,15,18,19,20,22] and a number of books which describe clustering algorithms and the analysis

of the results of clustering

[ 7, 16, 2 1,26,.2 9, 3 0,3 3, 3 4, 35 ] . The

application of cluster analysis to

the problem of providing concise

descriptions of computer system

workloads has been advanced most

recently by Artis [6] , Mamrak and

Amer [32] and Mohr and co-workers

[3,4,5] .

21
In particular Agrawala et al

[4] discuss the validity of using

cluster analysis while Artis [6] and

Agrawala and Mohr [3] also discuss

the representativeness and usefulness of the clusters which are generated. Mamrak and Amer [32] and

Hughes [27] discuss the problem of

deciding which of the available,

measured features can be used to

describe the workload units submitted to the clustering process.

These studies illustrate the

feasibility of applying cluster

analysis to accounting log or system

measurement data and generating concise descriptions of the workload

submitted to the computer system in

the measurement period. If a clear

picture of a stable workload already

exists we do not need sophisticated

analysis to confirm it. Cluster

analysis may be used either to discover if available data points lie

within known or expected groupings

or to discover if they do exhibit

any structure or concise groupings.

There is a very large number of

publications on the use of cluster

analysis. Useful starting points

are the papers by Dubes and Jain

[18,19] which describe and examine

the problems of amalgamating the

results of cluster analyses, statistical analyses, intuition and

insight. Kendall [30,31] makes many

points advising caution in the use of cluster analysis and stressing

the importance of the analyst who is

familiar with the context of the

data and appreciates the strengths

and weaknesses of the algorithms

employed. Clustering results must be

interpreted with care. Diday [17]

discusses some possible new approaches

.

The VAX/VMS operating system

running on the DEC VAX 11/780 is

being used in an ever-widening range

of environments. To characterise the

workloads in these environments

requires a comprehensive methodology. In this paper we present an initial approach to the use of cluster analysis as part of the methodology required to get useful models

for a number of possibly very

diverse workloads. In a largely

interactive environment we take as

our basic workload unit the program

or executable image invoked by a command from a terminal user e.g.

file directory manipulation, editor,

compiler etc.

2. Tools

Our starting point was Artis'

s

very comprehensive discussion of the use of cluster analysis for capacity

planning [6]. A search of the

1 iterature

[7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 29] reveals

ISODATA [8,9,23] as one of the most

popular clustering algorithms. This

may not be unrelated to the fact

that it's heuristic nature makes

analysis of it difficult! Cluster

analysis which attempts to classify

a population of objects on the basis

of features describing each object

has developed in many disciplines

ranging through the biological and

social sciences and engineering.

With a version of ISODATA available

, the example of Artis and the

recurring commendation of ISODATA in

the literature we chose to use ISODATA.

The standard accounting log of

VMS does not provide sufficiently

detailed resource usage data for

characterising the submitted work at

the level of individual programs.

Ultimately we are interested in

characterising in detail interacti\/e users and the programs they invoke.

VMS was adapted to write additional

messages to the accounting log

recording statistics for each exe- cuted image or command.

These statistics cover:

CPU time

Elapsed time

Memory occupancy

Disc traffic

Terminal traffic

Paging activity

Since it obviously imposes an additional overhead and causes interference this form of monitoring

can be switched off and on for

periods of interest. CPU time is

not recorded accurately, but in the

standard VMS form by sampling and

recording with a 10 millisecond

22
unit. Attempting to account CPU

time accurately at the 1 microsecond

level raised the total data collection overhead from around 5% to over

10% and was abandoned. Records from

a relevant period of an available

accounting log can be extracted and

used as data for statistical and

cluster analysis.

As we have stated already a majority of authors in the clustering literature advocate caution in

applying a chosen algorithm to new

data, in particular see [15,18,19,22,30,31]

.

3. Testing

We proceeded as follows:

(a) Fisher's Iris data [30] has

been used many times to test clustering algorithms. We checked that

our ISODATA program gave results

consistent with Kendall's analysis

[30].

(b) We generated artificial

data representing points on a 2-

dimensional grid. These represented

intuitive ideas of dense, diffuse

and scattered clusters, clusters of

odd shape and outliers. Dubes and

Jain [18] give the results of applying different clustering algorithms

to similar artificial data. Our

results were at the same time disturbing and reassuring. It was a worthwhile exercise to gain confidence in choosing values for the

ISODATA control parameters but a salutary lesson in treating all

clustering results with care since

it is certainly possible even with a known algorithm and "obvious" data

to generate quite different clusters

from runs with different parameter

settings

.

(c) We next proceeded to use image accounting data collected from

a VAX system which was processing a known and well-defined load of

interactive scripts submitted from a remote terminal emulator. This gave

us the opportunity to explore the

interplay of cluster analysis and

performance evaluation. We had to

consider the . problems of feature

selection and scaling and continue

exploring parameter settings in this

much more complex case. Here again

the literature generally persuaded

us to follow Artis's example and

scale the data using the robust mean

and standard deviation for each

feature such that for each feature

the data is normalised with unit

variance. The BMDP statistical package was used for statistical

analysis of the data. Use of robust

statistics for scaling reduces the

effect of outliers but one must

always remember that any scaling

affects the formation of clusters.

For this known data the results were encouraging and the expected groupings did appear .

4. Points from the Tests

The use of a remote terminal

emulator provides a desirable controlled environment for this form of

testing as well as more general performance work [1 , 2, 36, 37]. In this

.case we can explore the effects on

the clusters we see of different

feature sets e.g. a resource con- sumption set and a rate of resource consumption set [3] . For exploratory analysis of this type one expects to iterate between clustering and examining and interpreting

clusters produced. Anderberg [7]

suggests generating a first set of

clusters and investigating individual clusters before perhaps re- clustering. Outliers can be considered at this point too. Note the

difference between ISODATA which

weights features equally and

attempts to reduce the variance of

features within each cluster formed

and the approach of Agrawala and

Mohr [5] where it is intended that

the clusters formed reflect their

"natural" shapes with different

weights being given to features in

different clusters as they are established. ISODATA tends to produce

hyperspheres and treats all clusters

identically. An "elongated" cluster

may not be immediately obvious. If

it is contained uniquely within a hypersphere it must be deduced by

examining the variances of the

features for members of the cluster.

Otherwise the analyst must deduce

from the collection of cluster

descriptions that a series of small

possibly dense clusters are in fact

closely related and when viewed on a

23
larger scale form one identifiable

group

.

5. Experiment

The image accounting package

was installed on a VAX system in use

for software developnent. Over a working day 1791 image records were recorded. The following five

features were chosen for the cluster

analysis

:

CPU time

Elapsed time

Direct I/O rate ( request/CPU sec.)

Buffered I/O rate ( request/CPU sec.)

Page read rate ( request/CPU sec.)

Statistics for these features

are displayed in Figure 1. The clustering program was run with an upper

limit of 50 clusters allowed. It is

clear from the statistical summaries

that we are likely to reach this

number. In fact after 10 iterations

of trying to improve the clusters we have reduced the number of clusters

to 37.

6. Cluster Summaries

At this point when we look

closely at the ISODATA summary

statistics we find the average distance of patterns or data points

from their centroids or cluster centres to be 1.8 while the average

distance between cluster centers is

31.2. The co-ordinates of a cluster

centroid are the mean values for

each feature of the cluster members.

Note that these are distances in the

transformed data space. This gives

a picture of tight, well-scattered

clusters. Only four of the thirtyseven have points with an average

distance from the centroid greater

than 3.0 compared with average distance between centroids of 31.2. For

the cluster centroids the distance

to the nearest centroid ranges from

1.75 to 51.2 with a mean of 8.0.

7. Validity

Dubes and Jain [19] discuss in

detail the question of how valid

clusters are. They feel that in

general, engineering applications,

including computer science, tend to

ignore cluster validity and authors

are happy to demonstrate that the

algorithm works in some sense that

they consider suitable. We agree

with the observation and criticism

but nevertheless proceed, taking the

view that cluster analysis is an exploratory tool to be used with

care in examining the available

data , investigating hypotheses and

seeking underlying structure. The

density of our individual clusters

and the way they are spread satisfies us while we examine the populous clusters in the light of our knowledge of the workload.

8. Cluster Descriptions

Figure 2 shows that the 8 clusters with the most members include

94.8% of the images. If these clusters have inter pretable characteristics we have a starting point for a characterisation of the workload.

The values of the centroids of these

clusters are displayed in Figures

3,4,5 in terms of the untransformed

values of the features. For each

cluster we can look for the dominant

features and for each image name we have a list of the clusters in which

it appears. The groupings of the

clusters can now be checked and

interpreted by consulting this list.

Although there are cases where

images appear in many different

clusters interpretation is possible.

The cluster groupings of Figure 2 are roughly as follows.

[1] Clusters 1,5 and 10 are represented by average values

of the features chosen and turn

out to be largely calls on standard command language utilities manipulating files and

directories. Such commands

where they appear in other

clusters are cases where they

have generated a large value

for a particular feature and

been treated as a separate

cluster since ISODATA will

split a cluster if there is a large variance in one feature.

[2] Clusters 14 and 18 are dominated by demands for CPU time

and high terminal traffic

represented by buffered I/O.

The images represented here are

24
editor use,mail utilities and

application programs.

[3] Cluster 21 is dominated by a high page read rate The members

of 21 are subsets of some of

the previous images but also

closely clustered.

[4] The grouping of clusters 7 and

9 is dominated by a high buffered I/O rate and these clusters contain images making

heavy use of video terminals.

Rather than continue in this

vein examining all the remaining

very small clusters we first com- plete the broad picture with a more conventional statistical analysis.

Returning to the raw data we list

for each feature the images with the

highest values. When we trace those

to the clusters we find that they

have been identified as clusters and

often the elongation effect can be

discerned i.e. a number of small

clusters have the same dominant

feature and are seen to be identified as nearest neighbours in the

transformed hyperspace.

Turning to Figure 6 and the

most frequently occurring images we find as follows. The most common

image with 312 instances has all but

16 of these in clusters 1,5 and 10.

Proceeding to the second and third,

all except 4 of 194 are in 1,5 and

10 and all except 7 of 190 likewise.

There are 77 unique images recorded

and 76% of all images recorded are accounted for by instances of the 10

most frequently-occurring images.

9. Workload Modelling

The clusters found can be used

as a basis for a model of the workload. For each important cluster

that we identify real or synthetic

programs must be available or generated with characteristics matching

those of "average" cluster members.

The number of occurrences of a model

job in the workload model must be

adjusted so that the load on the

system generated by each cluster is

maintained. More detailed study of

the accounting log allows us to look

for variations in the load over time

and fluctuations in the mix of

active programs. The log also contains sufficient information for

commonly occurring sequences of com- mands to be found and incorporated

in models. We do not of course get

user characteristics like typing

speeds and think times.

We may hope that the largest

clusters formed from a series of

logs allow us to model what appears

to be a stable component of the

workloads under study. However we must also take note of the outliers

or very small clusters as they may

turn out to make some of the

greatest demands for system resources or be characterised by

very variable activity. If the

small clusters and outliers make

significant demands on the system

then representing their effect is

important but may be more difficult

if they differ dramatically from

site to site, period to period and

especially if they largely reflect

the choice of features for the cluster generation. This form of variation is also influenced by the level

of workload unit we choose and the

nature of general-purpose interactive computing.

Note also that having identified clusters we must look at them

in terms of features not used for

clustering both in construction of

models and possible amendments to

the clustering and characterisation

methodology

.

10. Discussion

Cluster analysis has often been

discussed and used for workload

characterisation in general and

benchmark construction in particular. Much useful work can be done

with fixed workloads [1, 2,36,37] but

as user communities broaden and

technological change speeds 'changes

in user demands on computing systems

it is desirable to attempt to generate currently representative workload models and keep them up-todate . This work explores part of the

methodology and indicates that cluster analysis can be used for data

from highly interactive systems with

25
a wide range of user demands as well

as some of the more constrained

batch environments previously

reported

.

Cluster analysis has developed

its own literature in separate

fields. There is still scope for

analysis of clustering techniques

for computer workload characterisation e.g. feature selection, effect

of correlation between features,

effects of scaling and weighting of

features, algorithm

compa r ison ,val id i ty of clusters, use of clusters, efficiency of algorithms and integration of results

into a more complete characterisation methodology.

11. Acknowledgements

Many people contributed to an enjoyable and productive time at

Digital. For the work reported here

thanks particularly go to Colin

Adams, Rick Fadden, Steve Forgey and

Ted Pollak for many hours of assistance and discussion.

References

[1] Adams, J. C, Currie, W.S. and

Gilmore , B.A.C., The Structure

and Uses of the Edinburgh

Remote Terminal ESnulator,

Software Practice and Experience, Volume 8, 1978.

[2] Adams, J.C., Performance Measurement and Evaluation of

Time-Shared Virtual Memory Systems, Ph.D. Thesis, University

of Edinburgh, 1977.

[3] Agrawala, A.K. and Mohr, J.M.,

Some Results on the Clustering

Approach to Workload Modelling,

Proceedings of CPEUG 13th

meeting, October 1977. NBS

Special Publication 500-18.

[4] Agrawala, A.K. and Mohr, J.M.,

The Relationship Between the

Pattern Recognition Problem and

the Workload Characterisation

Problem, Proceedings of

SIGMETRICS/CMG V| | | , November

1977.

[5] Agrawala, A.K., Mohr, J.M. and

Bryant, R. , An Approach to the

Workload Characterisation Problem, Computer, June 1976.

[6] Artis, H.P., Capacity Planning

for MVS Computer Systems, in

Performance of Computer Installions, ed . Ferrari, D.

, North-Holland Publishing Company, 1978.

[7] Anderberg, M.R. , Cluster

Analysis for Applications,

Academic Press, 1973.

[8] Ball, G.H., Data Analysis in

the Social Sciences: What About

the Details?, AFIPS FJCC , Volume 27, Part 1, 1965.

[9] Ball, G. and Hall, D.J., ISODATA, A Novel Method of Data

Analysis and Pattern Classification, Stanford Research

Institute, 1965.

[10] Barber, E.O. , Asphjell, A. and

Dispen, A., Benchmark Construction, Performance Evaluation

Review , Volume 4, Numbe^ 4,

1975.

[11] Bayne, C.K., Beauchamp, J.J.,

Begovich, C.L. and Kane, V.E.,

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Selected Clustering Procedures,

Proceedings of Annual Meeting,

of American Statistical Association - Statistical Computing

Section, 1978.

[12] Blashfield, R.K. and Aldenderfer, M.S., A Consumer Report

on Cluster Analysis Software,

The Pennsylvania State University, 1976.

[13] Boi, L. , Cazin, J., Martin, R. and Bourret, P., The Use of a Synthetic Workload for the

Optimal Allocation of Files on Disk Units, in Performance of

Computer Installations, ed

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Ferrari, D. , North-Holland Publishing Company, 1978.

[14] Cole, A. J. , ed .

, Numerical Taxonomy, Academic Press, 1969.

26
[15] Cormack, R.M., A Review of

Classification , Journal of the

Royal Statistical Society

(Series A) , 1971.

[16] Clifford, H.T. and Stephenson,

W. , An Introduction to Numerical Classification, Academic

Press, 1975.

[17] Diday, E., Problems of Clustering and Recent Advances, IRIA

Research Report Number 337,

1979.

[18] Dubes , R. and Jain, A.K., Clustering Techniques: The User's

Dilemma, Pattern Recognition,

Volume 8, 1976.

[19] Dubes, R. and Jain, A.K., Validity Studies in Clustering

Methodologies, Pattern Recognition, Volume 11, 1979.

[20] Duran, B.S. and Odell, P.L.,

Cluster Analysis, Lecture Notes

in Economics and Mathematical

Systems, Spr inger-Verlag , 1974.

[21] Everitt, B., Cluster Analysis,

2nd edition, John Wiley, 1980.

[22] Friedman, H.P. and Rubin, J.,

On Some Invariant Criteria for

Grouping Data, Journal of the

American Statistical Association, 1967.

[23] Gnanadesi kan , R. , Methods for

Statistical Data Analysis of

Multivariate Ctoservations , John

Wiley and Sons, 1977.

[24] Hall, D.J. and Dev Khanna , The

ISODATA Method Computation for

the Relative Perception of

Similarities and Differences in

Complex and Real Data, in

Mathematical Methods for Digital Computers. Volume | | | (Statistical Methods for Digital

Computers), ed . , Enslein, K. , Ralston, A. and Wilf, H.S.,

John Wiley and Sons, 1977.

[25] Haring, G. and Posch, R. , On

the Use of a Synthetic

Online/ Batch Workload for Computer Selection, Information

and Management, Volume 3,

Number 3, 1980.

[2 6] Haring, G. , Posch, R. , Leonhardt, C. and Cell, G., The

Use of a Synthetic Jobstream in

Performance Evaluation, The

Computer Journal, 1979.

[27] Hartigan, J. A., Clustering

Algorithms, John Wiley and

Sons, 1975.

[28] Hughes, H.D., A Study of a Procedure for Reducing the Feature

Set of Workload Data, Computer

Performance Evaluation in the

'80s, Proceedings of CMG X| , 1980.

[29] Hunt, E. , Diehr, G. and Garnatz, D. , Who Are the Users? An

Analysis of Computer Use in a University Computer Center,

AFIPS Conference Proceedings,

Volume 38, 1971.

[30] Kendall, M.G. , Multivariate

Analysis, Hafner Press, 1975.

[31] Kendall, M.G. , The Basic Problems of Cluster Analysis, in

Discriminant Analysis and

Applications ed . , Cacoullos,

T. , Academic Press, 1973.

[32] Mamrak, S.A. and Amer , P.D., A

Feature Selection Tbol for

Workload Characterisation,

Proceedings of SIGMETRICS/CMG

VI I I , November 1977.

[33] Pore, M.D., Moritz, T.E.,

Register, D.T., Yao , S.S. and

Eppler, W.G. , On Evaluating

Clustering Procedures for Use

in Classification, Proceedings

of American Statistical Association, Statistical Computing

Section, 1978.

[34] Sokal, R.R. and Sneath, P.H.A.,

Numerical Taxonomy, W.H. Freeman, 1973.

[35] Spath, H. , Cluster Analysis

Algorithms for Data Reduction

and Classification of Objects,

Ellis Horwood Ltd., 1980.

[36] Stephens, P.D. , Yarwood, J.K.,

Rees, D.J. and Shelness, N.S.,

The Evolution of the Operating

System EMAS 2900, Software

Practice and Experience, Volume

27
10, Number 12, 1980.

[37] Wright, L.S. and Burnette,

W.R., An Approach to Evaluating

Timesharing Systems: MH-TSS A

Case Study, Performance Evaluation Review, January 1976.
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34
Capacity, Disaster Recovery,

and Contingency Planning

35

SESSION OVERVIEW

CAPACITY, DISASTER RECOVERY,

and CONTINGENCY PLANNING

Chairperson: Theodore F. Gonter

U.S. General Accounting Office

Speakers: J. William Mullen

GHR Companies

Steven G. Penansky

Arthur Young & Co.

Duane Fagg

NAVDAC

ABSTRACT

At a recent computer conference a report from a capacity management/planning task force concluded that capacity

needs are a business problem. Since data processing supplies

the services that the business element uses to perform its

functions, it concluded that requests for additional computer capacity must be made jointly between the business element and data processing. Thus, a capacity management/

planning effort requires a close working relationship

between the business and data processing community.

In addition, these same businesses most often depend

on continuous availability of data processing services.

To ensure the continuous availability of adequate services

businesses develop contingency/recovery plans. These plans

must provide for computer capacity considerations to ensure

that sufficient capacity will be available to maintain

adequate DP service.

The purpose of this session is to demonstrate the

validity of the task force conclusion and the importance

of capacity related considerations in the contengency/

recovery planning process. The presentations and papers

in this session introduce considerations in capacity management/planning, introduce the importance of capacity planning

in disaster recovery planning, and offer an approach to integrating the DPI security, performance management, and con- tingency planning functions.

37

CAPACITY MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS

J. William Mullen

The GHR Companies, Inc.

Destrehan, LA

Initiating an installation capacity management

program required certain basic elements that must be in

place in the installation to assure success of the program.

These basic elements will be addressed with respect to

their relationship to the business community and how this

interaction should be developed in support of the capacity

management /planning effort. An additional aspect of the

capacity management program and function, capacity

requirements in disaster recovery planning, will be outlined with respect to the aid that the capacity management function can provide to the disaster recovery planning

effort

.

Key words: Business case; business elements; business

problem; capacity management; capacity planning; disaster

recovery planning.

1. Introduction

Increased demand for computing

services has given impetus to

dramatic growth in many corporate

data centers. Finding themselves

unprepared to predict and respond to

these increases in requests for

computing services unable to maintain

acceptable service levels for the user community and having to cope

with management demands and equipment

delivery schedules, installations are beginning to realize the benefits of

implementing a capacity management

and planning program. The obvious

questions that installation personnel

responsible for program implementation ask themselves are concerned

with establishing a starting point

for the capacity managem.ent /planning

program determining if the basic

elements are in place in the installation to support the program and how

to evaluate program direction.

Three major topical areas should be considered in answering the

above questions:

o Environment for program

implem.entation

:

o Elements required for the

process ; and

o Communications of results to

management

.

Each of these major topics will be

addressed in the following sections

on an overview level with a final

section devoted to capacity

management /planning considerations in

the disaster recovery plan development and how the capacity management/

planning program efforts can provide

aid in developing the plan.

39
2 . Environment

Impetus for implem.entation of a capacity management/planning program

generally stems from an environment

where demands for increases in com- puting services from the user or business community have resulted in

immeasurable and uncontrollable workload growth and a continuing decline

in service levels. It is at this

point where no amount of perform.ance

tuning will solve the problem,

implications and consequences of the

problem have been escalated to a management level most of us would like

to avoid and reaction mode has become

a way of life in the installation.

Thus, installation personnel begin a serious attempt to establish a capacity management /planning program.

A primary consideration in

program implementation is the

management structure of the installation and organization and the placement of personnel responsible for

performing the capacity management/

planning function within the current

organizational structure. Managing

capacity and planning for capacity of

future hardware and software components requires the availability and

communication of a wide range of

information. Information from lower

levels within the installation con- cerning current configurations

utilization and workload characterizations are required. Contact with

middle and upper management within the

business community of the organization

is required to understand business

strategies, business direction and to

match current business demands with

hardware/ software component utilization and workload characterization

data. Once this wide base of communications has been established, a view

of hardware and software component

utilization based upon business

demands can be developed and an en- vironment is created in which the

installation's current capacity can

be managed and future business demands

on installation can be projected.

A perception of the capacity

management and planning function as a business problem must be created

within the installation and the

business organization. This view

should be based upon an economic

supply and demand situation. Suppl"

is the installation's ability to

provide acceptable service at a reason- able cost. Demand is the business

community's requirements for service

and the time constraints imposed by

these demands upon the installation.

Once the capacity management /planning

requirements are viewed as a ijusiness

problem, personnel in the installation

can begin to address the capacity

management/planning function in terms

of the business community as well as hardware/ software component utilizations. This brings about the

necessity for service level agreements.

Developing service level agreements with the business community

users begins the capacity management/

planning process. Service level

agreements provide the target that

personnel performing the capacity

management /planning function must hit.

From a capacity managem.ent view, the

service level agreement defines

current service level requirements and

allows the installation to evaluate

the business community's requirements

for service against current deliverables. From a capacity planning view,

service level agreements provide

insight to short-term business re- quirements as well as a definition of

business objectives, direction and

long-range service requirements.

Adjustments can be made, based upon

inputs obtained from service level

agreements to distribute and better

manage current capacity as well as ' project future capacity requirements.

A basis for capacity management/

planning is technical knowledge. This

knowledge is normally associated with

the performance analyst or software

analyst function. Though expertise

is required in dealing with management

and planning for the installation's

hardware/ software component requirements , personnel performing the

capacity management/planning function

should have skills more aligned with

management. These skills include the

oral and written communications

ability to translate capacity requirements from technical terms to business

terms for each given level of management receiving information. The end

result of this translation becomes the

business case for satisfying service

demands of the business community.

Additionally, such skills as inter-

-wing and negotiating will prove to

to
be very useful in the interaction with

management within the business com- munity structure in determining their

service requirements and developing

realistic service level agreements.

In most installations, several people

V7ill be required to staff the capacity

management/planning function to assure

that the above skills are available.

The final consideration in this area is the charter of the capacity

management/planning function. As

stated, staff performing the function

should be positioned within the

organization's management structure to

provide interaction with mid and upper

management in the MIS as well as the

business community's organization.

The charter should provide freedom

from day-to-day operational problem

solving and still allow latitude for

affecting change. Without the ability

to affect change within the installation and the hardware/software com- ponents as well as the operating mode,

the capacity management /planning

function becomes an exercise in

futility with little or no return on

the investment of resources.

3. Process Elements

Technical knowledge and information is the basis of the capacity

management /planning function and the raw input to the analysis and projection process. The initial information needed for the process is a complete, up-to-date inventory of the

hardware/ software in use in the

installation and an understanding of

its capabilities and resource requirements. Applications should be characterized by workload requirements and

subsystems needed for their support in

processing. Hardware components

should be characterized by their

function for support of processing and

their capability and potential for

growth. The inventory can thus become

the base for planning growth in the

installation's hardv/are and software

components and the applications the

installation must support. The inventory will also be an aid in the workload characterization process in

breaking out the various business

functions and systems that must be

characterized.

An antecedent to the capacity

management/planning program is a strong measurement base from which

data on configuration component

utilization can be obtained as well as resource requirem.ents of the various

business systems receiving service.

Consideration must be given to the

configuration and the workloads it

must support to enable the installation to select those measurement tools

which will provide the information

required with the least impact upon

the configuration. Measurement tools

selected must be able to provide

configuration utilization in concert

with obtaining measurement data which

will provide resource consumption

information that can be related to the

business entities receiving service.

Measurement data from the tools must

be in a form that will provide ease of

analysis and archival for historical

purposes. Currently available

measurement tools (i.e. SMF , RMF) tend

not to have either of these qualities

in their raw form. A major consideration for the installation is implementing a central repository of

information which contains those

measurement elements necessary for

tracking resource consumption and

workload growth as well as input to

workload characterization. This task

has proved to be difficult for most

installations. Many installations

achieve some form of repository which

provides configuration utilization and resource consumption growth statistics

but fail to provide a mechanism for

relating the utilization and consumption statistics to the various busi- ness entities receiving service.

The final consideration in the

capacity management /planning process

is modeling and analysis for projecting workload growth and future resource requirements . Persons undertaking the modeling and projection

task will require both the low level

measurement data as well as knowledge

of business direction to properly

apply their modeling knowledge. Without knowledge of current service

requirements by the various business

entities and planned business direction and strategies, the modeling

process must depend entirely upon

historical data which may not reflect

growth patterns representative of

current business direction and

strategies becomes a major requirement

41
in the capacity management/planning

process

.

4. Communications

Effective communications of the

results of the capacity management/

planning process to management is the area where many installations fail to

meet the expectations of their capacity management/planning programs.

Reporting results of the program can

be divided into three specific areas

:

o data processing reporting;

o business reporting; and

o joint reporting.

Data processing reporting re- volves around configuration utilization information and component utilization at a gross and sometimes very

detail level. Most installations

have achieved some degree of expertise in measurement, tracking, and

reporting on configuration component

utilization and resource consumption

growth, but do not provide business

entities this information by system,

processed.

Business reporting revolves

around reporting at the level of

transactions, batch jobs, and output

volumes in some form. Additional

information may be provided on the

contribution to component utilization

by various business entities, but

this is generally not done at much

more than a very broad spectrum of

the business comm.unity (i.e. division,

group within division, section, etc.).

Very few installations have the

mechanisms in place to provide information at the application level.

Joint reporting involves a com- bination of data processing reporting

and business reporting to provide

management v/ith a history and current

view of configuration utilization and

business entity resource consumption.

Projections, based upon knowledge of

business direction and strategies,

can be given to management to provide

a view of future configuration

capacity requirements based upon

business growth.

Reporting must be tempered to

the various levels of management within the organization. Reports must be more concise and free from technical

detail as the level of management

being address moves higher up the

corporate ladder. This approach to

presenting a joint "business case" to

higher levels of corporate management

tends to strengthen the communications between DP and business management and provide impetus for cooperation in support of the capacity

management/planning process.

5. Disaster Recovery Planning

Anyone involved in developing

an installation disaster backup and

recovery plan will atest to the

difficulty in defining the processing

requirements necessary at a backup

site and matching these requirements

to sites available for backup

purposes. Several of the elements

involved in the capacity management/

planning process provide inputs to

the disaster recovery planning

process

.

Inventory of applications and

component processing requirements

will help assure that no critical

application has been overlooked in

defining the applications required to

continue the business processing at a backup site and will aid during

backup site usage negotiations in

assuring that necessary hardware/

software components and options are

in place at the backup site.

Resource consumption requirements of the systems that are to run

at a backup site will assist the

personnel responsible for site determination and selection and provide

personnel at the backup site with

information to judge their configuration's ability to handle the

additional workload requirements.

A final aid to the disaster

planning effort provided by the ca- pacity management/planning effort is an understanding of the business

direction and objectives of the

organization. This understanding

will help personnel involved in

disaster recovery planning to identify those systems critical to continuation of the business and the

42
business impact loss of processing

capability will have upon the

organization

.

6 . Summary

Throughout the preceeding paragraphs , the idea of approaching the

capacity management /planning process

as a business problem and the involvement of mid and upper level management

from the business community in the

process. Effects upon measurement

tool selection and reporting results

of the capacity management/planning

efforts to management must be

approached from both the component

utilization level and the business

element level. This combination

provides the necessary inputs to the

workload characterization process

,

reporting process, and planning

efforts for future business element

capacity requirements. Data elements

from the data processing environment

and the business community can help

achieve a viable disaster recovery

plan by combining requirements for

component processing and business

service

.

43

CAPACITY CONSIDERATIONS IN DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING

Steven G. Penansky

Arthur Young & Company

Washington, DC 20036

Increasing dependence on data processing in the Federal government and private industry has resulted in growing interest in recovery

plans that minimize the impact resulting from a loss to an organization's

data processing capability. Although disaster recovery planning is not generally the responsibility of an organization's CPE group, capacity

considerations play a significant role in the development of a costeffective recovery plan, and CPE practitioners are being asked to participate in the development of these plans.

This paper describes and discusses several aspects of the disaster

recovery planning process in which capacity considerations should be

addressed. The concepts of a "minimum configuration" and "recovery

windows" are discussed. Capacity considerations involved in evaluating

component recovery strategies based on reciprocal agreements, equipped

recovery centers, recovery shells, and multiple facilities are presented.

Finally, relationships between ongoing capacity planning and recovery

plan maintenance activities are examined.

Key words: Capacity planning; contingency planning; disaster recovery

planning.

Most Federal agencies and organizations

in the private sector rely heavily on automatic data processing (ADP) systems to achieve mission or corporate goals. Their

dependence on the continuing availability of

these systems makes these organizations

vulnerable to disasters such as fires, flood,

earthquakes, or other unexpected and

undesirable events which may affect their ADP

facilities. While brief interruptions in ADP senrice might be tolerated, most organizations

would suffer considerable harm should a service interruption persist. The length of

an "acceptable" service interruption varies

considerably from organization to organization. However, it is clear that in

most cases, just the potential of a prolonged

interruption in ADP services calls for the

development of disaster recovery plans to mitigate the impact of the interruptions

should they occur. This paper discusses a number of capacity-related considerations

which should be included when these plans are developed.

1. Background

In most ADP installations, the

responsibility for disaster recovery planning

has traditionally rested with operational

groups. These groups, in most cases, have not fully satisfied their responsibility for

protecting critical corporate or agency

operations or assets. They have incorporated

an increasing number of security measures

designed to reduce the number of threats to which an ADP facility is subject. They have

also instituted programs for the off-site

storage of critical data and, in some cases, have executed letters of agreement with other

45
similar facilities to provide "back-up" in the event of a disaster. Actual recovery plans were developed in only a few cases and, despite

these efforts, adequate protection was rarely

achieved [l ]^

.

In recent years, data center management

in both the Federal government and private

industry has become increasingly aware of the

importance of effective recovery plans.

Reports from external auditors and examiners

(e.g., reports from audits conducted by bank

or insurance examiners or CPA or other firms)

and guidelines issued by internal auditing

groups (e.g., 0MB Circular A-71 [2 J) have

focused management's attention on the critical

importance of these plans. As a result, more

concerted, corporate or agency-wide efforts

have been laimched to identify recovery

requirements and develop a suitable recovery

plan to meet these needs. It is in these more

recent efforts that CPE practitioners most

often have become involved.

Generally, these more recent efforts at recovery planning have taken a more realistic

view of the organization's needs and have set about the development of a plan satisfying

these needs. Traditionally the responsibility

of operational (but, with increasing

frequency, corporate security) groups, recovery planning now involves

representatives from a wide range of

organizational components. CPE practitioners

are being asked to participate in the recovery

planning process to provide much needed data

on the capacity requirements which must be met

by the individual recovery "strategies" which

are ultimately combined to provide a framework

for the full recovery plan. Although these

capacity considerations are only a small part

of the overall planning process, they play an important role in identifying viable

strategies on which to base a plan and in

ensuring that the plan continues to provide

the required protection as workloads and

configurations change.

2. Overview of the Disaster Recovery Planning

Process

A full description of the steps involved

in developing an effective recovery plan is

beyond the scope of this paper. However, the

various capacity considerations involved in

the recovery planning process are best

presented in the context of this process. The

following paragraphs present an overview of

this process, emphasizing those aspects of the

Figures in brackets indicate the

literature references at the end of this

paper

.

planning process in which capacity

considerations play an important role.

Several of the important concepts involved in

disaster recovery planning are also described.

The four key phases in the recovery planning

process are identified in figure 1. Section

3 discusses the capacity considerations

related to each of these phases.

FIGURE 1 PHASED APPROACH TO PLAN DEVELOPMENT

PHASE 1 - ASSESS RECOVERY REQUIREMENTS

PHASE 2 - EVALUATE ALTERNATIVE RECOVERY STRATEGIES

PHASE 3 - PREPARE RECOVERY PLAN

PHASE 4 - REVIEW & TEST PLAN ON ONGOING BASIS

2.1 Phase 1 - Assess Recovery Requirements

The purpose of this phase is to identify

the organization's recovery requirements and

to determine the "recovery windows" and the

"minimum configuration" which then become key

ingredients in the disaster recovery planning

process. The primary steps and results of

Phase 1 are presented in figure 2.

The first step in this process should be

the development of a series of preliminary

assumptions on which the recovery requirements

are to be based. In particular, these

assumptions should address:

The type of disasters which will be

addressed (or ignored) by the plan.

The availability of public

utilities, transportation, and other

types of support not directly

controlled by the ADP facility, and

The time ( e.g., end of week, end of

month, etc.) when the disaster would

occur.

By identifying and documenting these

assumptions, the organization can ensure that

the recovery requirements are based on a common set of assumptions regarding the nature

and scope of the disaster. Additional

assumptions will be added throughout the

planning process.

46
FIGURE 2 PHASE 1 — ASSESS RECOVERY REQUIREMENTS

STEPS: RESULTS:

• ANALYZE THREATS AND EXPOSURES • APPLICATION RECOVERY PRIORITIES

• EVALUATE LOSS POTENTIAL AS A FUNC • RECOVERY WINDOW CHARACTERISTICS

TION OF TIME

• MINIMUM CONFIGURATION RcOUIRE-

• DEFINE RECOVERY WINDOWS MENTS

• IDENTIFY MINIMUM CONFIGURATION REQUIREMENTS

REVIEW WITH MANAGEMENT AND

USERS

Because the potential losses incurred by an organization will differ for each

application system considered, and because,

with all likelihood, the magnitude of these

potential losses will change as a function of

the length of the service interruption,

recovery requirements should be expressed on an application- by-application basis and as a function of time. Political considerations

may make it difficult to develop a precise

ranking of these recovery requirements. In these cases, priorities may be assigned to classes of similar applications. At this

point, a number of applications (or one or more classes) are identified as "critical

applications." These applications are included in subsequent recovery planning

efforts, the remainder (which might include

"applications" such as systems development,

performance reporting, etc.) are considered

deferable until normal operations resume.

The time dependent nature of these

requirements suggests that several recovery

strategies may be required - each operating

in one or more time frames. These time frames

are termed "recovery windows" and are based

on the recovery requirements identified. For

each of the recovery windows identified, a "minimum configuration" must be identified.

This configuration is the smallest set of:

• people;

space, power, and other

environmental preparations;

. hardware;

software;

data;

documentation;

. communications (data and voice),

and;

supplies

needed to process an organization's critical

applications in each recovery window. As a final step in this phase, the prioritized

applications, recovery window definitions, and

minimum configuration requirements are reviewed with management and users.

2.2 Phase 2 - Evaluate Alternative Recovery.

Strategies

During this phase, the recovery

requirments determined during Phase 1 are used

to analyze alternative recovery strategies and

select an overall recovery approach on which

the organization's recovery plan can be based.

Figure 3 summarizes the key steps in this

process and the results to be obtained.

Depending on the length of a service

interruption, one or more recovery strategies

may be needed to restore an organization's ADP capabilities in the most cost-effective

manner. Multiple recovery strategies are usually required because inherent time delays,

costs, or other considerations preclude the use of a single strategy throughout the

duration of a disaster. For example, an organization may need 24 hours or more to
FIGURE 3 PHASE 2 —

EVALUATE ALTERNATIVE RECOVERY STRATEGIES

STEPS:

• IDENTIFY VIABLE RECOVERY

STRATEGIES

• EVALUATE STRATEGIES AGAINST RECOVERY REQUIREMENTS

• EVALUATE COSTS OF ACCEPTABLE

STRATEGIES

• REVIEW WITH MANAGEMENT AND USERS

RESULTS:

• ALTERNATIVE RECOVERY STRATEGY

EVALUATION

• COST ANALYSIS

• OVERALL RECOVERY APPROACH RECOMMENDATIONS

transfer its critical application to an alternate site (Strategy A) due to the

logistical problems involved in such a transfer. As a result, manual procedures and

recordkeeping (Strategy B) may be required to maintain critical functions in the hours

immediately following a disaster.

The recovery strategies generally

available to an organization include:

Clerical procedures - The use of

forms, logs, and other recordkeeping measures to record critical

information and build a queue of

work to be processed once automated

processing capabilities are

restored. If this strategy is to be used successfully, these forms

and logs along with written

procedures describing their use must be developed prior to the

disaster and kept up-to-date.

Because of the large number of paper

records which result, clerical

procedures are generally useful

only for short- interval recovery

windows, such as 48 hours or less.

Formal reciprocal agreements - Agreements which guaranty that an organization struck by a disaster

can share another organization's ADP facility and processing time.

Though simple to establish in

principle, these agreements are difficult to maintain and are unlikely to be totally reliable.

The impact of such agreements on the

"unaffected" organization usually

limits the use of this strategy to recovery windows of one week or

less.

Recovery shells - A building

equipped with the raised floor,

power, cooling, fire protection,

security, and other preparations

needed to establish a new ADP facility but not data processing

hardware or communications

facilities. The viability of a strategy based on the use of a recovery shell is directly related

to the hardware and communications

vendors' ability to deliver

replacement equipment.

Equipped recovery centers - Complete ADP facilities, equipped

with compatible hardware and

communications equipment. Access

to these facilities can generally

be obtained within hours after a disaster is declared. However,

their continued use is usually

limited to between 30 and 60 days.

Cost is usually the primary obstacle

to the use of these facilities.

Multiple ADP facilities - The use of two or more geographically

separated facilities, the smallest

of which is large enough to process

the organization's critical

applications. The nature of this

strategy ensures the availability

of a recovery facility throughout

the duration of a disaster. Because

the use of multiple facilities

involves business decisions and

commitments beyond the scope of

disaster recovery, it is difficult

to determine the direct costs

associated with this strategy.

I

48
Once the technical, logistical,

organizational, and other implications of

these strategies have been identified, an evaluation on these terms is usually conducted

to eliminate those strategies which are not consistent with the recovery requirements or which have unacceptable consequences in other

areas. These component recovery strategies,

each operating in one or more recovery windows

and for some subset of the organization's

critical applications, can then be combined

to form one or more recovery approaches (see

figure 4). The costs associated with

alternative strategies and approaches is then

examined and an overall recovery approach

selected. The results of this evaluation are then reviewed with management and users to ensure they understand the advantages,

disadvantages, costs, and any special

considerations associated with each

alternative and concur with the overall

recovery strategy selected.

2.3 Phase 3 - Prepare Recovery Plan

Once the framework of the plan has been

defined, a recovery plan development team must

be established and the detailed planning,

analysis, and documentation required to prepare the actual recovery plan must be

performed. The primary steps and results in

this phase are presented in figure 5- The

specific plans and procedures to be prepared

in this phase are largely a function of the

particular recovery approach selected. As the

final step in this phase, the plan should be

reviewed with senior management, users, and ADP management to ensure that the completed

plan meets the expectations of all concerned.

2.4 Phase 4 - Review and Test Plan on Ongoing

Basis

During this phase, initial training for

management and operational personnel should

be conducted and the detailed plan developed

in Phase 3 tested (see figure 6). Individixals

who have direct responsibility for disaster

recovery should be thoroughly versed in the

plan and its execution. Those who do not should

be acquainted with the policy and procedures

defined in the plan.

Periodic testing of the plan is essential

to ensuring that it will provide the necessary

protection if and when it is needed. Tests should be conducted in a manner that evaluates

the capabilities of the plan under a realistic

set of conditions which could be expected

during a disaster. An organization's most

critical applications should be tested first,

and the full range of functions required to successfully process these applications

should be tested.

Maintaining the recovery plan once it has

been developed is a vitally important

function. As is the case in most planning

efforts, the recovery plan developed in Phase

3 will be out of date by the time it is

completed. The formal plan maintenance

process developed in Phase 3 must be continued

FIGURE 4 COMBINATION OF STRATEGIES TO FORM

OVERALL RECOVERY APPROACH

PRIORITY APPLICATION CLASS OVERALL RECOVERY APPROACH

PERSONNEL 1

ACCOUNTS

RECEIVABLE

1

INVENTORY CONTROL

2

PAYROLL 3

C

STRATEGY

1

STRATEGY

9

STRATEGY

3

STRATEGY

4

STRATEGY

STRATEGY

6

EXPECTED RECOVERY DURATION (MONTHS)

49
FIGURE 5 PHASE 3 — PREPARE RECOVERY PLAN

STEPS: RESULTS:

• ESTABLISH PLAN DEVELOPMENT TEAM • PLAN DEVELOPMENT TEAM

ORGANIZATION

• PREPARE DETAILED PROJECT PLAN

• PROJECT PLAl'J CONDUCT DETAILED APPLICATION REVIEW • APPLICATION RECOVERY REOUIRE MENTS

• PREPARE PROCEDURES FOR INITIATING RECOVERY • DESCRIPTION OF CRITICAL RESOURCES

• PREPARE PROCEDURES FOR • DETAILED RECOVERY PROCEDURES

APPLICATION PROCESSING

• STAFFING AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• FINALIZE RECOVERY TEAM

ORGANIZATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES • MAINTENANCE AND TESTING PROCEDURES

• PREPARE PROCEDURES FOR MAIN

TAINING AND TESTING PLAN • APPROVED RECOVERY PLAN

• FINALIZE PLAN DOCUMENTATION AND

REVIEW WITH MANAGEMENT AND USERS

throughout the life of the plan to reflect the

many changes which are a regular part of data

processing.

FIGURE 6 PHASE 4 - REVIEW AND TEST PLAN

ON ONGOING BASIS

STEPS:

• TRAIN MANAGEMENT AND

OPERATIONS PERSONNEL

• CONDUCT PERIODIC TESTING

RESULTS:

A DISASTER

RECOVERY

CAPABILITY

3.1 Phase 1 - Assess Eecovery Requirements

Since Phase 1 is concerned primarily with

evaluating exposure and risks and prioritizing

recovery requirements, capacity

considerations do not play a major role. One might argue that, at this stage, questions

about

:

the capacity of an organization's ADP configuration,

the capacity requirements of

individual applications, and

the capacity which may be required

to support an organization's

critical applications in a recovery, environment

• PERFORM ONGOING MONITORING AND MAINTENANCE

3. Capacity Considerations

Capacity considerations are present in

many aspects of the disaster recovery planning

process. The following sections describe the

major considerations involved in terms of each

of the recovery planning process phases

described above.

should not even be considered. The exposures

and potential losses identified and the

recovery requirements derived should be based

solely on the impact of a disaster and, at

this point, not on the efforts and costs required to satisfy these recovery

requirements.

The early stages of Phase 1 do provide

an opportunity to gather information which

will be used later in this phase and in

subsequent phases. This informtion should

include

:

Resource requirements of each

individual application

50
Run times

CPU and memory requirements

DASD space requirements

Tape drive requirements

Communications requirements

Printing/ punching

requirements

Other special output

requirements (special forms,

bursting, decollating, COM,

etc.)

System and supporting software

needed to process all applications

Operating system software

Special on-line systems

Utilities

Assemblers, compilers, linkage

editors, etc.

Supporting systems (data base

system(s), tape library

system, etc.)

Others

An inventory of all computer

hardware and communications

equipment

Type of equipment

Vendor

Model

Special features.

Much of this information will already be

available if a comprehensive CPE program has

been established.

Once the organization's recovery

requirements have been defined and the

recovery windows selected, the minimm

configuration required to process the critical

applications in each recovery window must be

determined. Since many critical applications

are processed on a periodic basis, this

determination must be based on earlier

assumptions regarding the conditions under

which a disaster would occur. A "realistic

worst case" scenario should be developed

describing the most disadvantageous time when

a disaster could reasonably occur in terms of

the resource requirements of the

organization's critical applications. A disaster at that time would require the

heaviest use of the AflP facility and would

probably result in the highest vulnerability

from a corporate or agency standpoint.

Based on this scenario, the minimum

configuration can be selected using the

information described above or other available

information sources. Each of the components

described in Section 2.1 should be considered.

In developing this configuration, the

following should be kept in mind:

Only the gross characteristics of

the configuration need be

determined; however, care should be

taken to identify any special

features which must be provided or any other conditions which must be

met.

Operations in a recovery

environment will be difficult, at

best. Few if any deviations should

be made from normal operating

procedures and more than an adequate

supply of all critical resources

should be included in the

configuration.

In particular, additional capacity

should be included to account for

the fact that:

the system used for recovery

may not be tuned to the

critical applications, and

normal processing schedules

will be interrupted and

additional capacity may be

needed to "make up" lost time.

3.2 Phase 2 - Evaluate Alternative

Recovery Strategies

Phase 2 capacity considerations center

around the suitability of the alternative

strategies available for disaster recovery.

As defined in Section 2.2, these strategies

generally include:

Clerical procedures

Formal reciprocal agreements

Recovery shells

Equipped recovery centers

51
Multiple ADP facilities.

Since these strategies may be suitable for one or more groups of applications and for one or more recovery windows, the capacity

considerations described should be applied to each situation for which a strategy is being

considered.

3.2.1 Clerical Procedures

In the event of a disaster, clerical

procedures impose a substantial burden on the

personnel in user departments. These

personnel, who have become accustomed to using

an automated system, are suddenly forced to revert to manual recordkeeping. The

difficulties they encounter stem primarily

from a lack of:

adequate staffing levels, which may

have been reduced with the advent

of the automated system;

training in the manual system due

to turnover, transfers, and

retirement; and

forms, logs, and procedures needed

to re-establish the manual system.

Although clerical procedures are often an effective method of continuing critical

functions in the period directly following a disaster, personnel capacity should be

examined as a significant factor in the success

of this strategy.

3.2.2 Formal Reciprocal Agreements

For disasters of short duration, formal

reciprocal agreements can be effective. Some

organizations can afford to share some portion

of their ADP facilities with another

organization for short periods of time.

Difficulties are generally encoimtered when

longer periods are involved. Because of the

risks involved in assuming that only a short

period of recovery will be required, and the

effort needed to maintain the high degree of

hardware and software compatibility a reciprocal agreement requires, these

strategies are only effective in special

circumstances.

Before getting involved in a formal

reciprocal agreement, an organization should

look carefully at its capacity requirements

and the capacity available at the other

site(s). It should evaluate whether it could

afford to give up 30-40^ of its configuration

capacity and still process its workload. Does

it have the time to process portions of several

of the other organization's applications (each

day, if necessary) to gi;iaranty hardware and

software compatibility? Does it really want

to "buy into" someone else's disaster?

3.2.3 Recovery Shells

Recovery shells are relatively easy to evaluate from a space standpoint: determine

the size of the site needed to house the

minimum configuration( s) identified in Phase

1 including room for disk, tape, and related

storage; input and output control areas; data

entry; etc. Power, cooling, and several other

requirements are handled the same way. If a shell looks "tight", opt for a larger one.

From a hardware and commxmications

standpoint, the use of a shell is predicated

on the vendor's ability to deliver the

necessary equipment and provide the

communications hook-ups needed. If possible,

get vendors' commitments on replacement

equipment in advance, in writing, and store

them off-site. Don't forget the time required

for installation and debugging. If your

organization can't get a firm commitment, or

if it can't afford the delays involved, use a shell for the later recovery stages and select

a more reliable strategy for the earlier

stages of recovery.

3.2.4 Equipped Recovery Centers

Equipped recovery centers come in sizes.

The sizes are usually based on the size of the CPU in the configuration, with the number and

type of DASD devices, the amount of memory,

and the type of communications provided scaled

proportionally. Sometimes several size

options are available from the same vendor.

Selecting the right size center is

relatively easy if your organization's needs

fit nicely between the limits of each size

class. If they don't you may be paying for more than you need, but anticipated growth

over the next few years may justify the

additional capacity. Otherwise you'll have to develop your plan around the features provided

by the class you need now and then revise the

plan a few years from now. A quick look at

the features and costs of each class and your

growth plans should answer the class selection

question. Also remember that your plan will

take six months or more to develop to the point

that you could actually use the center

effectively, so adjust your capacity estimates

accordingly.

If your organization has some type of

exceptional requirement which is beyond the

scope of a size class which otherwise meets

52
your needs, service bureaus in the vicinity

of the recovery center may be able to provide

the additional capacity your organization

needs. The cost may be lower than moving up

a class. This approach is most applicable to

COM, printing, data entry and other kinds of

processing that can be done "off-line."

3.2.5 Multiple ADP Facilities

Multiple ADP facilities provide the most flexibility in recovery planning and are often

the most costly strategy. However, many of

these costs are not directly attributable to disaster recovery. A second ADP facility can

be used in a variety of ways depending on the

nature of the applications portfolio, the

organization's willingness to incur rather

high costs, and their willingness to undertake

business ventures:

As a ready recovery site with

sufficient equipment and staff. The

relatively high cost of this

approach would be a direct expense

to the organization. This type of

redundancy might be required if

recovery had to be as immediate as possible.

As a separate but equal facility,

handling approximately half of the

workload and with approximately

half of the total capacity. This assumes that the organization's

critical applications account for

less than half of the total

workload.

As a service bureau selling time for

processing that could be pre-empted

in the event of a disaster. In most

cases, this would involve a separate

business venture.

A ready site must have sufficient capacity to process the critical applications and to begin

this processing within some rather stringent

time constraints. This would certainly

require ready capacity in all areas, including

personnel. The service bureau approach

imposes additional complications on an already

difficult problem. Though certainly feasible,

it is a decision with business and capacity

considerations beyond the scope of disaster

recovery.

When evaluating the suitability of each

strategy and formulating an overall recovery

approach, the impact of the organization's

growth plans on each strategy should be

considered. Each strategy should be reviewed

to determine if it will still be practical and

cost-effective in two to five years. The

impact of each strategy on the growth plans

should also be examined.

3.3 Phase 3 - Prepare Recovery Plan

During Phase 3, the detailed policies,

plans and procedures to be included in the

final recovery plan must be prepared. Much

of this effort parallels the analysis tasks

in Phase 1 only with more attention to detail.

Many of the capacity considerations involved

have been discussed above.

One particular procedure to be prepared

in this phase involves a considerable number

of capacity considerations. This procedure

addresses the replacement of the ADP facility

or any equipment damaged during the disaster.

In the event of a partial or total loss to the ADP facility, decisions must be made about

relocating the ADP facility. Similarly, if

the facility can be salvaged but the

configuration was destroyed, decisions must

be made whether more (or less) powerful

components should be acquired, and if so, which

ones.

3.4 Phase 4 - Review and Test Plan on Ongoing

Basis

From a capacity standpoint, Phase 4 is

primarily concerned with "closing the loop" - updating the plan to reflect the changes in:

Hardware, software, staff, etc. at

the primary site

Changes in corresponding areas at the site(s) used in the recovery

plan

Organizational policies,

priorities, or practices which

affect the recovery plan

The organization's applications

portfolio.

To provide the necessary updated information,

close cooperation and formal interfaces must

be developed between a number of facility

management functions. Most of the information

needed to update the recovery plan should be

available from the organization's capacity

planning process. Other information should

be available from application system

development and change control programs.

Truly effective plan maintenance will

ultimately require a change in the way the

organization "does business," requiring new

or improved interfaces between these and other ADP and business fimctions.

53
4. Conclusions

Concerns regarding the impact of

processing interruptions have stimulated

increased interest in effective disaster

recovery plans. To ensure the effectiveness

of these plans, capacity considerations must be incorporated throughout the recovery

planning process. CPE practitioners should

become increasingly involved in plan

development and maintenance activities to ensure that recovery plans provide sufficient

capacity to ensure the continued availability

of an organization's critical ADP functions.

I would like to acknowledge the contribution Mr, Donald Cloud of Arthur Young L Company's Providence, Rhode Island office

has made to the development of the concepts

and approaches described in this paper.

Ref erences

[ l] Comptroller General's Report to The

Congress, "Most Federal Agencies Have

Done Little Planning for ADP Disasters," U.S. General Accounting Office,

December 18, 1980.

[2] Office of Management and Budget,

Circular A-71, Transmittal Memorandom No. 1, "Security of Federal

Automated Information Systems,"

July 27, 1978.

54
End User Productivity

55

SESSION OVERVIEW

END USER PRODUCTIVITY

Terry Potter

Digital Equipment Corporation

Maynard, MA

Carl Palmer pointed out in this year's proceedings

Foreword that Productivity is defined as the relationship

between the quantity of goods or services produced (outputs) at

a given level of quality and the resources used (input).

Therefore, the end user of a computer system should see higher

quantity and/or quality of goods or services at the same cost

if productivity increases, or at least the same

quantity/quality at lower cost. Issues in measuring/reporting

on productivity; techniques to increase productivity; and

methods to analyze or view end user productivity are the key

theme of this session.

Computers were a major boost to U.S. productivity during

their early development since they were put on assignments

which required little human intervention and were well

structured/repetitive. Archer points out that today the

applications of computers are more interactive, involving major

human intervention doing work which is highly unstructured and non- repetitive. These new applications of computers are requiring fundamental changes in both hardware and software.

New hardware such as local area networks, geographically

distributed systems, new database facilities, graphics and

intelligent terminals, microcomputers, as well as new

architectures are beginning to emerge. New types of software

allowing application development without programming or, at least, more automation of application development are also

emerging. Elsen's paper focuses on one aspect of this new type

or style of software development.

The era of "end-user-driven" computing is now upon us. Understanding the work that the user does will be key to engineering the systems which are flexible enough to meet the

productivity goals of an organization. The paper by

Wilson/Mohr begins to address the issue of measuring and

reporting service while allowing the user to define work in a flex ible manner

.

In the past, performance analysts have viewed their job as analysing the computer system and its underlying structures.

In the near future, however, performance analysts will be

forced to view both the computer and the personnel subsystems.

Archer's paper discusses a framework for doing performance

analyses at different levels of system complexity. That is, he

proposes a finite state modeling framework to express both the

computer and personnel subsystems. Given this framework, one

can apply the typical performance analysis methods we have all

become accustomed to. 57

SERVICE REPORTING FOR THE BOTTOM LINE

Carol B. Wilson

Fiscal Associates, Inc. Alexandria , VA

Jeffrey M. Mohr

Chan Mei Chu

Arthur Young & Company

Washington, DC

The productivity of the end-users of an ADP Installation is affected

by the service being rendered by the installation, and by the anticipated

service levels. Losses in productivity of the end-users can ripple out- ward in the form of losses in benefit to the organization from missed

opportunities, etc., or in the form of increased cost to the organization

to produce the same products or services. As the ADP installation becomes more critical to the success of the organization, the need to ensure the

continuation of adequate service becomes more important. This paper describes the basis of an approach to user service reporting based on the

fiscal aspects of ADP service. Such a system would provide the necessary information to various levels of organizational management to permit the assessment of ADP performance as it affects end-user productivity

and the bottom line for the organization.

Key words: ADP installation management; cost-benefit; performance management; productivity; user service reporting.

1. Productivity and ADP Service

Productivity of the American work force

has become a general issue of concern to business and government. For the past sev- eral months , hardly any issue of a management related periodical has failed to have

an article on productivity. We read articles concerning the great productivity found

in the Japanese industries which is no longer found in American industries. We read

articles on how Theory Z of management will

increase the productivity of our work force.

Books have come out concerning the psychological factors of groups and norm settings,

and how this affects the work flow and productivity of workers in different environments. Such concerns have also been voiced

in the computer industry, as the productivity

of ADP personnel lags behind the technological advances made in the hardware area. In response to these concerns, the ADP industry

has seen an upsurge in the development of

productivity tools for both ADP professionals

and non-ADP professionals using ADP as a resource.

The concept of aiding programmer productivity extends back many years. For example, the addition of the Report Writer

capability to the COBOL language was an early productivity tool aimed at reducing

the time and effort required to format and

generate typical reports. The early efforts

in the file management system area were also

driven and sold for productivity increases

by reducing the effort required to handle

increasingly larger and more complex sets of data. Following this, products were developed; e.g., data base management systems.

59
which would permit a non-ADP person to access

data and perform some limited formatting and

manipulation of that data for reporting purposes without having to use an ADP professional as a go-between.

What has sparked this interest in productivity? Are we striving for greater productivity for the sake of greater productivity, or, is there some underlying principle

that drives the pressure to maintain or to increase productivity of the work force?

While there are undoubtedly sound social and

psychological reasons for having people work

productively, we feel that the primary interest in productivity relates to the fact that

decreases in productivity decrease the benefit, or profit, to the organization. That is to say, that productivity affects the bottom

line figure for an organization. This can easily be seen when we objectively look for

a definition of productivity. Productivity

can be defined as the amount of work performed for a given amount of dollars. Productivity will increase when more products or ser- vices are produced for a specified cost. Increasing the output of an organization - products or services - increases the benefits

to the organization in the form of income,

increased social benefits, etc. If the in- crease occurs without a corresponding in- crease in the cost to produce the output, the net benefit to the organization is increased.

So what does user service reporting have

to do with productivity? Many ADP installations provide a valuable, possibly critical,

service to the organization by providing com- puting resources to the organizational units

to assist them in carrying out their functions. The service which the installation

provides can affect the productivity of the

organizational units. As the ADP installation service becomes more critical to the success of the organization, the need to en- sure the continuation of adequate service

becomes more important. A user service re- porting system will be needed to provide the

necessary information to the organizational

management which will permit the assessment

of ADP performance as it affects user productivity and the ability of an organization

to maximize its net benefit.

During fiscal year 1981, the National

Bureau of Standards supported work (under

contract NB80SBCA0501) to look into the

feasibility of developing a user service re- porting system (USRS) which would support

decisions made to maximize the net benefit

to an organization. The problems associated

with developing a USRS based on such a concept and the requirements which would be

placed on the USRS were the major topics of

the contract. In the remainder of the paper,

we summarize the work of the contract and

discuss the requirements of such a USRS.

2. Service and Net Benefit to the

Organization

The goal of any ADP installation should

be to meet the computing needs of its user community; i.e., to provide the needed ser- vice to the users. User service reporting

should be the cornerstone of all computer

performance management programs in that

(1) reports of deviations below the required

level of service should be the trigger mechanism for some type of performance improvement activity; (2) information should be provided by the reporting system to enable proper planning for the application of user workloads to the ADP installation resources

to enhance productivity and maximization of net benefit. Because the requirements for

service vary and the demands placed on the

installation may vary, the task of managing

service becomes one of global balancing and

planning for the best overall benefit to the

organization. It should be noted that the ADP installation itself only generates a direct benefit to the organization if it

brings in outside income from "renting out"

its excess capacity. Otherwise, the ADP installation's benefit to the organization

can only be measured in terms of the net benefits to the organization of having the

workload run on it, where the net benefit to the organization for a particular piece of

workload can be defined as the difference

between the benefit to the organization an^

the total cost of performing the work using

the ADP installation resource.

How are service and net benefit related?

Bennett [BENNW 81] discusses this relation

by pointing out that if an ADP installation

provides service to an efficient user and

minimizes to a practical point the time re- quired to successfully complete the unit of

work and the required level of user effort,

that the installation is providing practically maximal effective service. Further,

service may be considered to have improved

if the time-to-completion or user effort are reduced and such reductions lead to reduced

costs to the user or increased benefits.

The setting of service goals and the level

of service rendered can affect the productivity of the end-users . There are no universal "best" service levels, since the

levels depend upon the environment of the

work force which uses the ADP resource. For example, the response time of an online

system should be fairly fast for repetitive

60
data entry so that the system does not slow

down the person entering the data. However,

in some situations it has been shown that a rapid response may actually lead to greater

errors, uneasiness, and lessened productivity of a terminal user.

In the section immediately below we

give a general overview of the concept of

maximizing net benefit to an organization.

The reader is referred to the NBS special

publication [MOHRJ 81a] and other references

in the bibliography dealing with cost and/or

benefit analysis of ADP service and the

economics of computing. This discussion is

included to ensure that the reader has a general notion of cost-benefit analysis and

its informational requirements, since the

informational requirements form the basis of

the approach to a USRS. In the section following the discussion of net benefit, we ex- amine what general requirements this approach

places on a USRS.

3. Concept of Maximizing Net Benefit to the

Organiztion

The crux of user service reporting and

the management of service to the users lies

in the identification of the computing needs

of the user community. The approach taken

in this paper is that analysis of computer

performance should be based on the fiscal

aspects of rendering ADP service to the offered user workload, and the determination

of xvrhich work should be included in the offered user workload and the service it should

receive be based on the net benefit of that

work to the organization. The underlying

assumption is that benefits and costs associated with the use of the ADP resources In support of an organizational program can be

quantified. In fact, it is pointed out [BENNW 81] that if the benefit associated

with a unit of work can not be determined,

the decisions concerning the usefulness of

the work and its relative priority with respect to other work can not be objectively

determined

.

The provision of a particular service

or end-product by an organization is assumed

to have an intrinsic value. Benefits are assumed to be the positive advantages which

an organization receives as a result of supplying an end-product to another organization or individual. In the commercial sector, that value relates to profit to a business. In the Federal sector, the value may

be derived from satisfying social needs of

the country as expressed in the system of

public laws and Congressional mandates.

Qunatifying such benefits can be quite complex, and a discussion of the associated

problems is definitely beyond the scope of

this paper.

Although non-trivial, we will assume

that the gross benefit to the organization

for a particular unit of work can be determined. It remains, then, to determine the

gross, or total, cost to the organization of

processing that work at its ADP Installation.

The total cost of processing work for a project (j) can be expressed as

C(j) = CU(j) + CI(j) (1)

where C(j) is the total ADP-related cost for

work for project (j

)

CU(j) is the Indirect costs to project (j)

CI(j) is the direct Installation costs

to project(j)

.

CU(j) relates to the service rendered by the ADP installation and would include such

things as the cost of the direct users of the

project (i.e. , personnel who directly use the ADP resource such as programmers, data entry

clerks, etc.) and delay costs (e.g., lost

opportunity costs or user impact costs).

CI(j) would Include the computing system cost

(e.g., chargeback) and auxllllary costs. It

is well to note that CU(j) may be positive or negative, since

CU(j) = P(j) - S(j) (2)

where P(j) is the personnel cost

S(j) are the savings incurred as the

result of productivity Increases

due to ADP reducing the effort.

It is at this point that we can begin to see where service, end-user productivity, and the

bottom line are related. End-user productivity is affected by the service both rendered

(i.e., response) and anticipated. Losses, or gains, in productivity will ultimately be re- flected in costs and benefits to the organization.

Regardless of the cause and source of

the ADP service degradation, the end result

will be the same - some degree of Impact on

the user community. When the user community

is unable to perform their assigned jobs due

to ADP service failures, resources are wasted,

user costs increase, and productivity de- creases. Hence, when service rendered does

not meet the required levels, delay costs may

be accrued. The estimation of the more tangible costs is fairly straightforward, involving estimating the length of time a user is

61
non-productive while waiting for an overdue

response from the ADP installation. But there are often less tangible delay costs,

involving, for example, changes in work patterns of attitudes of users. An example of

less tangible delay costs is given by Axelrod

[AXELC 79] when he discusses the effect of a job not meeting the estimated turnaround

time. The effect may range from loss time

and productivity of the user as he diverts

his time to a monitoring operation with re- spect to the system queries, to a loss of

potentially profitable jobs because of lack

of user confidence in the ADP installation.

Secondary delay costs may also occur as the poor service to the direct user ripples

its way outward in the form of missed deadlines on projects, decisions being made using

incomplete data, decisions postponed, lost

opportunities for benefits, etc. It should

be pointed out that resources are always

wasted when service is poor, since they do not contribute to the gross benefit to the

organization and could always be expended

more profitably in other areas. It is not

a valid argument that such costs are not real

because salaries must be paid anyway, machines leased, etc., since, st some point,

end-user productivity loss will translate

into additional resources (e.g., manpower)

requirements

.

Given that the above determinations and

calculations can be made, we can define as follows the net benefit to the project (j) of

performing its work by using the ADP installation resources:

NB(j) = B(j) - C(j) (3)

where B(j) is the gross benefit to the organization for project(j)

C(j) is the total cost of using the ADP installation.

The equation above assumes that the installation has a particular configuration which

is tuned to perform in a certain manner. When the characteristics of the installation's ability to provide service change,

the NB(j) will change, because C(J) depends

on the direct installation costs - CI(j) - and the performance of the installation,

which affects CU(j).

For a given ADP installation capability,

the net benefit to the organization as a whole for the ADP resource is defines as:

NB = B - C (4)

where B is the benefit to all projects given

the installation capability

C is the cost of using the ADP installation.

Since the net benefit, NB, depends on the

precise capabilities of the ADP installation

and the make-up of the user workload, a set

of NB(i) could be developed for various alternative installation capabilities. The

proper mix of user workload and ADP installation resources could then be determined by

maximizing the NB(i). It should be noted

that sub-maximizations must be performed

throughout the process, since the determination of whether a particular user job will

become part of the workload depends on system

and auxilliary costs, which in turn depend

on installation capability.

In order to quantify these economic

consequences, the user reporting system must

be able to describe user workload at a high

enough level to relate meaningfully the

workload to the costs and benefits associated

with the user work. In addition, methods to translate user work to installation-specific measures are needed to estimate the capacity

required to support the user workload at a specified level. Such a capability would

permit the costs to the installation to be

weighed against the costs and benefits to the users of using the installation, all of

which would lead to the maximization of net

benefit to the organization. Such capabilities are not found in performance systems

today. In the following section we discuss

why these characteristics are important.

4. User Reporting System ,

4 . 1 Environment

The user needs the ADP installation to process his workload within certain service

thresholds if the net benefit to the organization is to remain practically maximal.

User service reporting enters the picture by

providing the necessary information to keep

the service function of the ADP installation

under control - although it may not provide

all the information necessary to arrive at a solution to the performance problem. Further, the user service reporting system must

provide the information necessary to relate

user workload to the service characteristics

of a given configuration if planning is to be effective in ensuring that the needed

levels of service are provided.

The goal of a user service reporting

system should be to provide information with

respect to ADP service to support the decisions being made by the upper management.

62
the project /line management, and the ADP installation management. The users need to know what service to expect and what costs will be incurred in acquiring and using the

services of the ADP installation if they are

to effectively control and plan their programs and projects. The ADP manager also

needs information concerning the current

level of service being provided to the user

and the impact of the projected workload on

the installation's ability to provide service.

The USRS should provide an important link between the user community and the ADP installation.

Both the user and the ADP manager need

service information in order to properly con- trol the execution of their projects and programs. For example, a manager of direct

users may need to make a decision regarding

the addition of data entry clerks to a project if the system is not responsive enough

for the current staff to perform the data

entry function. Likewise, the manager of a program development group may need to make

decisions regarding the assignment of multiple development tasks to an individual due

to the long turnaround time of the ADP installation in processing batch work. These

types of decisions are control, or operating,

decisions which are made to accomodate shortterm situations that exist when the ADP installation is not providing acceptable levels

of service. If such situations were to occur

over a sufficiently long period of time,

planning decisions would be most likely be

made by user managers and the ADP manager,

resulting in a mutually acceptable course

of action.

Decisions in the planning area require

more and different information than is re- quired for making control decisions. In particular, not only would information re- lated to the quality of service being provided be necessary, but also information con- cerning the cost of providing service at different levels. Such cost information would

include both the direct cost to the ADP installation of providing the required levels

of service, and the indirect cost to the

organization when service falls below the

specified levels.

4.2 Requirements

In order for a user service reporting

system to satisf actorially support both the ADP manager and the user community in effectively managing their projects, the following

requirements must be met by the system:

* The ability to provide management

with information necessary to make

informed cost analyses in order to maximize net benefit to the organization

* The ability to provide information that

is needed by the user community to control their projects and resources

* The ability to provide information that

is needed by the ADP manager to control

the computing resource

The first requirement is necessary if the

proper planning is to be carried out to en- sure that the required service level can be met by the ADP installation in the future as

it processes the user workload. The last two requirements support the control, or operational, decision-making processes of

the user community and the ADP installation

manager

.

4.2.1 Informed Cost Analysis

In the discussion above, we have noted

that the computing needs of the user community should be determined by satisfying the

overall goal of maximizing net benefit to the organization. The level of service provided by the ADP installation may affect

both the costs and the benefits of completing

the user's work functions. To be useful to

a USRS report recipient, the work units for

which service reports are generated should

correspond to the work units of the function

being performed. That is to say, the users must be given the ability to define units

of work, and , thus, the levels at which the

workload will be described, so that the re- ports are in user-oriented terms and measures. The definition of user work units

will vary from installation to installation,

and even from application system to application system within an organization.

Further, the full cost of ADP service

must be reported, which includes both user

and ADP installation costs. The service

level requirements placed on the ADP installations reflect the quality of service re- quired by the user community to successfully

meet its schedules and deadlines. When the

ADP installation is meeting these requirements and is available, cost incurred by

projects for idle workers, missed deadlines,

etc., are not attributable to the ADP re- source. However, whenever the ADP installation is unable to meet the service requirements of all, or part, of its user community,

there is a cost impact to projects of not having adequate service. For example, the

lost time, and hence cost, ^associated with

having data entry clerks sit idle while the

computing resource is unavailable is an

63
additional cost incurred by the project,

since the work they would have been performing must still be performed when the ADP re- source becomes available. The estimation of

such delay costs is not necessarily straightforward or simple. Such information, however,

is essential to the user community in con- trolling project costs and for management in

making planning decisions. In order for a USRS to satisfy this requirement, it must be

able to model (calculate) the costs incurred

by individual users and projects based on different levels of ADP service. When the

reporting system is supporting the control

function, it must be able to model delay

costs based on the actual ADP service being

provided. When the reporting system is supporting the planning function, it must be

able to model the costs based on projected

service and performance levels as estimated

from workload projections and projected

changes to the system configuration. The

satisfaction of this objective is of great

importance to the overall ability of the USRS

to support the decision-making processes,

particularly in the planning area.

4.2.2 Planning and Control of Projects

An ADP installation functions as a ser- vice to the user progrmmatic groups and projects of an organization. Almost all user ADP work is not an end in itself, but is a part of a larger project or program. The

programs and projects have schedules and

deadlines to meet, and milestones to be

reached. These schedules and deadlines were projected based on the quality of service the user expected to receive from the ADP installation. The level of service was based on

the function of the user project and was to help to optimize the end-user's productivity.

In order for a manager to control effectively

his project and meet his deadlines and schedules, he needs information concerning the

service he is receiving for the ADP installation and the service that he can expect to receive in the near term.

Reporting to the user community the

level of service it has received is probably

not as important as projecting the quality of

service that will be provided. Although it

may be argued that the community already

knows the level of service it is receiving

from the ADP installation, and that the re- porting of such informatin is not necessary,

it is the inclination of users to blame the

computer anytime projects are not going well,

or are delayed. ADP service information

would appear useful in helping a user manager

isolate a problem with a project in which the

service being received from the ADP installat ion might be a contributing factor.

The user service reporting system must

be able to provide the required information

concerning the projected quality of service

early enough to serve as input to the decision-making process. The requirement is

critical is the reporting system is to be

able to support the project control function

of the user. Such information is needed by

the user managers to determine the adjustments that need to be made to the work

schedules. This is especially important if ADP usage is on the critical path of the

project. The ability of the USRS to fulfill

this objective may hinge on its ability to relate service with system configuration and

offered workload.

4.2.3 Control of the ADP Resource

The ADP manager has the responsibility

for ensuring that the ADP installation meets

the service requirements of the user community when it is processing the expected workload, and that the ADP installation is run

in an efficient, effective manner. In order

to carry out these functions, the ADP manager

needs to know where in the system the service

bottlenecks are to be found. The key to this

requirement is that the USRS must be able to relate the quality of service to factors

which can point to the specific areas which

need improvement if the service level is to be brought within control limits. The USRS

is not to take the place of a performance

management system, but should be able to provide service related data to such a system. The USRS should indicate when a performance problem exists, and the performancie

management system should be used to diagnose

the problem.

5. Conclusion

With the possible exception of ADP ser- vice bureaus or commercial timesharing ser- vices, an installation does not exist to provide ADP services, but to support an organization's mission. The service which

an ADP installation provides its users can impact the productivity of the end-users and,

eventually, the net benefit to the organization. Since such decisions will be made

at multiple levels throughout the organization, the USRS must be capable of supplying

information at the appropriate level to each

report recipient. In particular, the USRS

must be able to relate the service rendered

to the costs of providing, or not providing,

adequate service to the organizational units.

During the course of the study it was

64
determined that no current performance systems satisfy the requirements outlined above.

The primary cause for the lack of acceptable

systems is one of orientation - user versus ADP system. That is to say, the current

systems are heavily ADP-system oriented and

they report service in ADP units which are easy to track but which do not necessarily

relate to user work functions. The USRS described above, on the other hand, must be

very user-oriented if it is to fulfill its

goal of assisting management in maximizing

net benefit to their organization. There

are three issues which must be resolved before the USRS descibed above can be

developed

:

* ADP system support in the definition of user work units and service characteristics

* techniques for the estimation of benefits and delay costs

* increased user involvement

The resolution of each of these issues is

necessary if the USRS is to be developed.

The NBS report [MOHRJ 81a] discusses the prospects for resolving these issues. Further,

it discusses at length the differences in

workload characterization required by this

approach versus the traditional workload

description. It discusses the requirements

on the user community as a result of the

required, new characterization. It recom- mends particular service measures to be re- ported which relate to cost-benefit calculations. The conclusion of the report is:

The proposed approach to ADP service

reporting should be useful in virtually

all organizations or agencies. The

approach is directed towards assisting

the organization in making those decisions that will maximize net benefit by

providing information describing the

total costs and benefits of the level

of ADP service being provided. The re- ports will be in terms known and understood by the user. The information in

the reports should be compatible with

the various types of management information presented to high level managers.

The ADP service reports should be wellsuited for inclusion in an overall re- porting system.

References

[AXELC 79] Axelrod, C.W. Computer Effectiveness: Bridging, the Management /Technology

Gap. Washington, D.C. Information Resources

Press, 1979.

[AXELC 80] Axelrod, C.W. The Dynamics of

Computer Capacity Planning. CMC Transactions

1980 September; 29: Section 3.

[BENNW 81] Bennett, W.D. Computer Performance: A Conceptual Framework. To be published as a NBS Special Publication, 1981.

[EDPPR 80] Fulfilling User Service Objectives. EDP Performance Review. 1980 October;

8(10): 1-7.

[FLEMI 81] Flemming, I.J. Service Level Objectives as Capacity Management Criteria.

Record of the Third Annual Conference on Computer Capacity Management. 1981 April 7-9;

163-170.

[GUERJ 80] Guerrieri, J. A. Establishing

True User Requirements. Small Systems.

1980 September; 8: 26-27+.

[HOWAP 80] Howard, P.C. Planning Capacity

to Meet User Service Requirements. Computer

Performance Evaluation CMG XI. 1980 December

2-5; Boston Massachusetts. Computer Measurement Group: 147-151.

[KLEIJ 80] Kleignen, J. P.C. Computers and

Profits: Quantifying Financial Benefits of

Information. Reading Massachusetts: AddisonWesley Publishing Company, 1980.

[MOHRJ 81a] Mohr,J. and Wilson, C. Draft: A Report Describing an Approach to ADP User

Service Reporting. Contract No. NB80SBCA0501

National Bureau of Standards, 1981.

[MOHRJ 81b] Mohr, J., Wilson, C, and Chan,

M. Fiscal Aspects of ADP Service Management.

Proceedings of CMG XII. Computer Measurement

Group (to be published).

[NOLAG 79] Nolan, G.J. Standard Costing for

Data Processing. Controlled Resource Management Through Computer Performance Evaluation

CMG X. 1979 December 4-7; Dallas Texas. Computer Measurement Group: 12-6.

65

AUTOMATING THE AUTOMATIC N PROCESS

Louis C. Elsen

Evolving Computer Concepts Corp.

St. Loius, MO

The increasing demands for data

automation support have created a new

"frontier": A COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT CAN

PROGRAM ITSELF. When one considers that $4

billion of our $6 billion Federal budget for

automation support is allocated to staffing

and that the introduction of new and

improved technologies place increasingly

difficult requirements on personnel, the

need for the new "frontier" becomes

apparent. The introduction of automated

automation has evolved by necessity—it is a new concept whose time has come. The

circumstances that brought us to this

evolution stem from:

+ rapid growth in technology which

makes a particular computer

system virtually obsolete before

it is delivered.

+ personnel which is at a crisis

level. (A January MIS report

predicts shortages of 50,000 in 1981.)

The result of these two "circimstances"

has had a significant impact on annual cost.

+ Hardware is decreasing at 20%. + Manpower is increasing at 15%. + Software is increasing at 30%.

Today in order to operate a "typical"

computer installation, an annual budget

ranging from $800,000 to $1.2 million is

required. This cost becomes considerably

more significant when one considers the two

distinct parts of each installation:

+ HARDWARE

-Mainfr ames -Utilities

-Env ironm ent -Suppl ies

+ STAFFING

-Managers

-Analysts

-Programmers

-Operators

The latter of the two parts, staffing,

currently accounts for 70 to 80 percent of

an installation's budget. This is a far cry

from the cost relationships that were in existence 20 years ago. Then, an average

installation was able to operate on a budget

of approximately $500,000 with 65-75 percent

of its total resources allocated to hardware. This impacted the growth of data

automation leading to the development of

computer performance management (CPM)

systems which targeted efforts toward

increasing hardware productivity. This

philosophy and approach to CPM has continued

through the years; although, the target

emphasis has shifted and should now be

redirected toward increasing personnel

productivity

.

This can be acomplished by evaluating

those functions most commonly performed by

data automators, reducing them to their

logical components and then automating them.

The end result is:

+ reduced programming requirements by

elimination of menial or simple

design/ programming tasks;

67
+ increased site productivity by facilitating software generation, thereby

reducing the time required to achieve

a desired system objective;

+ increased programmer productivity by

redirecting programming efforts to areas where automatic programming is not yet practical or achieved.

Although these "results" appear to represent an unrealistic utopia that should be

reserved for a science fiction novel, this

capability does exist. Basic analysis of

many computer facilities revealed that the

"computer's" primary function was usually

nothing more than a sophisticated filing

system and that the majority of the

functions being "programmed" were either

putting something into the "file cabinet" or getting something out. Observation of

techniques employed by analysts and

programmers revealed two methods for

accomplishing these input/ output functions.

+ Batch: the processing of data

accumulated over a period of time.

+ On-Line: the processing of data

immediately with a response received

as soon as possible, usually within

seconds

.

To continue the thrust of automating

automation, one must continue analyzing data

automation, further reducing it to its logical components, grouping similar functions

together, analyzing how each individual com- ponent or function is performed, and finally

reducing the programming logic to machine

logic. We, as data automators, perform

these functions daily whenever we automate a personnel, budget, or inventory system. We study the manual intensive functions being

performed, reduce them to their logical com- ponents, then program the computer to do

them. A computer program which is the product of the techniques I have just outlined

is the Logical On-Line User's Inquiry System

(LOUIS).

LOUIS is a system which writes on-line

computer programs to retrieve data from the

"file cabinet." It was designed to provide

managers and functional users with the

information they need when they need it.

The programs LOUIS produces have the full

range of capabilities comparable to generalized inquiry systems currently on the

market. LOUIS was not designed to be the answer for everyone. It is not an update

system, nor is it a batch system. The

original design objectives of LOUIS were to automate approximately 60 percent of the

programming requirements necessary to obtain

data from an on-line data base. It performs

this function well.

As alluded to earlier, programming

efforts must be divided into logical

categories. An attempt to automate

"everything" in one huge system would

probably be catastrophic. LOUIS is just one part of the entire programming scheme;

incorporating the techniques employed by

LOUIS and applying them to update and batch

systems would yield similar results.

LOUIS is unique because it writes

tailored programs optimized for the

particular machine it is running on. When

an individual specifies a data base name, LOUIS interrogates the data file to determine the format, type, and size of the

file. It analyzes the data to determine

record volume, identifies numeric data and

dates, and edits them to ensure accuracy.

LOUIS continues performing analysis on the

information it obtains, including the types

of inquiries it has executed, performing the

very same functions programmers perform.

The programs LOUIS writes are optimized

assembly language programs. This approach

achieves improved throughput and minimum

system impact. To understand what (in my

opinion) necessitates the use of ASSEMBLY

language and why its use has diminished, I must now refer you to the past.

When computers were first designed,

machine/assembly languages were the only means of "programming." Due to its

tediousness and complexity, few individuals

became qualified in the "art." The

evolution of data automation progressed in conformance with the law of supply and

demand. In order to increase the number of

individuals capable of interfacing with

computer, "simpler" languages were created.

+ Higher Level Languages-A language in which each instruction or statement

corresponds to several machine code

instruction. These languages allow

programmers to write in notation with

which they can become familiar.

- COBOL

- FORTRAN

- BASIC

- etc

.

+ Report Writers-A processing program

that can be used to generate reports

from existing sets of data through

parameter cards which control the

flow of the program execution.

Report writers usually execute in the

batch mode.
- SIS

- TRS

- lifWDMS (These two systems are complete data management systems

which provide a capability to update the data base also.)

- TOTAL

- etc,

+ Inquiry Languages-A processing

program which utilizes a simple

command language whereby the

interrogation of the contents of a computer's storage may be initiated

at a local or remote point by use of

a keyboard, touchtone pad, or other

dev ice

.

- AZ7

- IDS QUERY

- etc.

Although these "simpler" languages

eased the loads on programmers and users,

the workload on the computer was dramatically increased. For example, a program

written in Assembly Language required the

programmer to write 5,000 lines of code

which produced 5,000 executable machine

instruction. However, the same program

written in COBOL or a higher level language

could be written in 500 lines, but when this

program is compiled and reduced to its

assembly language counterpart, the executable code generated required 8,000-10,000

lines. The Report Writer, in this instance,

required 50 lines of code and generated

25,000-30,000 lines of executable code.

When using an Inquiry Language, 1-5 lines of

code are necessary, producing 40,000-50,000

executable lines. There are three areas to be examined in this instance.

1. The Assembly Language Program is

usually the ultimate in machine

efficiency and productivity.

2. Programmers using higher level

languages can dedicate much less

time per program.

3. Through the use of inquiry languages, users can now communicate

directly with the computer; thereby

increasing their productivity.

This now brings us to the present.

Although we are providing data automation

support to managers and functional users, their need for the processing of information

and the communication of that information

necessary for the productive operations of

an office continues to exist; and there just

aren't enough data automators to program all the requirements that exist. With the

introduction of such technologies as word

processing, teleconferencing, and electronic

mail which are becoming the vast array of

the interconnected technologies available

through communications networks, the need

for data automators is continuing to grow.

By incorporating systems such as LOUIS to perform tasks in basic system design and

programming, we are able to utilize data

automation personnel more effectively and

thereby increase overall productivity.

Management is then in a position to reduce

required manpower or redirect programmer

expertise to critical areas and accomplish

their objectives without sacrificing

internal machine efficiencies. A computer

system designed to write specific programs

for each user application provides:

+ System analysis and design

+ Programming

+ Elimination of program debugging time

+ Program optimization

+ Program documentation

All without the need for manual

intervention

.

In order to provide some validity to this presentation, here are several facts

and figures obtained from evaluation of

LOUIS. One installation in Denver measured

an increase in productivity of ratios

between 50:1 and 80:1. Eleven sites, when

performing their analysis, recorded a 17:1 reduction in cost. These figures were relevant to hardware performance alone.

Another installation was capable of reducing

and redistributing its programmer work force

by 35 individuals. In a national survey

conducted by the Air Force and substantiated

by the Department of Defense, savings in the

quarter-billion- dollar range were achieved

in just the first year.

Unbelievable? Not really. Increased

productivity at each site where LOUIS was

loaded was achieved because LOUIS allowed

the user to request desired information in

the required format when it was needed.

LOUIS did not question the user's need for information. It simply analyzed the request

and proceeded, to write the programs

necessary to obtain the answer as quickly as possible

.

The philosophy expressed is shared by

John J. Connell, author of an article titled

"The Fallacy of Information Resource

Management," appearing in I nfosystems , May

1981. Mr. Connell identified four kinds of

information related activities:

69
+ Identifying

+ Processing

+ Transporting

+ Using

He stated that the identification and use of

information are the "responsibility of individual, thinking, human beings" and that the

processing and transporting "can be aided by

outside attention, as the successes achieved

in data processing amply demonstrate."

It is my belief that the "...successes

achieved in data processing..." and the

roles of data automators must continue to provide users with the information desired

when they need it.

However, I disagree slightly with Mr. Connell's opinion of identifying and using

information. I believe these two items of

information related activities can be en- hanced by data automation. Through education, users can become aware of what information can be gathered, how this information can be used, and presented with new methodologies to further enhance

productivity through the use of data

automation

.

You may ask, "Exactly where does CPM

fit in this evolution?" It is my opinion

that CPM should play a new role, one which

incorporates management of the "total site

productivity." I envision computer

performance managers performing two distinct

functions, utilizing automation to accomplish both.

+ The first function performed by CM

should provide users with a cost

analysis of their current and

projected data automation support.

This service will assist users in determining whether or not the

advantages of obtaining desired

information is worth the expenditure.

+ The second function should

concentrate on the internal workings

of the site. The goal here is to achieve the most cost-effective

balance between human and manchine

resources .

In summary, it is important to analyze

the areas I have just described because

doing so can bring the realization that

these jobs are currently being performed

manually. It is my contention that in order

to produce truly cost-effective results, the

performance of these jobs must be automated!

I perceive that in the not- too-distant

future, a computer system will allow a user

to state his new requirement interactively

at a terminal. The "computer" will ask the user pertinent questions to obtain

information such as the relationships of

data fields, the frequency and types of

information requests, and the volume of

information to be stored, retrieved, etc.

The "computer" will then perform analysis as required to determine necessary hardware

augmentation (if any), estimated cost, and

feasibility in terms of the machine's

capability. The findings will be compiled

in a report to the requester and computer

performance manager. It can then be

reviewed to determine cessation, continuation, or modification of the plan. Once

this has been acomplished, it is perfectly

logical to have the "computer" go on to actually write the programs needed to implement the new procedure in a timely,

efficient manner. We have reviewed and

substantiated the shift in the managerial

functions performed by CPM from a hardware

emphasis to that of personnel. We have

tracked the path of data automation and its

programming evolution and shown the need for

automating data automation. We have

demonstrated feasibility, operability, and cost effectiveness of such.

As data automators, we can produce

far-reaching, beneficial results by automating data automation. Reducing our workload, increasing central site productivity,

and providing better service will significantly enhance our country's productivity

and economic status. As managers of a great

resource, we are bound to insure a smooth,

productive, secure transition into the

future providing management with the means

to obtain current data necessary to

efficiently manage defined areas of

responsibil ity.

70
METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYZING COMPUTER

USER PRODUCTIVITY

Norman P. Archer*

Digital Equipment Corporation

146 Main Street

Maynard, MA 01754

A methodology is proposed for the analysis of computer user productivity. The methodology is based upon a multi-layered level

structure of the computer system in an interactive environment, where

each lower level develops more detail of the interactive system. This

structure enables a logical approach to the analysis of interactive

systems, and productivity may be analyzed at any level, from the lowest

primitive function up to the most aggregated system level. Here,

considerations of productivity are considerably different in scope and

direction, depending upon the level of detail. Examples are drawn from

the area of text editing, which is having an increasingly strong effect

on the performance of interactive systems.

Key Words: Productivity analysis; interactive systems; text editors;

end user performance; performance analysis.

1. Introduction.

In the time since electronic computers

were first invented and used, there has been

a continuing decline in the cost per unit

work accomplished by computer systems. The

cost per unit time for the human resources working with the assistance of computer

systems has increased steadily over the same time interval. This latter cost has been the

driving force behind the ever-increasing move

towards automation. In theory, the computer

assists the human user to the extent that

there is a net decrease in the overall cost

*0n leave from McMaster University, Hamilton,

Ontario

.

of work done. In order to accomplish this

desirable result, the computer system-human

interface should be designed in such a fashion that the computer can perform more of

the task with little human intervention.

This has not been difficult to do with

standard clerical accounting tasks, which

formed the first great wave of automated

business systems. Here, in essence the

computer is turned loose on a great stack of

well-defined and repetitive tasks, and the

results are returned to the user in some well-organized fashion at a later time.

There is very little need for human

intervention in such a batch-oriented

environment. Hence the productivity

improvement has been due to the speed at which the computer carries out its tasks, and

this has shown orders of magnitude increases

due to hardware evolution alone.

71
But now the next wave of business

systems is in the process of evolution, with

the rapidly increasing usage of on-line data

base systems, the automated office,

timesharing computer program development and

other similar uses, all sharing the common attribute that they are highly interactive

systems. All carry out a variety of

unstructured and non-repetitive tasks, under

the close direction of the user. These

interactive systems are feasible only because

the system hardware costs are so low that

they are no longer the important

consideration they were when the first wave of business system development was in

progress. Now we are faced with a different

set of problems. The current concern now is

with the human interface, since the user is

seated in front of a terminal and a great

deal of human intervention is required due to

the lack of structure in the tasks the system

is performing. Any improvement in the

efficiency of these interactions is most

beneficial, because the limiting and most

expensive factor in the cost equation is the

human

.

A class of tasks which is consuming a rapidly increasing proportion of interactive

system time includes the automated office

functions such as word processing and

electronic mail, as well as the more traditional task of computer program

development. Of these tasks, for example,

100 percent of the time spent on a word

processing system involves the use of a text

editor, while measurements have shown that at least 50 percent of the commands issued

during interactive program development

involve text editing[1]. Thus it is very

clear that user productivity is strongly

affected by text editor design. Many of the

human factor problems of text editors which

have been addressed by other workers are reviewed in a recent article by Embley and

Nagy [2]. Miller and Thomas [3] have also

reviewed the more general problems

encountered in the use of interactive

systems. This report will discuss a structure or taxonomy for the analysis of

interactive user productivity, with specific

attention to the analysis of text editing

interactions as examples.

2. Functional Characteristics Of Text Editors.

There are a wide variety of text editors

available on modern computer and word

processing systems. The functional

differences among text editors are very

large. However, there is a certain degree

of commonality among editors intended

primarily for prose editing. Similarly,

there are common features among editors used

primarily for computer program editing. As time has gone on, most of the more recently

developed text editors have evolved towards a much more common functionality which may be

used for both prose and program editing.

The line editor was the first type of

text editor developed, due to the fact that

the originally available terminals were hard

copy terminals, which require line editors.

Many varieties of this type of editor have

been developed and used, primarily in

systems and application programming work.

The chief characteristic of the line editor

is that it addresses one line of text at a time. Most line editors allow only vertical

movements of the cursor, so if an operation

is to be performed upon a character or string of characters on a particular line,

then an editing command is keyed in which

specifies the string in question, and the

operation to be performed upon it. The

operation may usually be extended to include

a range of lines, if desired. Line editors

were and are used primarily for computer

program editing, since computer programs are line oriented. Some of the more specialized

line editors allow line-by-line syntax

checking as the program is entered, and may

also allow program compilation and execution

from within the editor. However, line

editors do not lend themselves well to the

features which are desirable in editing

proseC 3 ].

For the more general text editing tasks,

including both prose and programs, a screen editor (often referred to as a character

editor) appears to have several advantages

over the line editor, from the user's point

of view. First of all, since it is applicable to a broad range of editing tasks, it

requires the user to be familiar with only

one editor and one set of editing commands

which may be used for any type of task.

Secondly, the screen editor allows the user

to view an entire page of text, and to move

the cursor about on that page. The cursor is normally used to point to the text which is to be entered, modified or deleted. The cursor may be moved by keyboard command, mouse, lightpen or other pointing devices.

The operation to be performed upon the text

is then input to the computer by means of

special function keys or, as in the case of

the line editor, by keying in the instruction. The rapidly reducing costs of

hardware have made the screen editor a viable

tool in many interactive environments. The

chief disadvantage of the screen editor

compared to the line editor is that, to make

it an effective tool, much higher trans72
mission rates are required from the system to the terminal and a higher price is paid in cpu time. This must be weighed against the cost of the human resources making use of the

system. If the primary use of the system is

computing, and machine resources are

limiting, then the choice of a screen editing

system is less likely. This is frequently

the case in a university environment, for

example. Here machine costs are usually a very strong consideration, and from the point

of view of the university administration,

student time used in editing text of any

kind is relatively cheap. The opposite is

usually the case for a firm employing

clerical and professional staff for work

involving text preparation, where the cost of

personnel time may outweigh the cost of the

additional computer resources required to support screen editing,

3. An Analysis Framework.

In order to analyze user productivity in an organized and logical fashion, the first

step is to develop a framework for the

analysis. One way of looking at the

interactive environment is to develop a model with increasingly detailed levels of

the system load in order to observe and

possibly improve system performance at each

of the more detailed levels. Consider the

model which is illustrated in Figure 1. Since we are interested in user productivity

we are naturally interested in general system

characteristics in the presence of the global

system workload. The global characteristics

that are well known to affect user

productivity are the system response time

and availability. Most system performance

studies concentrate on the analysis of

system performance in the presence of this

global load

.

If we are interested in user productivity, however, we must consider the next lower level of this model, where the

individual user is described by a position.

This is essentially a description of the

tasks which a user in this position is

likely to perform, including the frequency

of performing each such task type. The

performance and productivity of a user in a specific position is generally given by:

a) the type and number of tasks the user must carry out

,

b) the experience of the user with these

tasks, and

c) the ability of the user.

Note that we are concerned here with

the user's productivity while using the

computer system. Clearly, we could expand

the discussion to other non-computer oriented

tasks if we wish, in the standard systems

analysis manner. However, this is beyond

the scope of this report and the discussion

will be restricted to those tasks involving

interactive computer system usage.

At the next lower leveKthe task

level) , more detail allows us to consider the

properties of the individual tasks in which

the user is involved. The characteristics of

a particular task would include:

a) the type of task (for example,

transcription from a typescript,

editing from a marked copy, etc.),

b) the amount of time required to complete the task,

c) the expected error rate from the

user/task pair,

d) the ultimate disposition of the

completed task (program execution,

printed copy, etc.), and

e) the experience of the user with this

type of task.

The subtask level is more detailed than

the task level, allowing us to address such

questions as the amount of time the user spends carrying out certain activities while

performing a specific task. This in turn permits more direction in performance

improvement, because we may identify certain

relatively primitive operations which the user performs frequently. The example shown

in Figure 1 illustrates subtasks used to describe editing operations. There are three primary subtasks shown here: text

entry, subtext entry, and housekeeping. The

text entry subtask includes operations

relevant to the direct entry of text, and

related cursor movement and editing

functions invoked directly by function keys.

The subtext entry subtask involves those

operations in which it it necessary to key in character string instructions for editing

purposes, and includes function editing and cursor movement relevant to the editing of

these string instructions. The housekeeping

subtask includes remaining operations such as instructions for formatting printer output,

filing documents, and sending electronic

mail

.

Each of the primary text entry subtasks

includes the primitive functions of keyed

text, cursor moves, and editing function

commands which are at the lowest level in

this structure. It is not necessary for all

of the lower level functions to be common to these three subtask states. Neither must these functions be restricted to any

particular subtask state. Finally, a secondary subtask state is the entry/exit

73
LEVEL

GLOBAL

USERj-1 USER . 3

TASK,

SUBTEXT

ENTRY

KEYED

TEXT

USERj+1 POSITION

TASK TASK. TASK

TEXT

ENTRY

HOUSEKEEPING

I FUNCTIONS

EDITOR

ACCESS

SUBTASK

CURSOR

MOVES

FUNCTION

Figure 1. Text Editor Level Framework

74
state, which normally has little direct

effect on user performance because it is

entered rather infrequently.

The primitive functions which are at the

lowest level in this structure include any

character which may be entered into the

text, any function key or keyed instruction

which may carry out specific operations such

as "delete word", "replace", etc., and any

key or instruction which controls cursor

movement. Cursor movement includes such

screen editing operations as keyboard arrow

keys or certain applications on light pen or mouse-driven screen editors. It may also

include functions which control line editor cursors ("pointers").

Frequently used functions in text

editing systems are often built into special

function keys. These might include the

ability to move the cursor by entities which

are larger than the usual cursor movement by

character, and cursor movement by word,

line, paragraph or page are common. Other

special function keys may be designed to allow the deletion or insertion of larger

entities as well, or to perform special

operations such as filing the current

document

.

Some frequently performed functions do

not lend themselves to function key

definition. For example, searching the text

for a particular character string will

require the user to define the desired

character string. This will involve

switching to what has been defined above as subtext entry mode, where the subtext is the

character string in question. Similarly, a replace operation will require the

definition of the string to be replaced as well as the string which replaces it. Line

editors are more likely to require subtext

entry of the operation to be performed.

Subtext entry is not necessarily a disadvantage, because it may allow greater

flexibility in user control of the editing

system.

4. Productivity Analysis.

Productivity analysis considers the user time and output, and the cost of the supporting system. From the point of view of the

productivity analyst, the analysis structure

differs less in form than in emphasis, depending upon the level of detail upon which

interest is to be focussed. For this reason,

the following discussion will be directed in turn to the various levels outlined above for

the analysis structure. The task level will

be discussed first, because the specific task

itself is a common basis which varies little.

no matter which system we are considering.

From here we can build to an aggregated task

mix at a higher level, or we can break down

the task to more detail at a lower level.

4. 1 The Task Level

.

To develop an understanding of the basic

force which drives the evolution of interactive systems to more productive forms, it is helpful to consider various classes of

interactive tasks, where the amount of

structure in the tasks performed may range

from very high to very low. Examples of such

tasks are given below.

Degrees Of Task Structure

a) Highly Structured

- Data entry

- Transcribing text from document or dictation

b) Moderately Structured

- Editing text without the aid of

marked-up copy

- Writing a computer program interactively, without the aid of notes

c) Loosely Structured

- Writing a letter, memo or story

without the aid of notes

- Developing a project proposal from

a few ideas

Highly structured tasks are on the

borderline between tasks which can be com- pletely automated and those which require

some human intervention. Frequently, the

human intervention is required only to

transform information from one form to

another. Since the ultimate bottleneck in any

productivity improvement effort in this area will always be the user, technological

evolution will eventually solve this problem

by eliminating the human from highly

structured tasks. For example, the most

commonly used text entry device is the

keyboard, and even the most proficient

keyboard users can not improve their keying

speeds above about one hundred words per

minute. Added to this is the fact that a substantial number of users do not

touch-type, and many get out of practice

because they use a terminal infrequently.

The obvious solution to this problem is to develop better text entry devices, and some progress has been made in this area. As an example, optical character readers may be

used to enter printed text directly into the

computer for editing and storage purposes.

Some progress has been made in the area of

voice text entry systems, but these are a number of years from being sufficiently

75
reliable and capable devices to substitute

for keyboard entry.

There is less direct aid possible or even likely from computer systems in less

structured environments. For example,

automatic spelling verification and context

editing are clearly feasible and are being

used to some degree on word processing

systems. But creativity will continue to be

the sole province of the human in the

foreseeable future. On the other hand, the

computer system can be an aid to the human in

improving the speed with which creative ideas

can be transformed into concrete form. It is

at this point where a great deal of commonality appears to exist among the writer, the

artist, and the engineer. Design engineers

already make use of CAD( Computer Aided

Design) techniques in designing mechanical

and electronic equipment and buildings, among

other things. The creative, unstructured

task is clearly a task in which benefits can

be derived from a marriage of graphics and text editing techniques. These can combine

to give the creative mind a potentially

productive working tool in the form of a "professional work station". Such an interactive work station could include techniques

to allow color graphics, split screen editing

features and the ability to quickly generate

hard copy or to set type. The writer could

then have the option of integrating text with

drawings and figures, thus improving the

quality of the final presentation. All of

these features are feasible now, but are only

available as integrated packages on a few

relatively expensive systems. The difficulty

is, of course, in justifying these systems on the basis of productivity improvement, except

in relatively specialized situations.

However, technological evolution has in the

past and will continue to surmount these cost obstacles

.

4.2 The Global Level.

Global productivity deals with the

productivity of the entire system, including

the computer system and the human work force

using the computer. At this level the

executive priority decisions are made on the

acquisition of resources to support various

system applications, based presumably on productivity improvement. However, such

decisions may be influenced by other factors

such as prestige and the ability to attract

and keep high quality employees.

Tools used for productivity analysis at this level include operations reviews for the

study of human productivity, and some quantitative techniques for workflow

analysis[4]. A range of measurement and

analysis tools for the study and improvement

of computer system performance are available.

These include [5] analytic modeling, hardware

and software monitoring, benchmarking, etc.,

around which an entire industry has grown and

thrived.

For interactive systems, tradeoffs are made in the usual manner between the cost of

increasing system resources and the resulting

productivity improvement due to decreasing

response times. It should be noted that productivity in this context is rarely quantified in an organized manner. Rather,

computer system management tends to rely on the complaint level of the users as a stimulant for taking action. It is not clear that

shorter response times mean higher user performance for all interactive tasks[6]. In fact, Williams and Swenson[7] suggested that

system resources needed to produce short

response times when not required by the user

are detrimental to overall productivity; in many cases they studied, user performance was

not adversely affected by longer response

times. However, for most text editing tasks

it is critical that response times be short,

since most text editors are designed around

this assumption.

4.3 The Position Level.

The analysis of the productivity of a particular position is necessarily tied in with the entire system, because of interactions among the positions in an organization. Engel et al [8] discuss the

design and evolution of a prototype office

automation system, which indicated a redesign

of some of the lower level positions due ito the delegation and shifting of certain tasks

among the users. There are many issues in the automated office environment which can cause a great deal of employee concern due to the possible elimination of office jobs. Not

all of these concerns are due to the complete

automation of certain tasks, although this is

currently an important issue in the banking

industry, for example. Productivity analysis

in such an environment cannot ignore the very

real concerns of management and workers with

both job security and the quality of the work

environment

.

Some issues deal with shifting of tasks

to other positions, thus either reducing the

prestige of the original position or eliminating it entirely. For example,

consider a task which may be a source of

tension in an automated office. Suppose a manager, before the introduction of

automation, has dictated formal letters or memos which his or her secretary has then

drafted and given to the manager for editing.

76
The final copy is then typed, given to the

manager for signing, and finally mailed.

With word processing and electronic mail , the

manager now has the opportunity to do his or her own typing and/or editing, and finally to send the mail to its destination with no assistance required from the secretary. The

ease of keying and making corrections to the

copy is an enticement that many managers

cannot resist. However, the fact that the new task may reduce the time spent on other

tasks assigned to the manager's position must

be considered. It is very simple to analyze

the productivity improvement or reduction

resulting from such a change. Suppose a manager wishes only to edit and mail the

document which will be initially keyed in by

his or her secretary. The decision would be

in favor of the manager carrying out this

task if

C < C m s

where C is the cost per task carried out by

the manager , and

C is the cost per task carried out by

the secretary

c = H X (E + L ) m m m m

C = H X E' + H X (E + L ) s m m s s s

where the subscripts m and s refer to the

manager and secretary respectively, and

H is the hourly rate paid,

E is the time to correct the edited

copy

E' is the manager's time to mark up the printed copy, and

L is the corresponding mailing time.

Analyses of this type are not appropriate for

the informal short notes and reminders often

communicated among managers and their employees in an automated office environment. To maintain the spontaneity, informality and

speed of such communicaions , it is important

that the sender interface directly with the

communication system for maximum productivity.

state model shown in Figure 2, which is a model of the subtask structure level of

Figure 1. The transitions among the sub tasks

are shown, as well as transitions among the

primitive functions making up each subtask

state. For a particular task, it is possible

to measure the time spent by the system in each subtask state and/or function substate

and thus determine how much time was spent in more productive operations. For example,

keying text in the text entry subtask state

is clearly the most productive operation

which may be carried out, and it is more productive if no further editing is required

due to entry errors or other changes. Among

the least directly productive activities are moving the cursor or telling the system to perform the next editing operation. The time

spent on these operations should be minimized

as much as possible by improved system

design

.

An important issue which also directly

affects the efficiency of text editing is the

design of the command language with which the user communicates to the system. This was addressed recently by Ledgard, Whiteside,

Singer and Seymour[9].

In order to analyze the performance of

various text editing systems, we have developed a system which allows recording and

time-stamping keystrokes from user terminals.

Software has been developed to perform ana- lyses on the transitions among the various

states the system may occupy while the task

is being carried out. The fractions appearing in Figure 2 represent the transition

probabilities from each state to its possible successor states, in this case for a sample

editing task being performed with a screen

editor. We can also measure the time spent

and the number of keystrokes transmitted

while in the various model states. The

following table contains a comparison of the

time and keystrokes in each of the states of

the subtask model, for a text entry task and

an editing task respectively. Note that

these results are for only one sample task in

each case, so they will not be representative

of such tasks on this editor. There is a wide variability among results obtained in entering and/ or editing different tasks, with

another source of variability being in the user performing the task.

4.4 The Subtask Level,

At the subtask level it is necessary to look at specific models of the particular

class of task in question. This allows us to begin looking at issues such as software and

hardware system design. Consider the finite

77
Figure 2. Subtask Interactions

For A Sample Text Editing Task

78
Table 1. State Time And Keystroke Analysis

Of Sample Text Entry And Edit Tasks

Text Entry Task Edit Task

Subtask Time(%) Kysk(%) Time(%) Kysk(%)

Function

Text Entry

Keyed Text 91.8 96.5 38.7 46.0

Edit Fns. 2.8 1.8 10.8 6.

1

Cursor Moves 'i.3 1.1 40.8 37.2

Subtext Entry

Keyed Text 0.0 0.0 1. 1 0.4

Edit Fns. 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Cursor Moves 0.0 0.0 4.2 7.6

Housekeeping

Keyed Text 0.3 0.3 0.8 1.3

Ed it Fns

.

0.0 0.0 0.5 0.2

Cursor Moves 0.8 0.3 3.

1

1.2

Editor Entry/ 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Access

Figures given in Table 1 are rounded, so the zeros appearing in the table do not mean that

no count was observed for the related function. It should be noted that, since such a high percentage of time is spent keying text

for the text entry task, there may be little

to be gained by system modifications for

tasks of this type. Some improvement may be

made by user training in keying or in

correction of errors detected during keying.

For the text editing task, the user usually

spends a high percentage of time moving the cursor or using editing functions. Thus the

editing process might be faster if

modifications were made to the editing

software or in keyboard design, and these are candidates for further investigation.

As mentioned above, it is important from

the point of view of productivity improvement

that efforts be made to maximize the amount

of time actually spent keying text in the text entry mode. This is true only if the

total time spent on the task also decreases.

It is possible to have a system in which very

little time is spent not keying text in the text entry mode, but which is so awkward to

use that the total time increases substantially. This is the case with some primitive

line editors which require re-entry of an entire line in order to correct an error.

A particular use of the finite state model is in the comparison of text editing

system performance. By comparing state times

and keystroke counts for specific tasks, it

is possible to determine which system is

better for that task, and also to determine

why. Hammer and Rouse[10] used a Markov ian

model to carry out a statistical analysis of

variance comparison of text editor perfor- mance in a similar situation. Most statistical tools used for such comparisons require

that the finite state model be zero-order

Markovian. The four state subtask model is

likely to satisfy this assumption, but an analysis at the primitive function level

might not, since the transition probability

from one function state to another state may

depend upon the previous state occupied.

4.5 The Function Level.

If a product is to be designed to perform well in a particular environment, the

most important considerations, aside from the

cost, involve the needs and perceptions of

the ultimate user. There are many important

human factors considerations in this area, such as user satisfaction, keyboard layout,

and terminal and work station design. These

questions have been considered elsewhere in some detaiK for a review, see reference

[11 ]).

Other considerations of importance at this level include software design, because

design improvements to the software of a text entry system may improve the user's performance substantially. This may be done by

reducing the time spent in activities which

are not directly productive, such as cursor movement. To determine how much time is

spent using each of the primitive functions,

data may be gathered on representative tasks,

and finite state model analysis applied at the detailed level. In this manner it is

also possible to detect sequences of functions which are performed frequently and

which might be automated. If cursor movement

functions are found to be satisfactory, both

by function design and by the placement of

function keys on the keyboard, then one can turn to the design of editing features. A flood of such special features is undesirable, since a typical user has the memory

capacity to learn and use only a relatively

small percentage of such editing functions.

Boies[12] found that only a small number of

the commands available on a text editor were

used. It may be preferable to have a small

number of easily learned and useful features,

and to invoke any little-used features

through a common subtext entry function such

as a function menu. A rough guide to the

emphasis which should be placed on improving

a particular function should be based on the

frequency with which the user is expected to make use of the function. Features which

could handle any well-defined tasks automatically and thus reduce the interaction time

of the user are also desirable, but these are

79
typically heavy users of system resources

such as cpu time and system memory. Functions in this category include automatic

spelling verification and context editing.

In certain positions where a text editor

is used a substantial fraction of the time,

user-defined functions may play a role in

giving greater flexibility to a text editing

system. For example, if the user can define

a function which will automatically generate

an appropriate letterhead, with date and

salutation, this can save a great deal of

time. Similar comments apply to mailing

lists. In the case of computer program

editors, optional line-by-line syntax

checkers for the particular language being

used may be effective, especially for the

novice. The ability to compile and execute

programs from within the editor can avoid the

time spent invoking and then leaving the

editing system in each cycle of debugging.

5. Conclusions.

This paper has presented a framework for

the evaluation of computer user productivity,

with examples drawn from text editing systems, since this is an area in which a substantial impact could be made in the near

future. The intention of this conceptual

framework is to provide a logical form for

the analysis of computer systems at any

desired level of detail. We may wish to look

at the global characteristics of the system

itself such as the response time and

availability, or we can look at the very

detailed level of keystroke input. The

framework is useful in helping to avoid

excursions into those areas in which the

analyst may not have either interest or

influence for promoting change. The tools

used for productivity analysis at these

levels will differ widely in approach.

However, the major point is that productivity

improvement can be promoted at any level in the framework. A particularly useful application of this approach is in the analysis of

interactive systems, the source of the examples used in this discussion.

I especially wish to acknowledge the

assistance of Mr. Rollins Turner in

assembling the system used to capture

terminal character data for use in these

studies

.

References

[1 ] Doherty, W.J., Thompson, C.H. and

Boies, S.J. An Analysis of Interactive

System Usage With Respect to Software,

Linguistic and Scheduling Attributes,

IBM Research Report, RC 3914, 1972.

[2] Embley, D.W., and Nagy, G. , Behavioral

Aspects of Text Editors, Computing

Surveys , V. 13. 1981, pp. 33-70.

[3] Miller, L.A., and Thomas, J.C. Jr.,

Behavioral Issues in the Use of

Interactive Systems, Int. J

.

Man-Machine Studies , V.9, 1977, pp.

509-536.

[4] Smith, S. A., Minimizing Processing

Costs In An Automated Office System,

Cybernetics , V. 10, 1980 pp. 232-242.

[5] Ferrari, D. , Computer Systems

Performance Evaluation , Prentice-Hall,

Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1978.

[6] Shneiderman, B., Human Factors Experiments In Designing Interactive Systems,

Computer , V. 12, 1979, pp. 9-19.

[7] Williams, J. D. and Sevenson, J. S. , Functional Workload Characteristics and

Computer Response Time In The Design of

On-Line Systems , Proceedings, Computer

Performance Evaluation Users Group

Thirteenth Meeting, NBS Special

Publication 500-18, U. S. Dept. of

Commerce, Washington, DC, 1977, pp.

3-11.

[8] Engel, G.H., Groppuso, J., Lowenstein,

R.A., and Traub, W.G., An Office

Communications System, IBM Systems

Journal , V.18, 1979, pp. 402-431.

[9] Ledgard, H. , Whiteside, J. A., Singer,

A. and Seymour, W., The Natural

Language of Interactive Systems,

Communications of The ACM , V.23, 1980,

pp. 556-563.

[10] Hammer, J.M., and Rouse, W.B., Analysis

And Modeling of Freeform Text Editing

Behavior, Proc. 1979 International

Conf . Cybernetics And Society , 1979.

[11] Rouse, W.B., Design of Man-Computer

Interfaces For On-Line Interactive

Systems, Proceedings Of The IEEE , V.63,

1975, pp. 847-857.

[12] Boies, S.J., User Behaviour In An Interactive Computer System, IBM System

Journal , V. 13, 1974 pp. 1-18.

80
Systems Development

and Maintenance

SESSION OVERVIEW

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT & MAINTENANCE

Phillip C. Howard

Applied Computer Research

Phoenix, AZ 85068

This session will review several concepts that may be useful during

the system development life cycle in both the development and maintenance

stages. The papers address methods for simplifying that statement of user requirements, for improving the quality assurance function, and for

using configuration management techniques to reduce maintenance costs.

The papers represent practical applications of several software

engineering concepts which contribute to the improvement in both software

quality and productivity. The specific techniques discussed in the three

papers apply to different stages in the life cycle and encompass the

statement of user requirements, the application of configuration

management techniques, and the role of quality assurance.

83

DESIGN OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

USING SCENARIO-DRIVEN TECHNIQUES

W. T. Hardgrave

S. B. Salazar

E. J. Seller, III

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, DC 20234

This paper describes a technique for developing information systems using

a scenario-driven design approach. The approach emphasizes client (that

is, the user who is purchasing the system) participation in the design

process. The first step is to develop a collection of "scenarios" which

document the interaction between the computer and the human user. Using

the scenarios, information-flow diagrams and database designs may be

constructed. After the client has approved these documents, they can be

used to establish disk capacity requirements and transaction rates, and

finally to specify all hardware and software requirements. The primary

advantage of this approach is that the scenarios provide a good indication of the ultimate usefulness and cost of the system. The client can review these documents and approve, modify, or reject the system design

before any software is generated. This paper describes the scenarios, the

information flow technique, and the database design approach using, as an example, a small business application.

Key Words: Database design; data dictionary; design; flowchart; information

flow; information systems; interactive systems; requirements; scenarios.

1. Introduction

Designing an interactive information

system requires specialized techniques that are unnecessary in the development of other

types of computer systems. Human factors

issues are involved, since the user community

typically does not consist of computer specialists. Interactions between humans and

computers must be clearly defined. The database must be described independently of any

particular programs. Standard flowchart

practices must be modified to capture the

data flow through an interactive system.

This paper describes a technique for

developing a logical design for an interactive

information system. The product of this design process is a document having these com- ponents : * Collection of scenarios

* Information flow diagrams

A Datahase design

Step-by-step approaches to the development of

the components, which are identified below,

will be presented in subsequent sections.

The term "scenario" is defined for the

purpose of this paper as a detailed documentation of the interaction between a computer

system and the human user working at a terminal. A scenario is essentially a hard-copy

of an interactive session. This level of

detail is seldom available until after the

system is implemented and capable of writing

output to a terminal. One goal of the

scenario-driven design approach is to capture

this level of detail before implementation.

The collection of scenarios is a com- plete description of every screen format that

the terminal operator may possibly encounter.

The data appearing in the scenarios should be

typical of data that may actually be used in

the application. Thus, this collection of

scenarios completely and "by example" describes the user interface to the information

system. The scenarios are discussed further

in Section 2.

The information flow diagrams describe

the movement of data through the system.

They show where data enters the system, where

it exits, where it is stored, and where it is

displayed for the human user. While standard

flowcharts have had widespread usage, the

application of flow diagrams to interactive

systems requires a somewhat different

approach. A particular format and some stringent conventions are discussed in

Section 3.

85
The database design is a complete description of the data that is to be held and

permanently maintained by the system. One

expects this data to have a long life span;

certainly it will be longer than the execution time of any programs that manipulate it.

Therefore, it is necessary to describe the

data apart from any particular program or subroutine. The database design technique,

discussed in section 4, is an application

and extension of the "entity-relationship

model" [1]

.

The scenario-driven technique is cur- rently being designed as part of a project to automate the operation of a wholesale book

dealer. The examples used throughout this

paper are taken from that applieatdon.

There is one significant advantage of

this method. There will be detailed communication between the system designer and the

client (the user who has. contracted to purchase the system) during the design stage,

as the client will review the scenarios many

times during their development. Thus, when

the report on the logical design is available, the client is already familiar with

the system and can be confident that it meets

expected needs. There is no mystery and

little chance that the client will receive a system substantially different than envisioned .

2. Scenarios

There are some other benefits that come with

the development of detailed scenarios:

* The scenarios may be included in the

User's Manual as tutorial material.

* The scenarios may be incorporated into

a test plan to determine system

acceptance.

* The scenarios may be used as the basis

for the contract between the client and

the systems designer or software

implementer

,

The following subsections will discuss the

development of screen-based scenarios and

the menu format. Examples of menus from the

wholesale book system are included.

2.2 Development

In a screen-based scenario design, all

scenarios will have in common the top level

screen, that is, the first screen that the user views. The master menu gives an over- view of the aspects of the organization

addressed by the information system, thereby

defining the scope of the system. The designer and the client must work on the master

menu until an agreement is reached and the menu satisfies both parties. During this

process, the system designer and the client

must learn each other's terminology and

develop a common basis for further work.

2.1 Definition

A scenario is a detailed documentation

of the interaction between a computer system

and the human user working at a terminal.

Scenarios may be written to mimic the interaction on a line-by-line basis; a menu-bymenu basis, a screen-by-screen basis, or any

other basis that can reasonably be put into

the design document. For the book wholesaler

system, scenarios are written on a screen-byscreen basis, that is, each complete computerhuman interaction (such as "ordering", "re- ceiving") is documented In terms of the screens sequentially viewed by the user. Each screen described here consists of a menu or a menu plus system prompts.

Most Importantly, the scenario Is a tool

to facilitate communication between the client

and the system designer. That is, the scenario is a very simple visual Image that describes one part of system behavior. A comprehensive collection of scenarios can describe system behavior in enough detail to convince the client that the system will

perform as envisioned.

After some agreement is reached on the

nature of the master menu, work may proceed

on the screens at the next level of detail.

There is no established format for the sce!n- arios; the screens may describe menus, user

commands, or any Interaction that is acceptable to both the client and the designer.

This process of defining progressively lower

levels of the system continues until all

possible interactions have been completely

specified.

There are problems involved In the management of this documentation. An exhaustive

enumeration of all possible scenarios will

result in a large number of screens for even

a small system. As menus at different levels

are redesigned, it becomes tedious to maintain consistency and verify correctness of

the interfaces.

The notation used in the scenarios is not a metalanguage. The data requested from

the user or printed for the user should be

typical data from actual situations. This

avoids any formatting problems and similar

misunderstandings between the client and the

systems designer.

86
2.3 Menu Format

The menu format is illustrated in Figures 2-1 through 2-4. Each menu (and its

corresponding screen) is numbered to indicate

its level, starting with the master menu as 0.0. A menu has four columns with the following headings

;

* Number

* Option

* Next

* Page

Each entry in the menu represents a possible selection by the user. The "option" is

the textual statement of the function that is

displayed for the terminal operator. The

"number" signifies the key stroke to select

the corresponding option.

The "next" and "page" fields do not actually appear on the screen when the system

is implemented. However, they are necessary

for the writer and the reader of the logical

design document in order to develop and follow

the sequence of menu displays. The "next"

field indicates which menu appears next if the corresponding number is selected. The

"page" field gives the actual page number in

the logical design document. Both of these

fields are useful, albeit redundant. The page

field is useful to the reader of the final

design document; and the next field is useful

during the development cycle, when menu numbers are available but page numbers are not.

2.4 Sample Screens and Menus

The sample screens on the following pages

describe part of the "ordering" process for

the book wholesaler system. The level 0.0 menu is the first menu that a terminal user would see after starting the system. "Ordering" is selected by typing "1" in response to the system's prompt "Select one:".

The "Next" field of the "ordering" entry

indicates that the next menu to appear will

be the 1.0 menu. After it appears, as shown

in Figure 2-2, the terminal user may choose

to order for a customer or order something

to be stored in the inventory. In this case,

a "1" is typed to signify an order for a customer

.

As indicated by the "Next" field of the

first entry in the 1.0 menu, the next menu to appear will be the 1.1 menu. In menu 1.1,

the terminal user may choose to create a new

order or to add to an existing order. In this

case, the new user chooses to add to an existing order by selecting "2". The system then

prompts the terminal user for the "Customer

Order Group Number", abbreviated COG//. The

system prints the customer identifier and

the shipping address.

According to the menu of the next screen,

the 1.1.2 menu, the terminal user may select

to search for the title based on one of

several possible inputs. In this case, the

terminal user selects a search on ISBN. The

system prompts for the ISBN, the International

Standard Book Number, which is the unique

identifier for books. After the ISBN has

been entered, the system adds the book to the

order group and prints a message to that

effect as shown. As indicated, the screen would refresh itself to allow the operator to order another title for this customer order.

Menu 0.0

No. Option Next Page

1 Ordering

2 Receiving

3 Inquiry/Update

4 Picking List/Invoice/PO

5 Accounting functions

6 End of day

7 Return to Operating System

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

240

106

147

166

183

Select one: 1 Figure 2-1 Screen 0.0

Menu 1 .

0

No. Option Next Page

1 Order for customer

2 Order for inventory

1.1

1.2

326 Select one: 1 Figure 2-2 Screen 1.0

Menu 1 .

1

^0. Option Next Page

1 New order

2 Add to order

1.1.1

1.1.2

410

Select one: 2 Enter C0G#: 53296

Customer Id. is: NLM

Shipping Address is: National Library of

Medicine

9600 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, >ID 20014

Figure 2-3 Screen 1.1
Menu 1.1.2

No. Option Next Page

i Search on alt. key 1.1.2.1 30

2 Search on ISBN 1.1.2 10

3 Search on series 1.1.2.3 35

4 Enter as new title 1.1.2.4 37

5 End order 0.0 1 Select one: 2 Enter ISBM: 0-13-854547

An order for Structured System Design by Gane

and Sarson has been added to COG// 53296 for

National Library of Medicine.

Figure 2-4 Screen 1.1.2

3. Flow Diagrams

3.1 Characteristics

Flow charts have been used for many years

to describe the flow of computer programs and

data. Although the diagrams used here are similar to traditional flow charts, some stringent rules for their creation and use have been Imposed. These restrictions, discussed below, make the diagrams easier to read and more useful as a management tool.

As depicted in Figure 3-1, the foirmat for the flow diagram exhibits the following

characteristics

:

* All flow is from left to right.

* The triggering event is the first box on

the left.

* The process ends with the rightmost box

(usually labeled "end").

* The left margin is partitioned by "roles";

that is, the organizational (or external)

entities are listed down the left margin.

One role that is usually included is "database". In this way, processes that

store data in or retrieve data from the

database may be documented.

* The boxes have various shapes that are assigned meanings to fit the application.

This example uses trapezoidal, square,

and cylindrical symbols; the meanings are explained below.

The diagram shown in Figure 3-1 is short

and fits on one page; most diagrams will

require several pages.

There are several advantages in using

this kind of flow diagram:

* The triggering events can easily be spotted

by looking on the leftmost part of the diagram.

* The involvement of a particular role can be

isolated by looking along the appropriate

horizontal strip.

* Time may be measured horizontally. Time

intervals after triggering can be set up

along the horizontal axis and charting

symbols placed in the appropriate zones.

* Parallel charts may also be created. For example, in a manufacturing enviornment, a materials flow diagram can be set up parallel to the information flow diagram.

The materials flow documents the flow of

parts, subassemblies, etc.; the information

flow documents the paperwork.

However, since a flow diagram should be

generated for each possible flow sequence,

there may be problems with the management of

this volume of documentation.

3.2 Sample Flow Diagram

The sample flow diagram shown in Figure

3-1 depicts the flow for the part of the

ordering process discussed previously. The

trapezoidal boxes represent the display of a menu; the menu number is given inside the box.

In cases where there is a square box underneath the trapezoid, the menu interaction

requires input of a data-item by the terminal

user. The name of the data-item is contained

in the box. The freestanding square boxes

represent processes that the system performs.

If the process stores or retrieves data from

the databases, this is signified by a line

from the process to the appropriate databasfe.

Herein, the term "database" is used very

loosely and could, in this case be used interchangeably with the term "file". The various

databases are represented by the cylindrical

symbols

.

In Figure 3-1, the flow begins on the

left when the customer prepares the order.

The order then goes to the ordering department. The terminal operator calls the system into operation and the level 0.0 menu is displayed. This is signified by the trapezoid containing 0.0. The terminal operator

selects option 1; this is signified by the

"1" above the trapezoid. Then menu 1.0 is

displayed. The terminal operator selects

option 1; again this is signified by the "1"

above the trapezoid. Then menu 1.1 is displayed; the terminal operator selects option

2. The box below the trapezoid indicates

that the terminal operator must enter the

"Customer Order Group Number", abbreviated

COG//. As shown by the square box, the system

retrieves the customer order group from the

88
"Customer Order File", abbreviated CO. Also,

the system gets the "Customer Identifier",

abbreviated C#, from information contained in

the COG. Finally, the system retrieves the

"Shipping Address", abb reviated SA and displays it along with the customer number.

The next menu to be displayed is menu

1.1.2. The terminal operator chooses to search on ISBN. The system requests the ISBN

and the operator enters it. The system then

searches the title file to ensure that the

ISBN is valid. If the ISBN is not valid,

then other menus not shown here are invoked.

Finally, the title is added to the COG and

the process ends.

entity

* Defining non-key attributes for each entity

* Enumerating relationships

* Determining keys for the relationships

* Defining non-key attributes for the relationships

* Determining which relationships may also

have the dual role of entities

* Assigning dual keys to dual entity/relationships

ROLES

CUSTOMER

ORDERING

DEPT.

RECEIVING

DEPT.

DATABASE

PROCESS: ADD-TO-ORDER

PREPARE ORDER

ADD HUE

TOCO FILE

Figure 3.1: Sample Flow Diagram

4. Database Design

The database design is, roughly speaking, the format of the various data files

that are to be stored permanently (usually

on a disk) . The actual values in the files

may change as different data enters and

leaves the system. We will refine this

concept as we proceed.

Our approach to database design consists of several steps as described below.

While it is similar to the entity-relationship approach described by Chen [1], the

technique is specified in more detail and

may differ somewhat from his philosophy.

The process consists of:

* Enumerating entities

* Determining the key attribute of each

4.1 Entities

First, the designer must enumerate the

entities. An entity is a concept that the

designer wants the information system to recognize and manipulate. For example, in

an inventory system, a part would be an entity. For some applications, there are many possible choices for entities and decisions on tradeoffs may be required. The

discussion herein will center on the Wholesale Books example rather than dealing with

generalities

.

In the wholesale book application, the

basic entities are:

* Customers

* Publishers

* Titles

89
Sample record diagrams giving the most

important attributes of each entity are

sho\^n in Figure 4-1. In the actual

database, more attributes are necessary;

some are omitted for this discussion to keep

it manageable.

Each entity is uniquely identifiable

by a single attribute called the key (denoted

by "*" in the figures). For example, a person may be uniquely identifiable by his/

her social security number or a part may be

uniquely identifiable by the part number.

4.2 Relationships

Next, the designer must enumerate the

relationships, that is, the associations

among entities. The attributes of a relationship should describe the relationship,

not the individual entities, and therefore

must include the keys, but no other attributes, of the entities involved.

Figure 4-2 shows some typical relationships; again these are modified from the

actual application for simplicity. However,

they are quite similar to an early design

before the complexity required by the client was introduced. The item-order relationship

relates customers to titles. A customer

(CID) orders a title (ISBN) in some quantity

(QTY) . The title/publisher relationship

relates titles to publishers. A publisher

(PID) publishes a title (ISBN)

.

Our example is somewhat more complex.

The item-order relationship needs to be

grouped to reflect which books appear on an incoming order. Also, the item orders need

to be grouped to reflect which items are included on a single order to the publisher.

Therefore, the item-order relationship needs

to be referenced as an entity in other

relationships. This is accomplished by

adding an attribute. Customer Order Group

(COG#) which becomes the key of the augmented item-order dual entity /relationship (as

shown in Figure 4-3, with the key denoted

by "**").

4.3 Data Dictionary

The purpose of the data dictionary is

to provide a written description of each

attribute that is referenced in the database

(in both entities and relationships). The

data dictionary can be used as a basis for

communication among the various people working on the questions that arise during the

design process concerning the purpose and

meaning of various data-items. Whenever the

database is reorganized, the data dictionary

TITLES

ISBN* Title Author Cost Price

CUSTOMER

CID* C-Name C-Address

PUBLISHER

PID* P-Name P-Address

Figure 4-1 Entities

ITEM-ORDERS

CID* ISBN* Qty

TITLE /PUBLISHER

ISBN* PID*

Figure 4-2 Relationships

ITEM-ORDERS

COG//** CID* ISBN* QTY

Figure 4-3 Dual Entity/Relationship

is updated to reflect the new organization.

Thus, the data dictionary is an important

tool for managing and controlling the system

design process.

Although the creation and maintenance

of a dictionary can be an expensive undertaking, it is possible to scale the complexity to fit the application. For example,

the dictionary may contain many attributes

for each data-item or as few as two; it may

be managed manually or with a computerized

system.

Because this approach is intended for a small organization with limited resources,

the data dictionary described here is as simple as possible and may be managed manually at a small cost. As depicted in Figure

4-4, the dictionary is a table with two columns: data-item and narrative. Each

90
entry in the table describes one data-Item,

or attribute, that is defined in the system.

The column labeled "data-item" contains

the names of the data-items, while the

column labeled "narrative" contains descriptions of the data-items meaningful to the

user. The usefulness of the data dictionary

(as well as its complexity and cost) could

be increased by adding more information to each entry. For example, a column "entity"

could be added to keep track of the entitles

in which each data-item appears.

References

[1] Chen, Peter, "The Entity-Relationship

Model—Toward a Unified View of Data",

ACM Transactions on Database Systems , Vol. 1, No. 1, March 1976, pp. 9-36.

[2] Gane, Chris and Sarson, Trish,

Structured Systems Analysis: Tools and

Techniques Prentice-Hall, Englewood

Cliffs, NJ, 1979, 241 p.

DATA DICTIONARY

DATA-ITEM NARRATIVE

ISBN International Standard Book Number

Title Title of book

Author Author of book

Cost Publisher's price for book

Price Our normal price for this book

CID Unique identifier for customer

C-Name Name of Customer

C-Address Address of Customer

PID Unique identifier for publisher

P-Name Name of publisher

P-Address Address of publisher

Qty Quantity: Number of this ISBN

ordered by this CID

COG# Customer Order Group Number:

Unique identifier for Purchase

Order

Figure 4-4 Data Dictionary Table

5. Concluding Remarks

The information system design technique

presented in this paper is based on a sur- prisingly simple but rarely-used idea

that the systems analyst build a mock-up

of the system for review by the client

before implementation begins. The method

of constructing the mock-up, described

herein, is the development of a collection

of "scenarios," the possible interactions

between the computerized information system

and the human user. The client and the

system designer take part in a number of

iterations of reviewing and revising

scenarios, while the information flow and

the database design proceed in parallel.

Approval of a collection of scenarios by

the client is the first milestone in the

development of the system.

91
i
CONTAINING THE COST OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE TESTING

-AN EXAMINATION OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE ROLE

WITHIN U.S. ARMY COMPUTER SYSTEMS COMMAND

MAJ Steven R. Edwards

Quality Assurance Directorate, US Army Computer Systems Command

Ft, Belvoir, VA 22310

This paper provides a brief introduction to the US Army Computer

Systems Command (USACSC) to include its various elements and their

respective functions. The previous (prior to 1 Sep 80] requirements

for software maintenance testing within the Command are examined, with

the greatest emphasis being placed on the specific allocation of the

Quality Assurance Directorate's resources (manpower and computer)

necessary to fulfill these requirements. Key points in this portion

include an explanation of Developmental Center Testing (DCT) , Environmental Testing (ENT) as an independent, third-party test, and Field

Validation Testing (FVT) . The evolution of third party testing

within the Command is also discussed. Major points envisioned in

the revised testing procedures which the Command and QAD are implementing are detailed including a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of independent testing as perceived by various members of

the academic community as well as by the individuals directly involved

with this independent testing within USACSC, Conclusions reached as

a result of weighing these advantages and disadvantages and their

ultimate impact on the revised testing procedures are also examined.

The underlying point is the anticipated increase in effectiveness of

the Quality Assurance program obtained from the readjustment of resources, the gradual phasing out of the Environmental Test, and

the subsequent increase in "up front" QAD involvement. Concluding

comments encompass an overview of the methodology being developed to gather and evaluate feedback data on the success and/or shortcomings

of the revised procedures. This feedback data includes reports of

problems in fielded systems, especially immediately subsequent to the release of maintenance changes to this software, as well as requested changes to fielded systems.

Key words: Developmental Center Test, Environmental Test, Field

Validation Test, Independent Testing, Quality Assurance Program,

Software Change Package, Software Maintenance Testing,

1. Introduction

This paper examines the issues of soft- ware maintenance testing as a part of the

quality assurance mission within the United

States Army Computer Systems Command

(USACSC). Such an examination is particularly relevant at this time, since a significant change in the procedures is in progress. Thus, it is logical to document

the software maintenance testing requirements within USACSC prior to September 1, 1980, discuss the perceived need for change

in these procedures, and then detail the

revisions underway. Since maintenance

testing is an integral part of the overall

quality assurance effort within the Command,

any change in this part necessitates an indepth review of the role of the quality

assurance element in general. This

93
consideration is also addressed in the subsequent discussion.

In order to provide the desired setting

for a discussion of the specific topics

described above, a brief overview of USACSC

is apropros. This introduction to the

command focuses on its mission, organization, and functions in the role of a central

design agency responsible for developing

automated systems for the Army. The mission

of the Command is shown in figure 1.

USACSC MISSION

• SERVE AS THE PRINCIPAL ARMY DEVELOPER OF MULTICOMMAND ADP SYSTEMS. • DESIGN. TEST, INSTALL AND MAINTAIN ADP SYSTEMS. • DIRECT THE ARMY ADP STANDARDIZATION

PROGRAMS. • PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO HQDA STAFF

AGENCIES AND MAJOR ARMY COMMANDS. • CONDUCT SOFTWARE RESEARCH PROGRAMS.

Figure 1. USACSC Mission

Multicommand ADP systems are in support of

functional applications which are similar

in two or more major Army Commands.

Figure 2 shows how the various elements

within the Army interact with USACSC in

support of this mission. The Assistant

Chief of Staff for Automation and

Communications is responsible for establishing overall objectives, policies, and

procedures for Army Staff direction and

guidance for the design, development,

installation, and maintenance of Army

management information systems. (A

planned reorganization within the Army

Staff will alter this element; nevertheless,

USACSC will continue to receive Army

Staff guidance and direction.)

Within their respective areas of

responsibility, the Army Staff agencies

formulate statements of requirements for new systems, or changes to existing systems,

which are then forwarded to USACSC. As the principal Army developer for Standard

Army Multicommand Management Information

Systems (STAMMIS), USACSC receives the

approved requirements and undertakes systems

design or change. Additionally, USACSC

AS«|ILtFM|

ASST CHIEF of STAFF

for AUTOMATION

and COMMUNICATIONS

DCSlOt

OCSPER

CO* DCSROA

REOUIIEMENTS DCSOPS

T«EO

OCC D«M liUUI

COMPUTER

SYSTEMS COMMAND

SYSTEM DEVEIOPMENT,

INTEORDTiail t TESTMQ

SrSTEMS FOR THE FIEID USER COMMANDS

Figure 2. Army Interactions

With USACSC

provides technical support to user commands,

both in the US and overseas. The authorized

strength of the Command includes 382 military and 1102 civilians scattered throughout nine geographic locations. Systems

interfaces are a major concern of the

command. Figure 3 shows a typical array of

interfaces for one of the standard systems.

Documentation and configuration management

of interface specifications are extremely

difficult. An element that makes this

control even more complex is the fact that

different systems developers may be involved. Hence, a developer could easily make ' changes in specifications to one system

without anticipating the impact these

changes could have on other systems. To preclude problems in this area, interface

control is exercised at Command level.

This centralization within a single

central design agency permits the coordination and management of interface requirements between systems controlled by different proponent agencies.

This paper focuses on the Command's

Quality Assurance Directorate (QAD) and

its interactions with three of the Command's

software developers: Logistic Systems

Directorate, Personnel and Force Accounting

Systems Directorate and Financial Systems

Directorate. These Assigned Systems

Developers (ASD) design, test, install,

and maintain over forty standard systems

in response to Department of the Army

Proponent Agencies (PA) approved requirements. The STAMMIS are operational at

94
STANFINS INTERFACE

WITH OTHER SYSTEMS

IHSOPS

SOPPIT

smis «

INIEtFUND inilNG

>SIC

368(

STANFiNS

SDPCIIS

iNunruNii iniiHG

i i L

SIIRtlPS IFS

1E«M DP

IKCOMI

Figure 3. STANFINS Interface

With Other Systems

tenance testing is composed of three levels

of evaluation conducted by the system developer, followed by an independent third party

test conducted by the Quality Assurance

Directorate. At the conclusion of these

tests, the systems change package is subjected to its final test at a field site where

it is evaluated by representatives of the

major Army command user community (with

Quality Assurance, Proponent Agency, and

System Developer personnel on site).

These tests are further defined in USACSC

regulations as follows [1]

:

Developmental Center Test Level I (DCT I) - A test which occurs after design,

coding, desk checking, and successful

compilation of a new or changed program has

occurred and which insures that the program

operates efficiently. Primary objectives

of the DCT I are:

approximately 150 Army Data Processing

Installations world-wide. Some of the

functional requirements that are satisfied

by the standard systems developed by

USACSC are portrayed in figure 4.

- Identify and correct all program

errors

.

- Exercise program decision and logic

flow affected by change to demonstrate

technical correctness of program.

FINANCE PERSONNEL LOGISTICS

INSTALLATION ACCOUNTING STRENGTH ACCOUNTING: SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

ACTIVE ARMY

INVENTORY ACCOUNTING

RESERVES MAINTENANCE REPORTING

CIVILIAN PAY RETIRED COMMISSARIES

CIVILIAN DATA INQUIRY PORT OPERATIONS RSD BUDGETARY CONTROL FORCE DEVELOPMENT

INSTALLATION SUPPORT

MILITARY POLICE AMMUNITION

Figure 4. Functional

Systems Operational

2. Software Maintenance Testing

Having provided this broad description

of USACSC, it is now appropriate to delve

more deeply into its software maintenance

testing. Maintenance testing is the testing of approved software changes which

result from systems enhancements proposed

by the PA and Army activities currently

processing the system. The assigned developer, in conjunction with the proponent,

programs the necessary changes and assembles

the altered software into a systems change

package (SCP] . Formal test condition

requirements, which specify the requirements

necessary to test the change, are prepared

by the proponent for functional changes and

the developer for technical changes. Main-

- Exercise program functions affected

by change to demonstrate functional correctness of the program.

- Assure compliance with programing

and documentation standards.

The DCT I is normally performed by the

programer who conducts the test utilizing

developer checklists (no formal test plan).

The programer examines the developers

existing test data base and prepares

additional test data as necessary to test

all data types which have been affected

by change. At the conclusion of the test,

the programer considers test data for

permanent inclusion in the developers data

base and approves the program for the next

level of testing in accordance with the

developers internal procedure.

Developmental Center Test Level II (DCT II) - A test of the individual programs

which have completed DCT I, grouped in their

appropriate jobs/cycles. Primary objectives

of the DCT II include:

- Identify and correct program interface errors.

- Exercise all variations of job flow

affected by change to demonstrate technical

correctness of the job.

95
- Exercise all functions affected by

change to demonstrate functional correctness of the job.

The DCT II is normally a joint responsibility of programers and their supervisors. A Test Director may be appointed

if the developer desires. Formal test plans are not required, but detailed checklist outlining performance standards and

I/O requirements are strongly recommended.

The developer maintained data base will be

supplemented as necessary to meet test objectives. At the conclusion of DCT II the applicable programer will insure that

actual output agrees with predetermined

results and that the program interfaced

properly within the job.

Developmental Center Test Level III (DCT III) - A systems test which exercises

multiple jobs interfacing in the total

system. The objectives of the DCT III are:

- Demonstrate to the proponent agency

and the developer that all change requirements have been met.

- Demonstrate that all cycles of the

system affected by change will execute

and are technically adequate.

- Demonstrate that all outputs affected

by change are correct and functionally

adequate

.

The DCT III is conducted by the developer,

may be monitored by QAD, and is validated

by the proponent agency. A formal test plan is required. The developers test data base will be examined by the proponent

agency and supplemented as required to thoroughly test changes to the system. At the conclusion of the test, a formal report

is prepared and a signed acceptance is required prior to release to the next stage

of testing.

Environmental Test - A third-party,

technical test of SCP in the form they are

to be shipped to customers. The test evaluates machine and human interface by

using the computer operations manual,

target hardware, representative operator

skills, and live data bases captured from

field installations. The primary objectives

of the ENT are to:

- Insure all jobs affected by change

will execute to end of job.

- Successfully load program and JCL

changes and execute other implementing

jobs necessary to install the systems

change.

- Evaluate the accuracy and completeness of the computer operations manual.

The Quality Assurance Directorate is

responsible for developing the ENT plan

and appointing the ENT director. Upon

completion of ENT a formal recommendation

of release to the next stage of testing is

signed by the Test Director. The ENT is

covered in more detail in subsequent

discussion.

Field Validation Test - A test conducted at an operational unit with

representatives of the user community,

proponent, developer, and quality assurance

on site. The primary objectives of the FVT are to:

- Demonstrate to participants that the

software change satisfies performance

requirements of the change.

- Evaluate functional and ADP documentation for accuracy and ease of

understanding.

Installation of the SCP and subsequent

execution of the cycles/ jobs are to be

under normal production environment and are

the responsibility of the host unit. Therefore, the FVT is the only test conducted in

a true production environment. At the

conclusion of the FVT a formal memorandum

of agreement is prepared and the change is

approved or rejected for release to all

field users. If the system has multiple , version (e.g., different operating systems)

a supplemental site is chosen to run the

change for a specified time prior to release. (There are also emergency change

packages and urgent change packages but

the time criticality of these changes

dictates an abbreviated testing cycle).

Since the primary focus of this paper

is on the Quality Assurance Directorate's

role in the maintenance testing cycle, a more detailed look at the resources and

methodology employed in the ENT is

pertinent. In order to maintain strict

third-party independence, a significant

amount of duplication has necessarily

evolved. For example, separate test data

bases for each system are procured and

maintained by the QA Directorate.

Additionally, system unique card decks,

documentation, master files, -etc. must be

obtained and managed to conduct ENT. The

magnitude of these requirements, coupled

with the personnel resource constraints

imposed on the ENT function, dictates that

96
the individual testers become generalists,

i.e., capable of interpreting systems

documentation and overseeing the job/

cycle execution (much as a system analyst

at a data processing installation), but for

the most part unfamiliar with the specific

functional output of the system. Thus, the ENT is a technical checkout which insures

that the various cycles will execute without

abnormal termination. (This check-out, of

course, is limited by the constraints of

the data base utilized). To maintain the

integrity of the ENT, the Quality Assurance

Directorate must maintain accountability

of the systems change package from the

beginning of the ENT until final release

to all users. This entails a quality

assurance representative delivering the

package to the field test, remaining on-site

with the developer's representative to monitor any necessary "fixes", and finally

performing the necessary actions to cause

the creation of the shipment tapes and

documentation for each user. These steps are required from a quality assurance

point of view, but they create considerable

overhead beyond that which would be required

to only perform an independent test at a given point in the change package life

cycle.

3. Perceived Need to Change Procedures

The EOT, as described above, was established as a testing requirement in

1974, almost certainly because of critical

problems with change packages after their

installation by Army users. The ENT evolved

to insure that change packages would

install and run without abnormal termination.

Although this may seem to be a basic

criteria for developer testing, it was evidently not met frequently enough which

caused the creation of the ENT function.

(There are many explanations for this

including variances in developmental and user hardware, time constraints imposed

on the developer, inadequate test data

bases, and the all encompassing human

error). During the seven years since the

implementation of the ENT, many theoretical

questions concerning its desirability and

effectiveness have been raised. Two of

the most pertinent issues are: (1) The

value of an independent test in general

and (2) The Quality Assurance role within

the overall life-cycle of a maintenance

change.

The question of the value of an independent test is more complex than it might appear at first glance. Should an independent test be conducted at all?

If so, should there be a myriad of independent test activities (or individuals)

associated with each system or one central

test activity? At what stage in the developmental cycle should the independent test activity erter the process; that is, should

they insist on examining the change package

at the end of the "assembly line" much as

a quality assurance worker in a factory?

Or, would it be better to test early in

the programing process thereby detecting

fatal flaws, but negating the effect of a final independent test before final

release? There is considerable academic

material available on the subject. One

theory on the desirability' of a test similar to ENT is that this type test is one of two extremes. At one end of the

spectrum (the ENT is at this end) is the

person who treats the software as a "black

box" and attempts to provide the majority

of possible inputs, verifying that the

programs meet the specifications. At the

opposite end is the individual who studies

the program logic and, for example, tries

to design test data for each potential

branch in the logic. Both methods are held to be too extreme and, in reality,

impossible to fully accomplish [2]. But this theory deals with the broad arena of

software development and testing. USACSC,

specifically QAD, in recognition of the

fact that perhaps the "text-book" solutions were not being utilized, commissioned

several studies of the quality assurance

program. One of these studies concluded

that the Environmental Test should be

combined with the DCT III to be conducted

as the latter is now. This report suggests

that "independent third party testing is

only a good idea if it is an oversight

activity. In gaining the independence of

a third party test, so much expertise is lost from the proponent and development

groups that the results are bias free but

too shallow to be worthwhile. Only by

keeping those who know the most about the

software in the testing loop can their

deep knowledge be used to speed up the

cycle of error detection and correction.

While there is always danger of bias where

the test group has special knowledge, this

danger is less than the one of trivializing

the tests. Whenever objective measures of

test quality are available, the best of

both worlds can be obtained: The expert

group can conduct the test, and the

independent group can verify (in the sense

of an auditor) the objective measure is

satisfied [3]." A second study, performed

internally, reached similar conclusions in

noting that "The ENT is excessively

expensive and time consuming for the

purpose it serves.... This is not a comment on the diligence or dedication of

97
the personnel who conduct ENT; it is simply

that the ENT was devised as a measure to cure a symptom, that symptom being fielding

packages which did not load or execute..,.

To do this is essential; however, it can be

accomplished easily and cheaply by conducting all or part of the DCT Level III on a broadcast ready package and target hardware

[4]."

Thus both general literature and

specific studies appeared to point toward

the same conclusions. But it would be

insufficient to separate independent testing as an entity unrelated to its role in

the context of the complete quality

assurance program; i.e., if the ENT is not paying sufficient dividends, what will?

Again there is abounding literature concerning an ideal QA program, some general in

nature, some dealing specifically with

USACSC. One of these general works views

quality assurance as only one of three

software assurance methods. Figure 5 graphically depicts these three methods.

The interesting point is that the quality

assurance portion of this triad is responsible for conducting design reviews, audits,

walk-throughs , and witnessing acceptance

testing [5] . Returning to the specific

studies of QAD, there is a common thread

exemplified by the following quote: "No enterprise can afford to use more people

to check quality than to create the

objects to be checked. The solution is to make QAD an oversight activity [6]." A major conclusion of virtually every report

was that QAD should concentrate more of its resources in up-front activities such as simulation, optimization, design reviews,

and monitoring the testing conducted by

the developer.

4. Revised Testing Procedure

With the stage being so obviously set for a change in the Command's QA program,

particularly regarding independent testing,

the following changes were instituted on September 1, 1980:

- Selected standard systems would

undergo revised testing procedures. Change

packages for these systems would not be

subjected to ENT, but instead would have a DCT Level III with ENT objectives and be

conducted on target hardware. The developer for these systems would be the Command

representative at the field test and QAD

participation in these final tests would

be virtually non-existent.

- On a time-phased basis, additional

systems would undergo these revised testing

procedures. Eventually, all USACSC systems

would transition to the revised testing

procedures

,

- Quality Assurance resources would

gradually be shifted to the upfront

activities previously mentioned, i.e.,

simulation, optimization, design reviews,

and early test monitoring.

The impact of these changes can not be

underestimated. The quality of products

affecting the operation of the entire

Army was at issue. The revised procedures

were not received with overwhelming

acceptance by the various developers in

the command, although their objections

were most likely keyed by a perceived

increase in workload without a corresponding increase in manpower. The theoretical

wisdom of the change was not significantly

FACTOR QUALITY ASSURANCE ACCEPTANCE TESTING INDEPENDENT V&V

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE ENFORCE STANDARDS DEMONSTRATE ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE

ELIMINATE CRITICAL ERRORS

ORGANIZATION INDEPENDENT GROUP DEVELOPMENT GROUP INDEPENDENT GROUP

RELATIVE SIZE SMALL STAFF. LONG DURATION

LARGE STAFF, MEDIUM

DURATION MEDIUM STAFF, LONG DURATION

APPLICABILITY DELIVERABLE SOFTWARE

OPERATIONAL SOFTWARE

CRITICAL SOFTWARE

MAJOR STRENGTH COST BENEFIT RATIO WIDELY ESTABLISHED EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE MAJOR WEAKNESS DIFFICULT TO

INITIATE

SUBJECT TO TUNNEL

VISION REQUIRES ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Figure 5. Comparison of Software Assurance Methods

98
questioned. Nevertheless, there was sufficient apprehension to cause a delay in the change (originally scheduled

for July 1, 1980) and a reduction in the

number of systems initially affected.

Regardless, the mechanism to eventually

accept the revision for all STAMMIS was in

place.

It was also recognized that any major

change in testing of software was palatable

only if some method of tracking the effectiveness of the new procedures was devised.

In this regard, QAD instituted an after the

fact tracking for change package releases

called STAMMIS Release Evaluation and

Performance Profiling. This methodology,

in its early stages, is primarily the

gathering of pertinent information about a particular change package release in a format which facilitates the comparison

of this data from one release to the next. Significant trends can then be charted and

reported to managers. The many elements

of information being gathered can be

divided into two major catagories: Those

which describe or differentitate vis-a-vis

other systems (these factors include size,

age and % programs changed in a release)

and those which provide some indications

as to the effectiveness of the recent

change packages for a system (including

number of incidents submitted by users

against the system, number of changes

requested against the system, number of

emergency and/or urgent changes required

and frequency of normal change package

releases.) Although the system is in its

early stages of development, it is theorized that it will be used as an aid

in answering questions related to the

effect of change on system stability, the

optimal time between change package

releases, the relationship of system

size to stability, and other pertinent

quality indicators.

5. Conclusion.

bility and role in the complete testing of

their systems. Undoubtedly there will be

set backs, perhaps even a decline in the

quality of USACSC products for a period of

time. In fact, it would be an anomaly if

problem areas did not occur. However,

in the long run the shifting of QAD resources described herein can result in

significant savings in the cost of

software maintenance while actually

strengthening the QA program within the

Command.

References

[1] USACSC Manual 18-1

[2] Meyers, G.J., Software Reliability , John Wiley and Sons, New York 1976

[3] Hamlet, R., Testing of Data Processing Software, contract report

for Battel le Columbus Laboratories,

1980.

[4] Fox, M. and White, P. Report of

QAD Special Study on Testing,

Memorandum ACSC-QA, 1979.

[5] Fujii, M. S., A Comparison of Software

Assurance Methods, Logicon, Inc.

[6] Hamlet, R. , Testing of Data Processing

Software, Contract Report for Battelle

Columbus Laboratories, 1980.

The Quality Assurance Directorate

of the US Army's Computer System Command

has undergone some major "soul-searching"

narticularly with regard to its role in

independent testing. As a result of this

self-evaluation, the changes detailed in

this paper are being gradually implemented.

Six systems have been placed under the new procedures and all have experienced one or more releases of systems change packages

with the revised testing methodology. No significant problems have been encountered

and, for the most part, the developers are optimistic about their increased responsi99

HISTORICAL FILES FOR SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Walter R.

Tr acor

2007 We

Ful ler ton

,

Pype r , Ph . D

.

, Inc . St Olive

CA 92633

This paper summarizes a combination of ideas, adapted

from software engineering and other disciplines, which

provide insight into software life cycle management

activities. This paper is written for an audience which

may not be familiar with software engineering terminology,

and some ideas and terminology are taken from related

file maintenance and systems analysis fields. The impact

of historical files, which represent the software development and testing activity, upon traditional software

configuration management (CM) and software quality assurance (SQA) is examined. The implementation of historical

files s exp 1 or ed. Both advantag e s and d i s advan ta g e s are

ind i c a t e d The relationship to k e y wo r d cross-re f e r enc ing

is d i s c u s s e d . Keywo r d s Conf iguration manageme n t (CM); cross r e f ere nee data s t r u c tur e ; design, documenta t ion; functiona 1 ; h i s to r i c a 1 file ; keyword; life cy c 1 e management

;

r e qui reme n t s > s o f twar

e

quality assurance (SQA); specifi c a t ion

1 . Introduc t ion

The intent of this paper is to summarize a combination of ideas,

adapted from software engineering and

other disciplines, which provide insight into software life cycle

management activities. This paper is

purposely written for an audience

which may not be familiar with soft- ware engineering terminology, so some ideas and terminology are taken from

related file maintenance and systems

analysis fields.

Software configuration management

is an area of software quality assurance which is concerned with

controlling the current version of

each document, program listing, and

other items associated with a software system. In the maintenance of

such a configuration management

system, some key decisions must be

made regarding which information to keep and which to throw away.

Ideally, nothing is discarded from

program inception to system delivery

and on into system maintenance. The

challenge to the configuration

manager is to develop a reasonable

update procedure for documents, program listings, tapes, etc., so that

there is traceability from one version to the next and so that the

current state of documentation

matches the supported software. Some

trade-offs are necessary. In some cases, previous versions of documents

listings, tapes, etc., cannot be

physically maintained; and even if resources were provided to do that,

the cross-reference system between

current and all other versions

101
of these items requires an additional

resource which may grow to eclipse the

originally envisioned software system

development activities.

Although it is generally difficult to decide what to throw away

when a new version of a controlled

item is produced, one solution has

been to keep copies of the previous

two versions. Of course, one major

change followed by three successive

minor changes eliminates the version

reflecting the major change from the

configuration management system, so any such arbitrary rule may cause disaster in terms of t r ac e ab i 1 i ty

.

See Figure 1.

Current Version

(Minor Cha.ige)

Minor Change

Minor Change

Major Change

Figure 1, CM Update Procedure

The idea of maintaining a historical file which cross references

all updates in each controlled item is

proposed as a way in which a software

configuration might be controlled

appropriately. The idea is a fairly

s t r a i gh t - f o rwar d one, but its implementation does require discipline which

may not traditionally be found in the

configuration management arena. The

application of historical files to wider areas of software quality assurance is pursued in Section 3,

entitled "Wider Application to

Software Quality Assurance (SQA)".

2. Applications to Configuration Management (CM)

The basic procedures for software

CM employ tools and techniques which

can produce the current version of a

controlled item (document, program

listing, etc.) and indicate the

relation between any two items. An

equally important CM capability is to produce technical and management

information on any item, such as the

number of internal program segments

in a software task or the location(s)

of a given data segment within the

entire software system. It is not

intended that the use of a historical

file might eliminate the need for

such traditional CM tools. The major

benefit of a historical file to CM

is in minimizing the concern over

lost information due to elimination

of early versions of a controlled

item.

The historical file records any

change to a controlled item and

cross-references that change to all

documents, computer codes, etc.

,

which are functionally affected by

the change. One challenge is to identify all of these furctional

relationships and record the cross- references appropriately. Another

challenge is to set up the historical

file organization in the most useable

form at the "beginning". A thir 1 challenge is to identify the "beginning". When does one begin to keep

a historical file?

Let's start by considering the

last challenge first. A historical

file may be initiated at any point

in the software engineering life

cycle, but there is a point of

diminishing returns, and there may > be a point of insignificant return

for the effort invested. If it is

possible to begin the historical

file near the inception of the life

cycle (wherever that is judged to

be), there are rewards for keeping

track of approved and eliminated

ideas, together with the corresponding judgment criteria, during the

early stages of requirements

generation.

If the historical file is

implemented when the preliminary

software design document is generated

that document provides an outline for

the historical file organization

which is close to the ideal, since it

reflects the organization of the

product itself - the computer code.

Valuable information on software

requirement specification decisions

will have been lost by waiting to initiate the historical file until

102
the preliminary design document is

produced, and it is possible to reorganize the historical file based

upon the structure of any document or listing. By automating the historical

file, the reorganization procedure may

be accomplished less painfully.

The second challenge, that of

setting up the historical file organization in the most useable form, has

been partially discussed already.

Should its organization be arbitrary,

should it follow a particular document,

or should it be a reflection of the

program listing itself? The latter

organization, that of the program

listing itself, is proposed as the

most useful, since the historical file

is then keyed directly to the code for

design, dev.- lopment , maintenance and

other purposes. It is suggested at

this point that one of the major

sources of software maintenance cost

is the cost associated with familiarizing personnel with the software

design, preliminary to maintenance

updates to the cod e . Sine e all doc u

- ments are written in s uppo rt of the

computer code itse If ,

_ it s e ems reasonable that th e hi s tor i c a 1 file

should be organize d pa ral 1 el to the

coda .

The content o f th e hi s 1 0 r i c a 1 file has not been disc u s s e d to this

point , and it is h igh t ime we 1 o ok e d at that in some de tail . Th e his tori c a 1 file represents de sign dec i s ions

.

What was done? Why was it done?

When was it approved? What effect

did it have? The historical file

should contain, at a minimum, the

foil owing

:

• Location of Change - supporting

information is listed under

appropriate historical file

section.

• Chronology - date change was implemented in CM controlled

i t em

.

change? It is proposed that this

cross-reference include usage of

a keyword file where keywords and

keyword phrases are associated

with the historical file section

in which the change is being

described. These keywords provide a secondary check on code

and data segments which might be

affected by this change. A second type of explicit cross- referencing which lists all

locations in associated documents

where changes are required is a traditional part of CM control,

and would not necessarily appear

within the historical file.

The last element of a historical

file entry responds to the first

challenge listed earlier. The ability

to adequately cross-reference the

changes to a software system and provide checks against inadvertent

"ripple effect" of a change has

plagued software designers and maintenance personnel in the past. The

idea suggested here is to associate

keywords and keyword phrases with

each program segment (subroutine;

procedure, etc.) of the computer code

and consequently with the associated

historical file section. These

keywords and phrases provide

functional relationships between code

segments which yield a semi-automated

control by listing all code and data

segments which share the keywords

and phrases contained in that

historical file section. See

Figure 2 for a Fortran example.

SUBROUTINE EXAMPLE

C 3 .4.1

C PURPOSE

CC

C

C KEYWORDS

CC

C Description of Change - Standardized format of changes

to documents, listings, etc.

Criteria for Change - Standardized comments for reasons

beh ind change

.

C r o s

s -Re f e r e nc e s - What was functionally affected by this

Figure 2. Keyword Section in Preamble

Admittedly, a lengthy check-list

of code and data segments might result

from the cross-reference procedure

using keywords as the means for

relating an altered historical file

entry to the balance of the entries.

This procedure is amenable to

103
refinement by means of sub-categories,

so that the check-list is not so extensive. The intent is to be

exhaustive in the cross-reference

exercise, so it may be well to employ

manual sub-category sorting techniques

rather than automate to the degree

that the intrinsic value of such a cross-referencing procedure is lost.

In what respect have we aided

the CM process? If the historical

file were not available we might

expect that the following deficiencies

would exist in our CM system:

• The history of changes to a given

code segment or document section

might be difficult to trace back more than a few versions prior

to the current version.

• The reasons for changes to design,

requirements, etc., might be

obscured or non-existent with

traditional CM techniques.

• The cross-reference between

sections of documents or segments

of code might not exist in a useable form for maintenance or design changes, thus amplifying

the aftershock of CM activity.

The additional savings associated

with a reduction in the need for

maintenance of multiple prior versions

of listings and documents may be the

strongest reason for implementing a historical file.

tools and testing activity. In order

to formalize the organization of the

historical file and tie it to the

delivered code structure, it is

recommended that both the code and

the historical file be structured

with a numbering scheme which is common to the final design document.

In particular, the individual sec- tions of the final design document

should be implemented within the code

in single program segments (subroutines, procedures, etc.) or in groups

of program segments (e.g. tasks).

The numbering system associated with

those individual sections of the

design document may be included with

the preamble or header comments in

the individual program segments and

may be likewise repeated in the

historical file. In the event that

a program segment does not match

a design document section uniquely,

as in the case with certain utility

programs, an appropriate itbsequence

numbering is possible so tuat the

correlation is maintained.

The advantages to the maintenance of such a common numbering

scheme extend beyond configuration

management activity, discussed

earlier. All parent and descendant

documents which support the code may

be referenced directly to code segments. Test results at all levels

may be referenced directly to code

segments. A historical file is

easily organized and maintained

based upon such a numbering procedure.

3. Wider Applications to Software Quality Assurance (SQA)

Upon test or examination of any

code segment by means of SQA tools,

the results of such examination should

be recorded in an easily accessible

central file. The ramifications of

such testing and the ability to duplicate the test should be referenced

within that same central file. The

intent of these suggestions is to minimize maintenance cost - the greatest potential cost of software if

redesign and major updates to the

software are included in maintenance

costs

.

It is suggested that the

historical file, with an organization

which reflects the code structure, is

the appropriate place to record

results of the application of SQA

The effort involved in maintaining the common numbering system is

insignificant compared with the

potential advantages gained. The

historical file may be organized in

such a fashion that proposed updates

to any code segment are complemented

by extensive background on prior

testing, validation and verification

associated with that code segment.

Any data segment which is affected by

a proposed change should be similarly

categorized in the historical file.

If the suppo r t i n g da ta b as e is

organized by such a s t rue tur e d procedure the pos s i bi 1 ity of unexpected errors due t o c ode or documentation upd a t e c an be s i gn i f i cantly diminished

There is no s u bs t itu te f or manual review and c or r e 1 a t i on of

104
some information, but the presence of

a historical file with built-in

features which reduce the search and

correlation process to a standardized

procedure is a significant aid.

4. Implementation of

the Historical File

The individual entries within a historical file may be formatted

under the appropriate section number

to include the items indicated in

Section 2, plus any others that are identified by the user. Each entry

may be cross-referenced in some fashion, and the section in which the

entry resides is cross-referenced by

keyword as well as by section number

which matches the final design document sectioi. number.

The historical file reside

edit-driven system with the abi

expand, concatenate and delete

sections, as well as to search

sort on given keywords or other

attributes. The ability to rap access any portion of the file

numerical pointer is a key to usefulness. The relationship b keywords and numbered sections

maintained within the preamble

header of program segments (sub

tines, procedures, etc.) and du

cated in the historical file un

it is critical to save space in

historical file and not repeat

keywords within the historical

s on an

1 i ty to file

and

idly

by

its

e twe en

i s orroupliless

the

the

f ile . Advantages to implementing a historical file have been outlined

in Sections 2 and 3. They are summarized here:

• Preserve design history of

s o f twar e

.

• Provide cross-reference to control structure and data

structure changes.

• Provide essentially unlimited

backup to current version of all

items under CM control.

• Provide insight to design

processes for new imp 1 emen t o r s

.

• Provide detailed history to support maintenance activity.

• Provide management tool for

extraction of significant

software update activity.

• Provide central repository of

all testing and SQA activity.

Resistance to the implementation

of a historical file is generally

prompted by lack of resources, to wit:

time, money and personnel. The

return on investment for such a tool

is generally not realized to a significant degree until all major design

work has been completed; although

structuring the development activity

so that design changes at all levels

are carefully recorded and organized

yields some very important benefits.

Each individual involved in the

development of the software may go to the historical file to gain understanding of otherwise tersely-written

documents. A significant time savings

is effected, and added insight into

total system requirements is derived

by the reviewer. Attempts to "secondguess" the system architects are diminished, and due to the increased

level of information available, the

implementor is given greater con'idence in the basic design. If that

is not the case, useful suggestions

for improvement will be forthcoming

at an early stage where the cost of

change is small by comparison to later stages.

The details of implementation of

a historical file are, to a great

degree, dependent upon the resources

and particular needs of the sponsoring

organization. Some of the advantages

and disadvantages of starting the

historical file before the final

design document is produced have

already been discussed. The suggestion here has been to start as soon

as possible and structure the historical file so that it may be altered at

a later date to reflect the final

design document. This is no easier

task than restructuring the requirements document in terms of the final

design document, so this author

recognizes that the task of restructuring is probably not amenable to automation for many complex projects.

The process of correlating

keywords within the requirements

document and the initial design

specification allows a semi-automated

procedure for relating the preliminary

historical file (based upon the

105
requirements specification) to the

final historical file, thus anticipating the organization of the final

design specification. See Figure 3.

Requirements

Spec i f icat ion

I

Preliminary

Historical File

Prelimi- Final

nary Design

Des ign Document

D 0 c umen t 1

Restruc- Updated

tured HistoriHistori- cal File

cal File Structure

Figu e 3. Historical File

Update Process

If the reader feels that we are beginning to magnify the software

development effort beyond reason,

consider the effect of doing the

cross-reference exercise to generate

a representative historical file.

The mechanism of thinking about cross- references in detail provides the

designer with insight perhaps not

otherwise accessible, and the added

attention to that detail should

reveal problems with consistency and

completeness in the design. This

activity occurs at an early enough

stage to make changes which might be

impossible once the coding cycles

have begun.

5 . Summary

or after several maintenance versions

have been generated.

By organizing such a file to match the structure of the delivered

code, and providing the ability to cross-reference related documents,

test results, SQA results, and other

information, cost effective CM and

software maintenance is more probable. If data structure is also

considered in the generation of the

historical file, heretofore

unexploited software maintenance

techniques are indicated.

The intent of this paper has

been to generate interest in the use

of historical files for reducing

software maintenance costs and to provide greater visibility into the

software development process, thus

reducing the cost of design change

by moving more of the detailed review

of design decisions towa.-c' the

beginning of the software development

process

.

The keyword cross-reference

approach has been suggested as logical complement to the historical

file. This provides a second check

on maintenance activity, and yields

likely nooks and crannies to search

for "ripple effect" errors. The use of keywords and phrases is

explored in more detail in 0.J . References

[l] Pyper, Walter R., T he Effectiv e Use of Comments, Tracor, Inc..

20 March~198l7

The concept of a historical

file has been utilized effectively in

many areas of systems and information

science. It is a standard tool in

the control of organizations and large

projects. It has been somewhat

neglected in software engineering,

possibly due to the apparent complexity and cost of maintaining a separate

historical file when so much was already being recorded and controlled

by CM techniques

.

One key element which has been

lost is -the history of design

decisions which provide great insight

into sometimes obscure reasons for the

existence of data and control structures in their final, delivered form.

106
ADP Cost Accounting

and Chargeback

107

A STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH FOR DEVELOPING

AND IMPLEMENTING A DP CHARGING SYSTEM

Kenneth W. Giese

Dean Halstead

Thcmas F. Wyrick

Directorate of System Evaluation*

Federal Coitputer Perfontiance Evaluation

and Siimilation Center (FEDSIM)

Washington, DC 20330

Charging for data processing (DP) services refers to distributing

the costs of providing DP services to the users who receive the

services. The distribution of costs requires definition of the basic

DP services, the resources used to provide the services, and the costs

incurred to obtain and make use of the resources. A charging system

is cortprised of two subsystems: the rate-setting and the billing

subsystems. The rate-setting subsystem incorporates procedures for

forecasting the use and the total cost of each service and establishing the rate to be charged for each unit of service. The billing

subsystem includes procedures for monitoring the use of services,

applying the rate for each service unit to corpute the total charge

for the services each user receives, and reporting the charges to the user and pertinent accounting groups. Organizations may or may not

collect funds to recover the costs of DP services.

The Federal Government has established policies that call for

distributing the "full costs of operating DP facilities to users according to the service they receive." The National Bureau of

Standards (NBS) , assisted by the Federal Cotputer Performance Evaluation and Simulation Center (FEDSIM) , is developing a set of Guidelines

to assist Federal DP management in iitpleitienting the charging aspects

of this policy. This paper describes a step-by-step methodology for

the developitent and inplementation of a charging system that will form

the basis of the Guidelines. The material presented in this paper

represents an overview of the preliminary results of the Guidelines

development project and may change during the review of the draft

Guidelines document. Selected technical and policy references are cited to encourage further investigation.

Key words: DP cost accounting; DP cost allocation; chargeback;

pricing; standard costing; chargeout; charging; charging system.

*The views and conclusions contained in this paper are the authors' and should not be

interpreted as representing the official opinions or policies of FEDSIM or of any other

person (s) or agency associated with the Government. Moreover, this paper contains the

authors' summaries of official documents and, therefore, may not reflect the full

intent of those docunents.

109
1 . Introduction

On September 16, 1980, the Office of

Management and Budget (OB) issued Circular

No. A-121, "Cost Accounting, Cost Recovery,

and Inter-Agency Sharing of Data Processing

Facilities." This Circular requires

Federal agencies to irtplement policies and

procedures to (1) account for the full

cost of operating data processing (DP)

facilities; (2) allocate all DP costs to

users according to the DP services received; (3) evaluate inter-agency sharing

as a means of supporting major new DP

applications; (4) share excess DP capacity

with other agencies; and (5) recover the

cost of inter-agency DP sharing. The

Circular specifies that agency procedures

for cost accounting and charging mast be

consistent with the guidance provided in

Federal Government Accounting Panphlet

Number 4 (FGAP 4) , "Guidelines for Accounting for Autonatic Data Processing Costs,"

U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) , 1978.

While Circular No. A-121 and FGAP 4 describe general criteria that agencies

should use for cost accounting. Federal DP

managers need technical guidance in the area of charging. The National Bureau of

Standards (NBS) is developing a Federal

Information Processing Standard (FIPS)

Guidelines to provide the needed guidance.

The Guidelines will incorporate the "best

practices" as described in the literature

and as used by exertplary managers in the

Federal Government and private sector.

This paper presents an introduction to

charging for DP services and summarizes a

step-by-step methodology for developing and

iiiplementing a charging system. The

material described in this paper represents an overview of the preliminary results of

the Guidelines development project. These

results may change during further review of

the draft Guidelines. Selected technical

and policy references are cited to encourage further investigation.

2. Introduction to Charging

for DP Services

The term charging for DP services

refers to the process of distributing the

costs of providing DP services to those who

receive the services. The procedures used

to charge and recover costs for services

will vary from DP facility to DP facility.

Services, resources, and their interrelationships are the fxmdamental concepts that

must be understood in order to understand

hew to charge. The term "service" refers

to the work performed by the DP facility

for its users. In order for work performed

by the DP facility to be classified as a

service, the work must be measured by only

one metric and must have a user billing

rate (price) associated with it. The

metric is referred to as a service unit and

is the smallest category of work for which

the users can be charged. Services can be

as sirtple as catputer processing, with CPU

seconds as the service unit, or as cotplex

as a machine resource unit (MRU) , which is an algorithm that combines several different services and that uses the number of

MRU's as the service unit.

The term "resource" refers to the items

eitployed by the DP facility to provide one

or more services. In order for a resource to be included in the charging system, the

DP facility must incur a cost for obtaining

or using the resource. Exaitples of resource categories that are used in DP

facilities are those listed in A-121 and

FGAP 4: personnel, equipnent, software,

supplies, contracted services, space

occupancy, intra-agency services and

overhead, and inter-agency services. The

total cost of each resource is used as the

basis for determining the cost of each

service, which is in turn used as the basis

for calculating the billing rate that will

be charged for that service. The concepts

of accumulating and accounting for the

total costs of DP services are described in

detail in FGAP 4.

The billing rates for the DP facility's

services typically are developed by dividing the total cost of a service by either

the projected utilization or available

capacity for the service, such as the

number of hours the service is available

for use. Usage accounting procedures

collect and store the number of service

units for each service utilized by each

user. These data are reduced and reported

to the respective user. If the DP facility

is recovering its costs, then the billing

rates for the service units are applied,

the charge for the work is calculated, and

a bill is prepared and sent to the user.

The procedures used to charge for

services are referred to in the draft

Guidelines as a "charging system." Developing a charging system requires many decisions that can affect not only the DP

facility, but also the entire organization.

Exaitples of the decisions are (1) whether

to charge the users for all of the re- sources used to provide a service, or to

charge for only certain resources; (2) whether or not to use the charging system

110
to try to influence service usage patterns;

(3) v^ch services the DP facility should

charge for; and (4) which resources are used to provide a particular service.

These types of decisions are the main focus

of the draft Guidelines.

3. Functional Description of a Charging System

An operational charging system is

ccitposed of two subsystems: rate-setting

and billing. (See Figure 1.) The ratesetting subsystem supports the development

of the rates charged for each service.

The billing subsystem records usage and

applies the rates to cortpute the total

charges for the services each user receives .

3.1 Rate-Setting Subsystem

The rate-setting subsystem of a

charging system is most often linked to the

organization's fiscal cycle, which subsequently dictates the schedule of the

subsystem's operation. The frequency of a typical cycle is yearly. The main objective of the rate-setting subsystem is the

setting of billing rates. Billing rates are the prices users are charged for the

services they receive. Most organizations

atteitpt to keep billing rates constant

throughout the fiscal cycle to prevent

disruption of budgets, which explains the

interdependence between the subsystem and

the organization's fiscal cycle. The work

perfontied in the rate-setting sv±)system is

best described by dividing it into four

procedures: usage forecasting, cost

forecasting, setting billing rates, and DP

management accounting. Extensive interaction occurs between the various procedxores,

and the work is not always catpleted in the

exact order shcvm in Figure 1. Each

procedure is briefly discussed belcw.

The first procedure of the rate-setting

subsystem is usage forecasting. Usage can be forecast by one or more of several

techniques. Some examples of forecasting

techniques are surveying users to estimate

the amount of service they will require,

performing a trend analysis based on

historical usage data, or a combination of

the two. After the forecasts have been

cotpiled and validated for accuracy, the DP

facility determines if available DP capacity can support the forecasted usage. If

not, steps must be taken to adjust either

DP capacity or the nuirber of service units

that users are requesting. Additionally,

the DP facility evaluates the usage forecasts for each service to determine if the

DP facility should continue to offer the

service

.

Cost forecasting involves estimating

the costs incurred to provide the resources needed to support each service. The objective of cost forecasting is to estimate all

costs for the fiscal cycle. There are several techniques often used for cost

forecasting. One of the more camion

techniques involves extrapolating the DP

facility ' s current operating budget into

the planning period by itemizing changes to

the budget reflecting estimated future

costs. Once cost forecasting is carpleted,

the costs and benefits of each DP service are evaluated by ccxiparing the forecasted

usage and cost estimates to determine if

that service can be econcmically provided.

Cost forecasts can be used as a basis for

the DP facility's budget requests.

Together, usage and cost forecasting

provide the data needed to set billing

rates.

Setting billing rates involves allocating the forecasted DP costs to the various

DP services. This allocation involves

determining the portions of each resource or group of resources (resource center)

used to support each service. The total

cost of each service is divided by either

the forecasted capacity or the forecasted

usage for that service; the result is

referred to as a "standard rate." The

standard rate is the minimum amount that

must be charged for each service unit to

fully recover the cost of providing that

unit. Differential surcharges or discounts

may be applied to each standard rate, if

appropriate, to develop the final billing

rate for each service. The standard rates

may also be used to develop charging

algorithms, if the DP facility is using

them. Charging algorithms are the equations used to coirpile the usage of several

different services into a total usage unit,

such as the MRU described earlier. The

billing rate for the total usage unit is

calculated using seme combination of the

standard rates of each of the services in

the algorithm. The billing rates are then

published and used as a basis for developing the users' DP budget requests.

The final procedure in the rate-setting

subsystem is a set of activities referred

to as DP management accounting. These

activities include budget planning and the

formulation of budget requests; establishing and maintaining accounts and accounting

information for users and the DP facility;

and providing any interface that may be

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required between the DP, budgeting, and

accounting gro\:ps of the organization.

3.2 Billing Subsystem

The billing subsystem consists of the

procedures errployed to monitor the usage of

the services; to prepare and distribute

reports of each user's service utilization

and charges for that utilization; and to recover costs. If the DP facility is

recovering costs, usage reports may then be

viewed as bills. Service usage is typically monitored continually; reporting

typically occurs monthly; and cost recovery, which may or may not occur, typically

follcws a schedule that is closely tied to

the fiscal cycle of the agency.

Usage accounting procedures, in the

context of charging, refer to recording the

service \jnits received by each user. Usage

of DP equipttient and software is typically

monitored by job accounting software run in

conjunction with the ccrtputer's operating

system. Manual procedures, including time

sheets, data entry logs, tape mount logs,

and other manual logs may be used for

personnel and other resources. Data fron

the job accounting software and the manual

logs are corpiled to produce records of

total services received by each user during a given period.

Reporting consists of the procedures

ertployed to reduce the usage accounting

data, to apply the billing rates to the

results of the reduction, and to produce

reports surtmarizing the total service

utilization and charges for that utilization for each user. Many DP facilities ac- tually provide their users with a report at

the end of each ccjiputer session or run which suniTvarizes the services received for

that session or run and the estimated

charges for those services. If the DP

facility has chosen to recover the charges

for its services, then in most instances

the reports that have been produced can be

viewed as the bills used for recovery.

Recovery consists of the procedures

eitployed for the collection of funds.

There are several different techniques that

can be used to handle the recovery of

charges. One technique is to have the user

deposit an amount of money into an account

maintained by the DP facility. The DP

facility then debits the user's account

every time the user utilizes the DP facility 's services. In this situation, the

reports or bills reflect the charges that

have already been removed fron the user ' s account. Another technique is to have the user send funds to the DP facility for each

bill received. Whatever technique is used

by a DP facility, it must fit in with the

policies and procedures that each agency

has for the transferral of external and

internal funds . The agency ' s accounting

department typically handles all of the

agency-level record-keeping for, and actual

movement of, the funds.

4. Outline of the Charging System

Development and Iitplementation

Process

The draft Guidelines discusses in

detail four phases and eleven steps for

developing and inplementing a charging

system. (See Figure 2 . ) This section

provides a sunmary of the major tasks

required for each of the eleven steps.

4.1 Planning Phase

The planning phase incorporates two

steps: (1) determining the management

structure and approach to developing and

inplementing the charging system; and (2) setting the objectives for the DP facility,

for charging for DP services, for the

charging system, and for the charging

system development project. These steps

result in the preparation of a high-level

management plan for the development

project.

"Step 1" Determine the Management

Structure and i^proach

There are four major tasks in Step 1. The tasks are primarily the responsibility

of the organization's management. First,

the level of management involvement and

support in the design, development, iitplementation, operation, and maintenance of

the charging system should be determined.

This involves defining the degree of

organizational ccmmitment to charging for

DP services, the charging system, and the

charging system development project.

Second, a charging team should be formed.

The team should consist of at least one representative from each fmctional group

in the agency that will be affected by the

charging system, including DP, management,

budgeting, accounting, and the users. Third, the charging team should identify

the major types of work that will need to

be perfontied and assign the responsibility

for conpleting the work to the appropriate

team meiriDer or the group they represent.

Fourth, the methodology that the organiza113
PLANNING PHASE

1. DETERMINE THE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE

AND APPROACH

2. SET OBJECTIVES

DESIGN PHASE

3.A. ESTABLISH THE ALLOCATION STRUCTURE

DESIGN THE CHARGING SYSTEM

RATE-SETTING PHASE

5. FORECAST USAGE

6. FORECAST COST

7. SET BILLING RATES

8. CONDUCT DP MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

BILLING PHASE

9. DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT USAGE ACCOUNTING

PROCEDURES

10. DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT REPOR,TING PROCEDURES

11. DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT RECOVERY PROCEDURES

Figure 2. Charging System Development

Phases and Steps

tion will use in the design, development,

inplaa:v8ntation, operation, and maintenance

of the charging system should be defined by

the charging team. The team's decisions

should be documented in a formal Project

Plan which outlines the individual tasks to

be performed in each subsequent phase and

step.

"Step 2" Set Objectives

Step 2 consists of four major tasks.

These tasks are coordinated by the charging

team, vtose objective for this step is to

provide a formal definition of the objectives for the DP facility, for charging for

DP services, for the charging system, and

for the charging system development project. First, the management-level DP

objectives should be defined to indicate

how DP relates to the organization as a

whole. This involves determining the

relationship of the DP facility to the

organization, the level of maturity of the

DP facility, and whether approval for DP

usage should be via the DP facility's or

user's budget. Since these ctojectives

affect the charging system and the entire

organization, they should be coordinated

with upper management and all other

involved groups. Second, the DP facility's or agency's objectives for charging for DP

services should be determined. Exaiiples of

these objectives are to (1) increase the

accountability of DP to upper management

and the users, (2) irtprove the relationship

between charging and the capacity planning

process, (3) recover the cost of operating

the DP facility, (4) encourage more efficient use of resources by the users, (5) encourage the DP facility to keep prices

ccitpetitive with outside vendors, and (6) influence the behavior of users regarding

their use of the resources.

Third, the objectives of the charging

system should be deterroined. These objectives should define how the charging system

should be structured and designed. There

are ten primary objectives of a charging

system identified in the draft Guidelines

document: (1) repeatability, (2) understandability, (3) equitability , (4) auditability, (5) adaptability, (6) inexpensive

to operate, (7) easy to irtplement and

maintain, (8) controllability, (9) stability, and (10) sirtplicity. Many of these

objectives are not ccrrpatible and the

charging team must work to explore tradeoffs between conflicting objectives.

Fourth, the objectives of the charging

system project must be defined. This

involves setting the goals, schedules, and

114
budgets for accorplishing the phases,

steps, and tasks defined in the Project

Plan.

4.2 Design Phase

During the design phase, the objectives

set forth in the planning phase are used to

direct the conceptual development and

preliminary design of the charging system.

The objectives of this phase are to establish an allocation structure, vrfiich is a matrix to be used to assign the resources to the services, and a global charging

system design. During this phase, the

global requirements for the charging system

are identified and alternatives for satisfying the requirements explored. The

allocation structure and charging system

design provide a starting point for the

detailed design, development, irrplementation, and operation of the rate-setting and

billing subsystems. The global charging

system design serves to coordinate the

individual steps and tasks of subsequent

phases. The design phase is coordinated

and performed by the charging team members.

"Step 3" Establish the Allocation Structure

Step 3 consists of seven major tasks.

First, the methods for allocating the costs

of the resources to the services should be

determined. There are two decisions vAiich

must be considered, (1) should the costs of

all or only a subset of the resources be

allocated to the services, and (2) should

billing rates be based on standard or

actiaal costs. The first decision is

self-explanatory and is a function of the

policy of the DP facility or the agency in

which it resides. The second decision

concerns how often the billing rates are

set. Billing rates based on standard costs

are set once for the fiscal cycle; billing

rates based on actual costs are changed as often as necessary to ensure that they

reflect the actual costs to produce them.

Second, the charging methods or bases

shoiiLd. be determined. There are two

charging method decisions that shoiiLd be

determined: (1) should the rates be based

upon projected usage or estimated total

capacity; and (2) should the services

offered by the DP facility be charged using a single factor, multiple factors, or an

extension of the multiple factors method?

(These are discussed in detail in the draft

Guidelines .

)

Third, the services that the DP facility wants to provide should be itemized.

The service unit for each service should

also be defined. Fourth, the resources that the DP facility uses to provide each

service should be itemized. Fifth, the

centers, or logical groupings used to

accumulate the resources and services,

should be identified. Sixth, the structure

for allocating the costs of the resoiarces

and resource centers to the services should

be constructed. The actual costs of the resources are not placed into the allocation matrix at this time, because they are not yet kncwn. Seventh, the charging

algorithms, if they are to be used, should

be developed.

"Step 4" Design the Charging System

Step 4 consists of four major tasks.

First, the global fxmctional requirements

of the system should be identified,

analyzed, and documented. The requirements

for the charging system that are of primary concern are the basic inputs, processes,

and outputs needed for the various procedures. The allocation structure provides a basis for defining requirements for collecting, processing, and reporting information

about resources, costs, and services.

Second, the global functional requirements

should be used to define and document the

data requirements of the system. The

amount and types of needed and available

usage and cost data should be closely

examined and defined. The data requirements document is very iirportant and should

be continually refined throughout the

charging system developnent project. All

design decisions should be checked against

the availability of the data needed to

develop and irtplement the procedures and

systems that those decisions dictate.

Third, the basic alternatives for satisfying the functional and data requirements of

the charging system must be explored.

Exanples of the decision trade-offs for

each of the procedures of the charging

system are manual versus autotiated, inhouse versus purchased, and existing versus

notf. The potential costs of each alternative for each procedure should be weighed

against its benefits. These decisions are iterative and may result in the need to

modify the objectives and requirements of

the system. Fourth, based on decisions

made in the first three tasks, a global

charging system design document should be

carpiled, reviewed, and eventually approved or disapproved by the charging team,

i^proval leads to the next two phases,

during which the detailed designs are

produced, the system and subsystems are developed, and finally they are inplemented

and operated. Disapproval means that

115
earlier phases, steps, and tasks must be

re-evaluated and, if necessary, repeated

until approval is obtained by the involved

parties.

4.3 Rate-Setting Phase

This section describes the four steps

to follcw in setting rates. The agency's

standard DP systems development techniques

should be used in conjunction with this

section to structure the detailed design,

developnnent , iitplementation, and operation

of the rate-setting si±)system. During the

rate-setting phase, the detailed decisions

concerning the type and structure of the

rate-setting subsystem are made. This

section presents information which is

pertinent to the operational rate-setting

subsystem to aid in its detailed design,

development, irtplemeritation, and operation.

The functional procedures include the

forecasting of usage and costs, setting of

billing rates, and performing DP management

accounting tasks.

"Step 5" Forecast Usage

Step 5 consists of four major tasks.

First, users' projected workload requirements should be obtained. The projections

should be in terms of the service units

that are established in the allocation

structure. Second, the forecasts should be

analyzed and used to determine the capacity

needed by the DP facility to provide those

forecasts. Third, discrepancies between

available or obtainable DP capacity and

usage forecasts should be resolved.

Fourth, the allocation structure should be

reevaliaated and, if necessary, restructured

to incorporate the resolutions between the

users' forecasts and DP capacity.

"Step 6" Forecast Costs

Step 6 consists of four major tasks.

First, an estimate of the budget that will

be proposed for the DP facility, for the

planning period of the charging system,

should be developed or obtained. Second,

additional cost data that are either not

contained in the budget estimate or not

contained in the detail that is needed

should be <±)tained. Third, the cost data

should be analyzed and the costs for the resources and resource centers should be

calculated. Fourth, the allocation structure should be reevaluated. Resources and resource centers for which no cost could be

obtained should be removed fran the allocation structure or consolidated under other

categories.

"Step 7" Set Billing Rates

Step 7 consists of five major tasks.

First, the estimated costs of the resources and resource centers should be incorporated

into the allocation structure and the total

cost for each service calculated. Second,

the "standard rate" for each service unit

should be calculated. The standard rate

can be calculated in one of three ways:

(1) by dividing the total estimated cost of

a service for the planning period by the

total projected usage, (2) by dividing the

total estimated cost of the service for the

planning period by total available DP

capacity, or (3) by using a technique that

considers the total projected usage and

cost over the projected (multiyear) life of

the service. Third, coefficients for each

charging algorithm variable, if charging

algorithms are being used, should be

calculated. Fourth, any factors for

normalizing charges between carpeting or similar services, such as multiple machines

or DP facilities, should be determined.

Fifth, any surcharges, priority charges,

and discounts that are to be used should be

determined. The end result of these tasks

is the calculation of a billing rate

(price) for each service offered by the DP

facility

.

"Step 8" Conduct DP Management Accounting

Step 8 consists of three main tasks.

First, procedures should be developed for

the establishment and maintenance of user

and DP facility accounts. Second, procedures should be developed and irtplemented

for assisting users and the DP facility in

establishing and justifying their budgets.

Third, procedures should be developed for

providing coordination with the organization's accounting and budgeting divisions,

the DP facility, and the users concerning

areas connected to the charging system,

such as the recovery of charges and user

accounts. These procedures are needed to

keep track of actual expenditures of both

the DP facility and the users. FGAP 4 provides the guidance needed for management

accounting for the DP facility.

4.4 Billing Phase

Billing includes functional procedures

for accounting for usage, producing and

distributing usage reports and bills, and

recovering charges fran users. During the

billing phase, these procedures are defined

in detail, developed, irtplemented, and used

in an operational environment. The procedures directly affect the users, the DP

116
facility, and the organization's accounting

and budgeting practices. Representatives

frem these groups should be involved in the

detailed design, developnvent, inplementation, and operation. Cost accounting for

the DP facility is not addressed in the

draft Guidelines document; however, cost

accounting does occur in parallel with the

billing phase.

"Step 9" Develop and Iitplettent Usage

Accounting Procedures

Step 9 consists of two major tasks.

First, the usage accounting procedures that

are needed to collect the necessary data

for the charging system should be designed

in detail. These procedures typically

include both autcrtated and manual methods.

When designing the procedures, the designers should be sure that all of the data

have been identified from the planning,

design, and rate-setting phases. The

second task is to develop, implement, and

operate the usage accounting procedures.

Development of these procedures will

typically include purchasing off-the-shelf

software

.

"Step 10" Develop and Implement Reporting

Procedures

Step 10 consists of two major tasks.

First, the reporting procediires should be

designed in detail. This consists of

determining (1) how to reduce the usage

accounting data, (2) how to apply the

billing rates, and (3) how to report the

usage levels and charges. Second, the

reporting procedures should be developed,

inplemented, and operated. Development of

the reporting procedures will typically

include purchasing off-the-shelf software

and making modifications to it as necessary.

"Step 11" Develop and Iitplement Recovery

Procediores

Step 11 consists of four major tasks.

First, the policies of the organization for

transferring funds should be researched.

Second, techniques for adjusting charges in error should be developed. Third, the plan

for recovering fiands from the users and

accoxmting for those funds should be

designed in detail, developed, inplemented,

and operated in accordance with the

agency's policies and practices. Finally,

feedback from the users should be obtained

and procedures should be modified as

needed.

5 . Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical phases, steps, and issues

in charging system development and irrplementation. The approach and issues

presented in this paper are not intended to

provide a cctrprehensive , detailed plan for

developing and inplementing a DP charging

system. The topic is too ccnplex and far

reaching to be standardized; hcwever, a general approach and best practices can be

established.

In setting policies and developing

guidelines for charging users for the DP

services received, the Federal Govemitent

is attempting to shift the responsibility

for DP costs frcm the DP facility to the

users. Such a shift raises questions that

are addressed in CMB Circular A-121, FGAP

4, and the draft Guidelines discussed in

this paper. The underlying theme of these new policies and guidelines is iitproving

the accountability of both Federal DP

facilities and their users.

In addition to irtproving accountability, a charging system can also inprove

both the DP planning process and the

cotmunications between the DP facility and

its users. The approach presented in this

paper stresses the iitportance of planning

and ccmmunications as the fundamental

elements for the successful design, development, iiipleitentation , and operation of a charging system.

The authors thank Dr. Dennis Conti of MBS

and the many other professionals in both

Government and cormercial organizations who

participated in the Guidelines developrtent

project and the preparation of this paper.

Bibliography

[1] Bernard, Dan, et al. Charging for

Conputer Services; Principles and

Guidelines , Petrocelli, 1977.

[2] Gushing, Barry E. , "Pricing Internal

Ccjrputer Services - The Basic Issues,"

Management Accounting , i^ril 1976,

57(10), pp. 47-50.

[3] Dearden, John and Nolen, Richard L.

,

"How to Control the Ccuputer Resource,"

Harvard Business Review , NovemberDecember 1973, 51, pp. 68-78.

117
[4] "Charging for Cortputer Services," EDP

Analyzer , July 1974, 12(7), pp. 1-13.

[5] "Job Accounting and Chargeback," EDP

Performance Management Handbook , June

1980, pp. 2.0.1-2.90.5.

[6] "Standard Costing in Data Processing,"

EDP Performance Review, June 1981

,

9(6), pp. 1-6.

[7] "A User-Oriented i^proach to Chargeback," EDP Performance Review, February

1975, 3(2), pp. 1-6.

[8] McKell, Lynn, Hansen, James V.

,

Heitger, Lester E. , "Charging for

Conputer Resources," Ccmputing Surveys , June 1979, 11(2), pp. 105-120.

[9] Nolan, Richard L. , "Controlling the

Costs of Data Services," Harvard

Business Review , July-August 1977, pp. 114-124.

[10] United States Office of Management and

Budget, "Cost Accounting, Cost Recovery

and Inter-agency Sharing of Data

Processing Facilities," Circular No. A-121, September 1980.

[11] Schaller, Carol, "Survey of Ccnputer

Cost Allocation Techniques," Journal of

Accoimtancy , June 1974, 137(6), pp. 41-49.

[12] Statland, Norman, et al, "Guidelines

for Cost Accounting Practices for Data

Processing," Data Base , Winter 1977, 8, pp. 2-20.

[13] United States Government Accounting

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American Society for Information

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Control of Information Systems

Resource Through

Performance Management

119

SESSION OVERVIEW

CONTROL OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEM RESOURCE

THROUGH PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

John C. Kel ly

Datametrics Systems Corporation

Burke, VA 22015

Performance evaluation has expanded during the past few years to take on a more global view of the data processing function. Perfor- mance analysts can no longer limit their activities to system tuning.

The issues have become broader than just the central hardware and soft- ware. Thus the shift in terminology from performance evaluation to performance management. Two trends have forced this change in emphasis. First, with the thrust toward on-line systems, the performance

of systems has become visible to a wider and wider user community. Per- formance evaluation can no longer be confined to the back room. It

is out in the open whether we like it or not. Second, the productivity

of the entire organization depends more and more on the computer system.

In many cases, corporate profits are directly related to computer per- formance.

The papers presented in this session address some of the issues

associated with the trend away from evaluation toward management.

David Vincent discusses some of the basic issues associated with per- formance management and describes how the pieces fit together. Dennis

Norman discusses the issues as they relate to an on-line network. The

session will finish with a panel discussion of the issues presented

in the papers as well as answers to the following questions:

• What is the proper role of computer performance management

(CPM)? Does it properly include such activities as programmer

product i V i ty?

• Where should CPM be located within the organization?

• How many people are required to support CPM?

• What experience and education are needed for CPM analysts?

• Is it possible to cost justify CPM?

• Is there really a difference between performance evaluation,

performance management, and capacity planning?

• How does one take into account user perceptions versus reality?

• What are the most useful measures of performance?

The panel will consist of myself, the two speakers, and the following individuals: Larry Greenhaw of the Texas Department of Human Resources, and Ken Moore of the National Bureau of Standards.

121

INCREASING SYSTEM PRODUCTIVITY

WITH OPERATIONAL STANDARDS

David H. Vincent

Boole & Babbage, Inc. Educational Services Division

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

ABSTRACT

The user service levels achieved by a data center are dependent on three variables: volume, mix, and efficiency.

By isolating and tracking these elements, the data center can assign accountability to the user for their demands on the system as well as isolate system inefficiencies to be corrected by the data

center. These methods also help to create the environment where data

center and user can agree on the essentials of the delivery of computer

services

.

One of the most outstanding individuals to come out of the American Industrial

Revolution was a young man by the name of

Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor's "scientific

management" had a large effect on the tre- mendous surge of affluence we have experienced in the last seventy years which has

lifted the working masses in the developed

countries well above any level experienced

before, even that of kings and queens of

old. Taylor's analysis of work and resultant method improvements resulted in productivity gains unequaled in history^

.

His analysis of work in the 1880's was exemplified by his study of shoveling iron

ore in a steel mill. In this study, he

found gross inefficiencies in the actual pro- cess of shoveling. By breaking the motions

and actions of the workers down into measurable segments, he was able to develop better

work methods (something like tuning a computer) and standards of performance so that

output could be judged on a day-to-day

basis.

This work was finally completed, as we now know it, shortly after he passed on during World War I, at which time American in-

' Actually, Taylor was preceded in

philosphy, by another "irascible genius",

Charles Babbage, who documented some of the

earliest forms of scientific management in

his most successful book. On the Economy of

Machinery and Manufactures (1832) . However,

it took Taylor to "rediscover" and implement

practical scientific management in America.

dustry in general began to adopt his principles. Some of Taylor's disciples carried on his work thereafter; notably, Frank and

Lillian Gilbreath (who were the subject of a movie "Cheaper oy the Dozen") and Henry

Gantt, who initiated project scheduling in a Gantt Chart. The common interest uniting

those people was the analysis of work and

translating that analysis into more productive and efficient procedures and flows of

work.

The analysis of work involves the following:

1 . The identification of all processes

necessary to produce an end product or result

2. The rational (and manageable) organization of the sequence of operations so as

to make possible the optimal flow of

work

3. The analysis of each individual operation or process including measurement

and historical trending

4. The integration of the above into an

overall process of producing a product

or result

This established process has been used

successfully for decades in American industry (and Japanese, and German, and . . .). It is my contention that the size and com- plexity of the data center has now evolved

to a point where this methodology may be

applied in greater depth to realize significant economic benefits.

123
The role of the data center in the organization to which it belongs has increased

from simple payroll and accounting applications in the 60' s (remember "tab runs");

through inventory and distribution systems

in the 70's; to online, realtime management

and operational applications in the 80' s. A good example of the online operational application of the 80' s is the automated teller

systems in banks. In this case, the data

center has gone to a point where it actually

interacts with bank customers.

As the data center evolves towards a utility-like process, the end product of the

data center is service. With the proliferation of online systems, service has become

highly visible to the user and a much more

tangible element in top management consideration. In fact, service levels have become so visible to the world outside the

data center that, to a large extent, they are considered the measure of the data

center's performance. The perception of

service falls into three basic categories^:

1 . Online response time

2. Batch turnaround

5. Availability

When one of these is outside a user's

expectation, the DP manager's phone begins

to ring with complaints. Moreover, the business environment in which the DP manager now

lives is one that expects him to manage his

operation the same as any other functional

unit of the enterprise. At this point, many

DP managers are beginning to feel the strain

of trying to negotiate and maintain service

levels without the benefit of having fully

implemented traditional scientific management principles in their data centers.

One major element of scientific management

is the need to understand the elements of

the service to be performed and the variables that can affect them. These variables

have one of two sources: data center

operation or user behavior. There are many

data centers that have not yet quantified

the difference in, say, response time caused

by data center inefficiency as opposed to that caused by user behavior. This is

because the analysis of work has not been

related to these two factors.

These data centers are usually perceived by its users as being poorly run be- cause all variances from negotiated response

times are attributed to the inefficiency of

the data center. When analyzing work, there

are in fact only three universal causes of

deviation from a standard which will cause response time to be better or worse than

plan:

1 . Volume

2. Mix

3. Efficiency

The financial term for these deviations

is variance and simply means the difference

between planned versus actual results. The

first two variances are attributable to user

behavior. The third variance is the only

one that can be attributed to the operating

of the data center. In essence, the planning and anticipation of the volume and mix

considerations (user behavior) are much of

what capacity management is all about.

In this paper, I will explore methods

of determining the relationship of volume,

mix, and efficiency on the current system

and how we might predict performance at various levels. The goal will be to define

performance curves giving standard levels of

service at varying levels of volume and mix.

Volume is a measure of activity in

terms of jobs or transactions by job or transaction type. The various jobs or transactions in types result from the differences in computer resources consumed to process that particular job or transaction.

Differences in volume can be measured by'

comparing forecast or plan to actual. For

example, the running of Job A123 resulted in

the following volumes:

PLAN TIMES ACTUAL TIMES VARIANCE

JOB RUN RUN (PLAN -ACTUAL)

AI23 <2>

The volume variance in this case is ex- pressed as 2 jobs over plan. In terms of resources expressed in standard work units-^,

it is 2 times planned resource per run of

Job A123' Let's say Job A1 23 should use:

^These were the first three items

listed in a poll done in Arizona with 150 DP managers. Appendix A contains a full list

prepared during the 1981 EDP Performance

Management Conference.

^For this example, a standard work unit

will be considered for the case of CPU only.

The standard work unit is basically CPU time

factored for the relative power of the CPU.

124
Units

(000)

CPU standard work units = 170

Planned SWU's divided by planned workload is in fact the planned rate of SWU

consumption for a job from this workload .

I/O *

Memory ^

Total standard work units = 170

Therefore, the volume variance is 2 times 170,000 SWU's units or 340,000. This

may also be expressed in terms of dollars if

a standard cost per SWU's can be calculated

and applied.

3' The volume variance is then a function

of the jobs run over or under plan times

the planned resource (SWU) consumption

rate. This isolates those resources consumed over or under plan as a result

of users running a different number of

jobs than planned.

4. The numeric calculation of volume variance is then:

Now let's take an example where there

is a volume and mix variance. Let's suppose

that we have 22 jobs that require a total of

4,320,000 SWU's (an average of 196,364 per

job).

The actual activity turns out to be 24 jobs requiring a total of 5,760,000 SWU's

for a variance of 1 ,440,000. The matrix of

the above with additional information is

then constructed as follows:

(000) JOB P A v WORK UNITS P A V A123 4 6 <2> 170 680 1020 <340>

B357 8 3 5 80 640 240 400 C896 10 15 <5> 300 3000 4500 <1500> Totals 22 24 <2> 4320 5760 <1440>

The volume variance is calculated: Planned SWU's Variance of job runs X Planned Workload

Volume Variance

<2> X ^11^ = <392.8>

The mix variance is calculated^:

1 . The planned SWU rate ( Planned SWU's

Planned Workload

was just calculated for use in the volume variance.

2. The actual SWU rate is the key element

in the calculation of the mix variance

because the difference between the

planned and actual SWU rates is a result

of a workload with different elements.

3. The difference in the SWU rates is multiplied by the actual workload.

4. The numeric calculation of this example

is then:

The volume variance is calculated:

Variance of Job Runs

X

Planned SWU's

Planned Workload

Volume Variance

The variance of job runs is calculated

by subtracting the actual total jobs run

(24) from the plan (24) with a resultant

2 jobs run over plan. The brackets indicate that this variance will have an unfavorable impact on data center performance.

4 In this case, the SWU's per job are

not varied. As can be seen in the next

example, they are varied and this will re- sult in an efficiency variance. The formula

for calculating mix variance would be modified to reflect the fact that both mix and

efficiency variance contribute to the

difference between the planned and actual

SWU rate. The revised formula would then

be: Planned SWU's Actual SWU's

Planned Workload Actual Workload

X

Actual Units

Efficiency Variance = Mix Variance

125
= MIX VARIANCE

- ^) X 24 = <1047.2>

The mix variance is the amount of standard work units consumed over or under plan

as a result of having different jobs run than were planned which, in turn, consumed

different amounts of resources. The summary

of the variance is then:

Volume Variance <392.8>

Mix Variance <1047.2>

Total Variance <1440.0>

Now we can expand tlie same example to demonstrate an efficiency variance. Let's say that we have the following data:

1 . The total efficiency variance is a sum

of the individual efficiency variances

calculated for each job run.

2. Each job variance is calculated by multiplying the actual runs of the job

times the job's SWU variance (planned

minus actual SWU's to process each run of the job).

3. The calculation would then be:

Actual

Times Efficiency

Job Job Ran SWU Variance Variance

A123 6 5 30

B357 3 <20> <60>

C896 15 <200> <3000>

Total Efficiency Variance <3030>

The new total variance summary is then:

Standard Volume Variance <392.8>

Work Units Mix Variance <1047.2>

Workload (OOO) Efficiency Variance < 3030.0> <4470.0>

Job P A V P A V

Al 23 4 6 <2> 170 165 5

B357 8 3 5 80 100 <20>

C896 10 15 <5> 300 500 <200>

Total 1 22 24 <2>

Total SWU' (000)s

P A V

680 990 <310>

This says that the data center performance of running these jobs, especially Job

C896, suffered either because of:

1. A bad application program,

2. Some system deficiency,

3. A bad estimate of what it would take to run the job, or

4. A bit of all three.

It should be noted that user behavior

caused 32^ of the total variance. Often,

the user behavior element contributes even

more to the total variance, especially at , peak periods.

640 300 340

3000 7500 <4500>

4320 8790 <4470>

In this case, the SWU' 's consumed per

job were different than planned. Since we have kept everything the same except the

actual SWU's per job, the volume and mix

variances are exactly as previously calculated .

The efficiency variance is calculated

by:

(Planned Job SWU^ - Actual Job SWU^

)

X Actual Jobsi = Efficiency Variance^

+ (Planned Job SWU^ - Actual Job SWU^)

X Actual JobSjj = Efficiency Variancej^

Where can SWU's be obtained? Most

computer systems have some kind of log that

accumulates resource usage. CPU time is the

easiest measure, but relative CPU power differences dictate that adding pure CPU time

from different CPU's might be erroneous over

time. IBM has offered a solution with MVS

by providing Service Units which are internally calculated. These Service Units are indeed CPU time times an internal power

factor which result in theoretically compatible service units over a variety of IBM

CPU's.

The Institute for Software Engineering

has also provided a great deal of literature

in this area which deals with Software

Physics. The direction of this work is some- what similar to the service unit methods

built into IBM and PCM systems, but is much more complex.

126
So far, the analysis of variance has

focused on service units or the amount of

work going through a data center. How do

these translate to levels of service?

The data processing work plan basically

consists of putting out the required volume

and mix of work as a basic requirement, and on a timely basis as a second but equally

important requirement in most shops. We can be sure that capacity has been exceeded when

the data center physically cannot process

the required workload even if it were to run

a full three shifts per day, seven days a week. But below this level, there are other

considerations that become practical limitations of available hours to do data processing work. The variances analyzed earlier in

this paper will affect the timeliness of the

data turnaround, especially in on-line systems. Plans of user workload are especially

important during the peak online requirement

that occurs during the normal five-day work

week. This is especially important if the

data center is very involved in the basic

business of the company with which it works,

such as a bank or department store.

What we're really talking about here

are the end user's work schedules and how

that impacts the ability of the data center

to plan and deliver services matching their

schedules as postulated in the User Behavior

Elasticity Theorem^; which states that the

degree to which the data center can influ - ence end -user behavior is inversely proportional to the degree that data processing

is involved in the basic business of the

organization . This can be illustrated by

two examples.

The first is in the banking industry

where automated tellers are being implemented. The data center cannot influence

the end -users of this application to any

noticeable degree because the bank's basic

business depends upon having the automated

tellers operating when its clients (i.e.,

depositors, withdrawers, etc.) want to make

a transaction. Chargeback schemes, management pressure, and the like will have little

or no effect. On the other hand, a company

producing buggy whips that has not integrated data processing into its basic business will tend to be much more flexible in terms of end -user behavior because production and distribution will continue whether

^This is my theorem developed from

personal observation and many discussions

about chargeback systems.

the data center runs or not. Hence, it is more elastic as charging schemes and management pressure are applied.

We are also talking about the necessity

for conscious management decisions regarding

the economic benefits of achieving a given

online response time versus the system costs

that will be required to provide that level

of response. Or, as another case, the

adding of another application to the online

system in light of its potential impact on the response time of current users and applications may or may not be possible under the

current configuration because of the impact

it will have on the service required for

other applications. This is where performance management comes in, specifically, the

analysis of performance data. What we want

to know is which user-controlled variables,

i.e. , volume and mix, will impact service

level performance. Those of us who have

been tracking this type of data over time

know what happens when a CPU gets over 30%

busy and are well aware of exponential degradation of service levels that occur beyond

this level. This is also true for many

other areas within the system depending on where the system bottleneck is. Are there

tools that will identify such sensitive

areas in the system? If so, how might they

be applied?

The software tools and sources of data

needed to perform this kind of analysis are readily available. You probably have some

of them installed on your system already.

When the data center has analyzed the

effects of user behavior and workload, the next logical step is to relate them to the

capability of the system. Peak period performance will probably be the main ingredient in any service agreement. The first

step in predicting system capability is to know what the system can do now. By implementing performance reporting, there will be

data relating to user workload characteristics. These can then be related to service

level achievement.

First, we must assume that the system

is properly tuned. A second assumption is

that the workload has been shifted to the extent possible (i.e. , batch work at night

so as not to interfere with online work).

At this point, the theorem of User Behavior

Elasticity applies. The next logical step

is to develop the operational standards of

performance in terms of service levels based

on the current configuration and end -user service level objectives.

127
In the case of predictive models, such

questions as "What effect on service levels

will be experienced by adding another channel or MSD device?" can be modeled and the

results calculated against the current workload. Future anticipated workload growth

can also be modeled to see future service

level achievement with the current system.

Shifts in volume and mix as compared to plan, when modeled, will illustrate service

degradation caused by user behavior.

Alternative hardware and software

options may be considered to find what is

needed to maintain negotiated end -user service level requirements. Additions to the current system or other alternative

systems may also be modeled to measure the

impact

.

The major characteristics of a good

predictive model are the following:

1 . Results can be easily validated

2. Easy to use

5. Will distinguish the various hardware

and software characteristics of available products

4. Can easily integrate user historical

data to define workload characteristics

5. Economical to run

5. Easy to interpret reports

The first and foremost requirement is

that the model be easy to validate. The

value of a predictive model is in its prediction!

The second and very important requirement is that the model be easy to use. This

will reduce the need for highly technical

systems people or, at the very minimum, a mathematical theoretician to use the product. Rather, the model should be usable by

a trained business analyst. Most errors made by models are created from erroneous

input. Complicated models tend to be re- splendent with such opportunities for error.

The predictive model ideally will easily

incorporate hardware and software alternatives available to the data center, so that

the analyst can play "what if?" games. That

is, various configurations can be matched

against various workload and service-level

requirements to determine which configurations would be optimal. This type of analysis lends itself extremely well to the

decision-making needed in the process of

appropriating capital goods (i.e., data

center hardware or software). From this

data, various suitable configurations can be

selected and the cost effectiveness of each

evaluated. The cost of various user service

levels may also be calculated. Both the

capital and service analysis will assist in

establishing the financial requirements for

the data center.

It is important that the model be fed

from an historical data base fed by the

various system monitors so that workload

data can be easily integrated. This may be

used to define current standards of perfor- mance as well as defining trends for predictive modeling.

The model should be economical to run, that is, it should not consume much computer

time. Since this process will be interactive and many passes of the model will be

required to determine the new performance

curve, each pass should run in a couple of

minutes or less.

And finally, the output must be easy to interpret and readily presentable for manage

raent reporting. Again, a business analyst

should be able to interpret the output and

be able to input various alternatives as a result of the output from any given pass of

the model.

The objective of this measuring, analyzing, and modeling will be to derive performance curves that can become operational

standards of performance that show the relationship of service level achievement versus

user behavior. Exhibit 1 shows the process

involved in establishing such standards. It

is an interactive process that involves

tuning and end -user negotiations until

finally an agreed standard of performance

has been set. However, the standard is

dynamic. Exhibit 2 is a generalized performance curve with user -controlled variables along one axis and service level performance along the other. User-controlled

variables are, in fact, the various levels

of volume and mix for each of the various

categories of work.

In this case we will discuss TSO transaction response as a function of the volume

of user activity. The data for this graph

may be obtained from CMF, RMF, or SMF. In the case of a DOS or in non-IBM environments, the system log that records the

volume of activity and system resources consumed should provide the necessary data.

Exhibit 3 is an example of a System Workload

Summary^ from which the following data can

be obtained:

"Exhibits 3, 4 and 5 were produced by

CMF for an IBM MVS system.

128
1 . Volume of transactions by performance

groups

2. Service units used in each system area

Exhibit 4 is the CPU Utilization Report

which shows:

1 . CPU busy data

2. CPU queue data

Exhibit 5 is a TSO Subsystem Perfor- mance Report which shows:

1 . TSO response by time period

2. TSO response by command

3. Concurrent TSO users

The above data was fed into the SAS

statistical program to determine which data

showed a relationship between TSO response

and another variable. The variable with the

closest relationship turned out to be the

CPU queue time"^ which is directly affected

by user volume and mix. In the case of our

system, we are currently CPU-bound, so this

is not a surprising bottleneck. As you can see in Exhibit 6, a linear regression line

has been drawn with the standard error shown

as a dotted line on either side. In this case the standard error is 1 . 1 seconds on either side of the regression line. Basically this says that two -thirds of the time,

observances of TSO response versus CPU queue

time will fall within the area bounded by

the dashed lines.

The same analysis was done for TSO mix

in Exhibit 7. This line turned out to be

flat and was essentially meaningless because

of the variation in data. Again, this cor- responded to what we wish the system to do. TSO has a high priority, so even at high CPU busy levels, the TSO service should not suffer.

Exhibits 8 and 9 show the effect on TSO

response caused by total service units con- sumed and concurrent users respectively. In both cases there is a direct relationship, even though the standard error is larger.

As you can see, using historical data, sys- tem interrelationships with user behavior

can be derived. However, this kind of data

tends to be linear, and does not answer the

question of how the system will react to user behavior at levels not yet experienced.

'As calculated by Little's Rule, or the mean length of a queue is equal to throughput times queueing time.

A third problem is that the system is never exactly the same from one period to the next. For this reason, it is extremely

important to correlate performance data from

the system to data logged from a change

management tracking system. A change management tracking system is basically a problem

reporting system for all hardware, software,

and applications problems and changes made

to the system. There have been many times

that a one-byte code change on Sunday night

caused a system to come to its knees on Monday morning with resultant days of analysis before the change was found. Each

system change needs to be documented and

available for analysis when performance data

shows a major deviation. This analysis goes

a long way towards explaining the efficiency

variance we discussed earlier and should be

mapped to each change in the performance of

the system.

Using a Model to Plot a Curve

Because graphing historical data will

not always answer the questions of future

system behavior for future user workloads, a model is often used to simplify the process.

By using a model, curves may be defined for

each system limitation as well as an overall

curve for the present system capability.

This requires many iterations of a model to define the points on the curve and even more iterations to define other possible curves.

It is also important to validate the model

to actual system results. That means, if we pick a point on the performance curve and

take the corresponding volume and response,

how close does this match reality? In other

words, will the point fall within the bounds

defined in the linear projection and standard errors graphed in the analysis of historical data as was shown in Exhibit 8?

If indeed the model can be validated

and the results are consistent, we have in

fact defined an "operational standard."

"Operational standard" as used here means

that there is a standard performance characteristic for a given level of user activity

on the current system. This becomes an ex- tremely powerful tool for negotiating service levels with users. A major misunderstanding with users can be avoided if they

realize that for some levels of user activity, response will be lower. This is especially true if there are peak periods with

extreme activity for short periods during

the day and that activity causes the "knee"

of the curve to be reached.

Exhibit 10 comes from an actual case where a factory made a union agreement to clock out all employees in ten minutes.

129
This agreement brought the system to its

knees. The exhibit shows a performance

curve for a 370-148 which averages 2.0-

second response time for about 10,000

transactions during an 8-hour period. If,

however, 625 transactions come in between

4:00 and 4:10 and must be processed in the same two -second response time, a different

system will be required. This is due to the

fact that 625 transactions in a ten-minute

period are equal to 30,000 transactions in an 8-hour period. A curve is drawn for a 3033 to illustrate the system expansion

needed to accommodate the 10 -minute traffic

at 2-second response. In this case, the

company management will have to weigh the

service requirement against the additional

investment. If user behavior is relatively

inelastic, there will soon be a 3033 installed.

Exhibit 1 1 is a performance curve of

the Boole & Babbage data center that was

made as an example for a case study. This

system is comprised of:

CPU M80 (370-148) plus 6MB memory

Disc 6x 3330

8x STC 3630 (3350)

Tape 3x STC 4534

Channels 4 plus byte multiplexor

Operating

System MVS/ JES2/TS0/SPF/VAM/CICS

Response time shown by the model degraded significantly after 20 concurrent

users and 1.1 transactions per second. In further analysis of this case, we found that

we are indeed CPU -bound. This means that as the CPU resource is consumed by a workload

or variations in user behavior patterns, degradation of service will be a direct result.

A 4341 Model 2 with expanded CPU capacity is on order and we hope to see some relief this

fall when it is installed. The next step in

this process will be to model the performance curve of the new system. We may then

find some other system bottleneck such as I/O or DASD. In the meantime, we now have

our operational standard of performance for

TSO.

The Future of Performance Curves

ison to planned performance curves has value

in determining:

1 . Data center efficiency

2. The effects of user behavior (volume and

mix)

3. Benefits of tuning

4. The ability of the data center to meet

various levels of activity

5. The benefits of various system alternatives

Because of these benefits and the fact

that future models will get even more involved in simulating operating system

parameters (i.e., SRM under MVS), performance curves should be available on a realtime basis. This means linking the Change

Management Tracking System and realtime

system monitor/model so that early warning

mechanisms can be implemented. Realtime

monitors will in effect simulate system

changes and signal when the performance

curve has changed from plan. This will

provide an effective tuning tool by displaying these changes much like the IPS

parameters in which domains and multiprogramming levels are displayed in the IBM Initializaion and Tuning Guide .

By monitoring the effects of user

behavior, both on a continuous afterthe-fact basis as well as in models, the

data processing operation has implemented an important element of scientific management.

The work analysis is done by the system

itself while the manager deals with the

question of user behavior and the integration of DP into the business. >

The modeling of a workload against a given system is not only necessary, but is

feasible with currently available tools and

technology. The computation of and compari130
APPENDIX A

MEASURES OF PRODUCTIVITY IN DP OPERATIONS

RESULTS OF VOTING*

MEASUREMENT FACTOR RANKING VOTES

ONLINE RESPONSE TIME 1 198

ON-TIME REPORTS 2 160

SYSTEM UPTIME 3 141 USER SATISFACTION 4 I37

RERUN PERFORMANCE 5 101 REPORTS DISTRIBUTED W/O MISTAKES 6 56

NUMBER OF INTERRUPTS IN ONLINE SERVICE 7 55

PROBLEM RESOLUTION TIME 8 47

CPU UTILIZATION 9 45

COST OF OPERATION 10 43

ACTUAL VS. SCHEDULED RUN TIME 11 39

DEMAND BATCH TURNAROUND 12 34

RECOVERY TIME FROM FAILURE ~ 34

TIME SHARING INTERACTIVE RESPONSE — 30

LATE JOBS FAULT OF OPERATOR — 30

OUTAGES BY CATEGORY — 29

APPLICATION PROGRAM ABENDS — 27

NUMBER OF PROJECTS WITHIN BUDGET — 24

HARDWARE /SOFTWARE RELIABILITY, INTFAC — 23

NUMBER AND TIME OF TAPE MOUNTS — 20

JOBS COMPLETED PER COMPUTER HOUR — 19

PEOPLE TURNOVER — 16

ABSENTEE RATE — 15

*Based on a survey of a meeting of data center managers at the 1981 EDP Performance Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, February 23-26, 1981.

131
APPENDIX B

EXHIBITS

1. Establishing operational stan- 7. Linear regression - TSO response/TSO mix

dards

2. Generalized performance curve 8. Linear regression - TSO response/SU's

3. CMF system workload summary 9. Linear regression - TSO response/concurrent users

4. CMF CPU utilization report 10. Performance curve for B/B DC

5. CMF TSO subsystem performance 11. Performance curve for B/B DC

report

6. Linear regression - TSO re- sponse/CPU Q

FXHIRIT 1 ESTABLISHING STANDARDS

RUN CONTtJUOUS

MONfTORS

MPLEMENT

CHANGES

132
0T2 0^0. 0«. 12'

3.00. 21 .13 0.30.B4.I],

0.00.06.121

133
I UT IL (^AT ION (

EXHIBIT 4

CM I"LF - HI CPU

tflTit fflP TSO

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I USERS
APPENDIX C

A BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. Arnold 0. Allen, Probability , Statistics

and Queuelng Theory with Computer Science

Applications , Academic Press, New York,

N.Y. (1978).

2. C. Warren Axelrod, Computer Effectiveness : Bridging the Management/Technology Gap , Information Resources Press, Washington,

D.C. (1979).

3. L. Bronner, Capacity Planning: An

Introduction , IBM Technical Bulletin

GG22-9001-00 (January 1977).

4. L. Bronner, Capacity Planning: Implementation , IBM Technical Bulletin

GG22-9015-00, (January 1979).

5. J. P. Buzen, "Queueing Network Models of

Multiprogramming", Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard

University, Cambridge, Mass. (1971).

6. Computer , April 1980, IEEE Computer

Society (contains several articles of

interest)

.

7. Peter F. Drucker, Management : TasksResponsibilities-Practices , Harper & Row,

New York, N.Y. (1974)

.

8. Jeffrey L. Forman, Change Communication : A Management System , IBM Technical Bulletin GG22-9254-00 (July 1979).

9. An Architecture for Managing the Information Systems Business, Volume I: Management Overview , IBM GE20-662-0 (January

1980)

.

10. Problem and Change Management in Data

Processing - A Survey and Guide , IBM GE19-5201-0 (August 1976).

11. IBM System Journal , Volume Nineteen,

November 1, 1980, "Installation Management, Capacity Planning."

12. H. Kobayashi, Modeling and Analysis: An

Introduction to System Performance

Evaluation Methodology, Addison-Wesley

,

Reading, Mass. (1978).

13. J. D.C. Little, "A Proof of the Queueing

Formula, L= W,

" Operations Research 9 , pgs. 383-387 (1961).

14. J. Martin, Design of Real-Time Computer

Systems , Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

N.J. (1972).

15. J. Martin, Systems Analysis for Data

Transmission , Prentice-Hall, Englewood

Cliffs, N.J. (1972).

16. Montgomery Phister, Jr. , Data Processing

Technology and Economics , Santa Monica,

Calif. (1977).

17. Charles H. Sauer/K. Mani Chandy, Computer

Systems Performance Modeling , PrenticeHall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. (1981).

18. David R. Vincent, "Software Tools for

Service Level Management", Data Management , pgs. 25-29, (March 1981).

19. David R. Vincent, "Measuring Performance

Online" , ICP Interface , Data Processing

Management , (Summer 1980)

.

20. David R. Vincent, "Service Level Management", 1980 CMFGXI Proceedings , pgs. 196-207.

21. Daniel A. Wren, The Evolution of Management Thought , John Wiley & Sons (1979).

138

Ill
SESSION OVERVIEW

BENCHMARKING

Barbara Anderson

Federal Computer Performance Evaluation

and Simulation Center

Washington, DC

Benchmarking is a method of measuring system performance

against a predetermined workload. The approaches and tools

used to represent this workload in benchmark tests have been

evolving and improving over the last several years. The first two papers in this session; 1) "Universal Skeleton for Benchmarking Batch and Interactive Workloads" by William P. Kincy,

Jr., and Walter N. Bays of the Mitre Corporation, and 2)

"Comparing User Response Times on Paged and Swapped Unix by the

Terminal Probe Method" by Dr. Luis Felipe Cabrera of the

University of California, Berkeley and Dr. Jehan-Fr ancois Paris

of Purdue University present new approaches to contructing

benchmarking tests. The final paper, "Practical Application of

Remote Terminal Emulation in the Phase IV Competitive System

Acquisition," by Deanna J. Bennett of the Phase IV Program

Management Office of the Air Force and the mini-panel with

Randy Woolley of the Tennessee Valley Authority and Robert

Waters of the Air Force Computer Acquisition Center detail

recent experience in various aspects of benchmarking for system

acquisition

.

1U1

UNIVERSAL SKELETON FOR BENCHMARKING

BATCH AND INTERACTIVE WORKLOADS.*

UNISKEL BM

Walter N. Bays

Wi 1 1 iam P. Ki ncy , Jr.

MITRE

Houston, TX 77058

The most important objective of the acquisition of new

computer systems is to acquire the least expensive system or systems

which have the necessary capability to meet workload and quality of

service requirements.

The determination of "the necessary capability" may be accomplished

by several methods; the most important and accurate method being the

execution of performance benchmarks in a "Live Test Demonstration

(LTD)".

Building benchmarks is time-consuming and costly. This is

particularly true if the benchmarks are designed to represent accurately

the batch and interactive workloads to be executed.

One solution would be a benchmark which could be adapted to represent any workload requirements relatively inexpensively. Such a benchmark (UNISKEL BM) is the subject of this paper.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

UNISKEL BM was developed for NASA's

Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas by

MITRE. The primary objective of the

benchmark effort was to design representative benchmarks which could be used to select new computer systems to replace

obsolete systems in the JSC Central

Computing Facility (CCF). The CCF is a general purpose, open shop-type computing

facility supporting the administrative,

shuttle mission planning and shuttle

engineering and development functions at JSC.

An additional objective of the

benchmark effort was to emphasize, where

possible without adding to the cost of the

development effort, the universal applicability of the benchmark to any agency

having similiar benchmarking requirements.

These goals led to the design of a benchmark

skeleton which could be used by any agency

in custom designing a benchmark. In fact,

this benchmark skeleton was used by MITRE to build benchmarks for the the Bureau of

Census to be used in their acquistion of the

Bridge System.

1.2 Use of UNISKEL BM

The benchmark skeleton described in

this paper provides a procedure for

integrating programs (SYNTHETIC TASKS) and

descriptions of functions to be accomplished

by system software (editor, utilities, etc.)

(SYSTEM PROCESSOR TASKS) into job streams.

1^3
These job streams are further organized into

benchmarks representing specific workloads

to be executed by the System Under Test

(SUT)fc These synthetic and system processor

tasks may be interactive or batch and may be

designed to represent a real workload (one

being executed on an agency's system today)

or a perceived workload (one expected to be

executed on new systems in the future).

A model of any real workload may be

derived from accounting data. Although this

workload inevitably has the characteristics

of the system it was excuted on, UNISKEL BM represents it as a mix of vendor-independent

FORTRAN or COBOL tasks, and functionally

specified system processor tasks. The

resulting benchmarks are independent of a vendor's accounting convention and include a mix of tasks representing an explicit amount

of work to be accomplished. The work to be

accomplished is described by the following:

SYNTHETIC TASKS:

Virtual Storage Size

Number of kernels to be executed

Number of accesses to tape/disks

Record Size

Number of lines of print

Think time (Interactive Tasks)

SYSTEMS PROCESSOR TASKS:

Functions to be performed

The major advantage of UNISKEL BM is that an agency procuring new systems can save the time required to design synthetic

programs and a benchmark structure which can

be easily converted and executed on a proposed system or configuration of systems.

UNISKEL BM also includes a Live Test

Demonstration (LTD) procedure which may be

tailored to an agency's requirements. This

allows the agency to concentrate efforts on

1) building a model of the future workload

and plugging the workload characteristics

into an existing benchmark framework (this can be accomplished manually), 2) defining

the quality of service desired in new

systems (in terms of response times for

interactive work and overall batch

capacity),- and 3) testing the benchmarks to assure that the benchmark represents the

desired workload.

UNISKEL BM would not be appropriate for

an agency buying a minicomputer or desiring

only to measure the speed of a CPU when

executing specified instruction mixes. It is appropriate for mainframe competitive

procurements where the objective is to

procure balanced systems to process a known

workload under defined quality of service

objecti ves

.

1.3 Scope of Paper

Section 2 describes the UNISKEL BM

concept including a brief description of the

workload model which provides input data to UNISKEL BM. Section 3.0 describes the

UNISKEL BM structure and provides a brief

overview of its generation and execution.

Appendix A describes the procedure a vendor

would follow to conduct a Live Test

Demonstration (LTD) using the benchmarks.

This example procedure is extracted from

NASA/JSC's documentation supporting their

acquisition action. Appendix A is not

attached to this paper. It will be provided

separately to anyone having an interest in that 1 evel of detai 1

.

2. UNISKEL BM Concept

2.1 Design Objectives

The UNISKEL BM was designed 1) to be as independent as possible from any vendor's

system, 2) to minimize biases for or against

any particular computer system architecture,

and 3) to minimize a vendor's time and

effort in support of the LTD.

A study of the architectures indicated

that a benchmark which meets the following

criteria meets the design objectives:

• Easily transportable

t Representative of the expected

workload as pertains to:

0 Workload characteristics

• Virtual main storage requi rements.

• "Locality of reference"

profile. (Locality of reference pertains to the way a program proceeds through its

instructions and data, e.g., sequentially,

randomly or some other profile.)

The last criterion, if not representative of the real world, could impact

performance depending on whether the system

being benchmarked is virtual or non-virtual

in its storage management. These criteria are addressed further in the following

paragraphs.

2.2 Structural Overview

UNISKEL BM is composed of synthetic

programs, data to be processed and

descriptions of functions to be accomplished

by systems processors/utilities. The

1U4
synthetic programs have been designed to be

fully transportable to any system having an ANSI/78 FORTRAN compiler. The synthetic

program can be made to represent different

sizes of batch or interactive tasks. The

synthetic tasks are characterized by the

number of cycles of CPU kernels executed,

the number of I/O accesses to disk and tape,

the number of lines printed and the

voluntary wait (think) time between

interactive activities. The structure of a synthetic task is illustrated in Figure 1.

SYNTHETIC PROGRAM

DATA ARRAY

(Data Space

Si ze

MULTIPLE

COPIES OF

OF KERNELS

( Instruction

Space Size)

CONTROL LOGIC

DYNAMIC

CONFIGURATION

PARAMENTERS

CPU Seconds

I/O

Record Length

Print Lines

Local ity

Prof i 1

e

Think Time

Figure 1. Synthetic Program Structure

The systems processors/utilities

functions to be executed are also organized

into tasks (by the demonstrating vendor).

These tasks utilize the systems processors

of the System Under Test (SUT).

These synthetic and system processor

tasks are organized into jobs or runstreams.

The jobs are further organized into benchmarks, one representing a prime shift

workload and one representing a non-prime

shift workload. The non-prime shift benchmark is batch only. The prime shift

benchmark contains interactive activities

and background batch jobs. The prime shift

benchmark is designed to be demonstrated

utilizing a Remote Terminal Emulator (RTE).

An RTE is illustrated in Figure 2.

COMM REMOTE

HOST FRONT TERMINAL

END EMULATOR

SCRIPT 1

SCRIPT N

Scripts 1 through N in Figure 2 represent terminal users 1 through N. These

emulated terminal inputs cause interactive

tasks (synthetic and systems processors) to

be executed. These inputs are delivered to the system being demonstrated at rates which

are representative of the line speeds of the

real communications.

The prime and non-prime shift

benchmarks may be generated in various sizes

representing different sizes of the

representative workload. For example, in NASA/JSC's acquisition specifications, one size of computer system that was acceptable

was a system which had the equivalent

capacity of two UNIVAC 1108's. Consequently, benchmarks would be executed which

represented the prime and non-prime shift

workloads of two llOB's under acceptable

quality of service objectives. A proposed

system of the proper size would have to demonstrate that capability by executing the

benchmarks within the threshold elapsed

times and response times specified in the

specifications.

Different sizes of benchmarks are

generated by replicating a base size. For example, the base sizes used by NASA/JSC are shown in Table 1. These sizes were defined

as having a Performance Rating of 0.5. The

Performance Rating (PR) is a measure of a system's throughput when executing these

benchmarks. For example, any system which

can complete these PR 0.5 workloads in the

specified elapsed time is considered to be

at least a PR 0.5 system for the purposes of

the acquisition action.

Table 1. Benchmark-Base Sizes PR 0.5

BENCHMARK PRIME NON-PRIME

CHARACTERISTICS SHIFT SHIFT

-SUTBATCH INTER- ACTIVE

BATCF

Program Size,

36-bit words.

Minimum: lOK lOK lOK

Maximum: 76K 45K 125K

I/O Accesses:

To Disk 29K 90K 22K

To Tape: 19K 0 22K

Jobs

:

8 NA 20 Interactive Users: NA 8 NA Jobs Using Tape: 1 0 1 Tasks Executed: 94 628 289

Files: 8 80 220

Elapsed Time in Minutes

:

<--- .200 > 210

Figure 2. Remote Terminal Emulator

145
Different sizes of benchmarks are

generated by replicating these PR 0.5 sizes.

For example, a system being proposed as having a Performance Rating of 6.0 would

demonstrate that capability by executing

benchmarks of size PR 6.0. These sizes

would be generated by adding 12 copies of

the PR 0.5 sizes together. The PR 6.0 size

non-prime shift benchmark would consist of

240 batch jobs (20 batch jobs x 12 = 240).

The prime shift benchmark would be generated

the same way and would consist of 96

interactive users and 96 background batch

jobs.

2.3 Scoring and Evaluation

The benchmarks are designed for ease of

scoring and of evaluation. Two measurements

are used to evaluate performance. These are

the elapsed time required to accomplish a well-defined, finite batch or interactive

workload (the selected sizes of the

benchmarks), and the response times for the

emulated interactive users at terminals.

For a system being proposed as having a specified performance rating, the benchmark

elapsed time, must be equal to, or less

than, the elapsed time threshold contained

in the specifications. In addition, a specified percentage of all interactive

transactions, of the same type, must have a response time equal to, or less than, the

response time goals specified.

This method of evaluation is based on the concept of testing a base size of benchmark on a known system and determining the

thresholds (elapsed time and response times)

of acceptable performance with the representative workload. Based on this, and the

knowledge of how much capacity would be

required in the known system to meet the

requirements new systems are being procured

for, a Performance Rating requirement can be

determined

.

For example, the NASA/JSC benchmarks of

size PR 1.0 were tested on JSC's 1108's.

The size of the benchmark and/or the elapsed

times and response times were adjusted so that the PR 1.0 size could be executed on an 1108 with acceptable quality of service.

The future workload to be executed on the

new systems was determined to be equivalent

to N 1108's. Consequently, systems having a Performance Rating of N are to be procured.

A system executing a benchmark of PR N size,

within the specified elapsed and response

times, has N times the capacity of an 1108

when executing the benchmark.

For example, a mul ti -processor

configuration, or a loosely coupled con- figuration of more than one system utilizing

one input stream for batch, proposed as having a PR7 capability must demonstrate

that capability by executing a size PR7

benchmark. A configuration of more than one uncoupled systems can also be accommodated.

This is shown in the following example.

LTD REQUIREMENT: TWO UNCOUPLED SYSTEMS

HAVING TOTAL CAPACITY = PR 7.0

SCORING EQUATION:

CAPACITY SIZE N + CAPACITY SIZE M .EG. DESIRED CAPACITY

CAPACITY (SIZE N OR M) =

ELAPSED TIME THRESHOLD

X SIZE

MEASURED ELAPSED TIME

For example: A batch benchmark of

sizes PR 3.0 and PR 4.0 were demonstrated on two uncoupled systems to meet a capacity

requirement of PR 7.0. Actual elapsed times were 200 minutes for the PR 3.0 LTD and 215

minutes for the PR 4.0 LTD. The elapsed

time threshold was specified as 210 minutes.

Using the above equations, the actual

capacities would be rated as follows:

210 minutes 210 minutes

X 3 + X 4 200 minutes 215 minutes

= Combined Capacity

3.15 + 3.91 = 7.06 OK

Size restrictions should be placed on the demonstrator during the LTD. For

example, it may be desirable to limit the

capacity rating attributed to a system to

the size of the benchmark executed. In the

example above, a rating of greater than 3.0

would not be allowed because a PR 3.0

benchmark was executed. To receive a 3.15

rating would require the execution of a benchmark of PR 3.5 size. This agencyimposed restriction recognizes that the

relationship between the size of the workload and the elapsed time is not linear.

The prime shift benchmark LTD would

also include an evaluation of response

times. The actual LTD response times would

have to meet response time criteria as specified in the statement of work.

1U6
Typical

might be:

response time specifications

1. Of the M different types of

transactions, N must meet the following

criteria

:

a) 85% of executions of a transaction must have a response time of

equal to or less than the response time

threshold (RTT), plus

b) 98% of executions of a transaction must have a response time of

equal to or less than two times the RTT.

2. The balance of transactions

(M minus N), must meet the following

criteria:

a) 50% of executions of a transaction must have a response time of

equal to or less than the response time

threshold (RTT), plus

b) 98% of executions of a transaction must have a response time of

equal to or less than two times the RTT.

Note that each different type of

transaction has its own RTT.

An agency would probably allow no more

than 15% of the transaction types to fall into the criteria described in "2." above.

2.4 Workload Representation

UNISKEL BM represents any workload

which can be described at the task level in the following terms:

BATCH OR INTERACTIVE TASKS:

VIRTUAL MEMORY SIZE

CPU SECONDS TO BE BURNED

NUMBER OF I/O ACCESSES TO DISK AND

TAPE NUMBER OF PRINTED LINES OF OUTPUT

LOCALITY OF REFERENCE-INSTRUCTIONS

AND DATA

THINK TIME FOR INTERACTIVE TASKS

SYSTEMS PROCESSOR/UTILITIES TASKS:

STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

These workload characteristics are

stated in terms acceptable as input to the

UNISKEL BM. Such a workoad model is

illustrated in Tables 2 through 4. Table 2 represents an overall workload on one or more systems. Table 3 represents one

component of the overall model. Each line

item (E&D-l, etc.) will become one synthetic

task with the characterstics shown. These

individual component models (there is one for each marked entry in Table 2) are

normalized in a combined model of individual

synthetic or system processor tasks.

Several pieces of the prime shift model are shown in Table 4.

Table 2. Composition of CCF Workload

COM- MAJOR PROGRAMS/ BATCH DEMAND TOTAL

PONENTS PROCESSORS

SVDS SVDS, SVDSl, 15%* 11%*

SVDS2, SVDS3

NASTRAN LINKl, LINK4, 1%* 1%* LINK 8 E&D ABSLB,TRASYSP, 20%* 15%*

SSFS, ETC. PLOTS V8 PLOT, V PLOT 5%* 4%*

TRWPLT

SYS

PROC COB, FOR, ASM, ED, 23%* 59%* 32%*

MISC. OPEN SHOP,

OPS, MNGMT. 36%* 41%* 37%*

TOTAL 100% 100% |100%

BATCH/INTERACTIVE

(DEMAND) SHARE: 75% 25%

DISK/DRUM ACCESSES

PER CPU+I/0 SECS. 16.5 24.2

TAPE ACCESS PER CPU+I/0 4.0 3.2 SECS.

10 DIVIDED BY CPU 1.38 2.89

Model Components

Table 3. E&D Batch Model

PROGRAM PROGRAM CPU I/O ACCESSES FREQ.

SIZE K SUP WORDS SEC DISK . TAPE

E&D-l 63 27 1101 1 E&D-2 63 61 405 3 E&D-3 66 354 2868 1 E&D-4 72 166 3512 2 E&D-5 72 168 14562 3108 1 E&D-6 72 5 492 5 E&D-7 76 385 770 1

TOTALS

Each 30000 3108 14 SUP SECONDS: 1474 818 101

TOTAL SUP SECONDS = 2393 lO/CPU = 0.62

147
Table 4. PRl Prime Shift

Workload Model

PROG. PROG. CPU SUP I/O ACCESSES FREQ*THINK

SIZE SECONDS TIME DISK TAPE

SYSTEMS PROCESSORS - DEMAND:

ED-1 5 1.456 107 11x28 8 ED-2 5 1.743 129 65x9 8 ED-3 5 .801 73 245x12 8

MISCELLANEOUS DEMAND^

MISC-1 5 .028 56 2 9x28 1 MISC-2 5 .006 6 9x6 3 MISC-3 5 .020 20 52x20 11

BALKbKUUINU bAILH:

SVDS-A 68 213.0 3076 1x0

SVDS-B 75 17.0 1027 1x0

SVDS-C 75 21.0 481 1x0

PRIME SHIFT TOTALS"! CPU DISK TAPE FREQ.

Each: 234428 36968 6180

SUP SECONDS: 3208 6389 1202

TOTAL SUP SECONDS: 10823 lO/CPU = 2.37

Disk Accesses/Second = 17. 3 Tape Accesses/Second = 3. 7

* Transactions X Subtransactions

In addition to the workload

characteristics shown on the previous

tables, the CPU kernels to be used to burn

CPU time and the locality of reference

profile must be selected. An agency has a choice of using multiple copies of any

subroutine or instruction mix (kernels) to burn CPU time.

These, kernels are calibrated (CPU

milleseconds per cycle and size). "N" cycles of the kernel are executed to burn

the desired amount of CPU time. A task (the

synthetic program in the benchmark) burning

100 milleseconds of CPU and doing 10 accesses to disk per execution, would do an I/O, burn 10 ms of CPU time by executing,

for example, 5 cycles of a 2 ms kernel, do

another I/O, burn another 5 cycles, etc.

until the 100 ms and the 10 I/O's had been

completed.

The kernel selected could be subroutines of applications in the expected

workload or could be "canned" instruction or operations mixes. NASA/JSC and the Bureau

of Census elected to use primarily subroutines of real applications to enhance

represent at i veness

.

The kernels selected to burn CPU time

also are involved in the "locality of

reference" capability of UNISKEL BM. The

size of an activity or task is made up of

instructions and data. The instruction size

comprises library routines, synthetic

program logic, and the multiple kernel

copies. The data arrays also contain

records which vary in number based on the

desired total size of the activity. A synthetic task representing a real task of

20,000 words in size could be generated as approximately 10,000 words of instructions

and 10,000 words of data. The instructions

might include 2,000 words of overhead

instructions and 80 copies of a kernel con- taining 100 words each (8000 words). The

number of copies of the kernel depend on the

calibration of the kernel selected and the

size to be represented. The number of data

records would be selected the same way.

The multiple copies of the kernel and

the data records provide two functions.

First, they allow the selection of a kernel

copy and data record for execution based on

a distribution or profile which is similiar

to that locality of reference profile shown

by the real application. For example, based

on a profile entered into the synthetic program, different copies of the kernel and the

data records will be selected each time the

CPU is to be utilized. Since the synthetic

activity is progressing through its instructions and data similiarly to the real application, no bias is introduced for either

"paging" or "swapping" memory management

systems. The locality of reference mechanism also assures that CPUs with cache memory

have realistic "hit ratios."

The major problem presented by this

capability of UNISKEL BM is determining what

the locality of reference profile is for the

real application being represented. A special sampling routine. Code Interruption

Analyzer (CIA) was developed to assist in this determination for the NASA/JSC

benchmark

.

Second, the use of kernel cycles and

similiar blocks of data for each I/O, mainUS
tain the independence from the system upon which the benchmark is developed. Note that

the method of accounting for use of re- sources, seconds, standard units of processing, machine resource units, etc., is immaterial as the work executed is stated in terms of number of kernel cycles for CPU time, number of I/O accesses to various

devices, elapsed wall clock time for the

total benchmark and response time for interactive activities. This independence is furthered by allowing the LTD vendor to compile the benchmark allowing program sizes

to vary with word size and the instruction

packing capability of the compiler. For example, an activity within the benchmark

may be representing object code, on a UNI VAC system, of 30,000 36-bit words containing

instructions and data. This same activity,

after being converted and compiled on a CYBER system, could be only 18,000 60-bit

words in size. This is acceptable for

UNISKEL BM.

2.5 Other Features

UNISKEL BM is a framework within which

all types of workload can be represented.

For example, data base management systems

and transaction processors in the SUT could

be exercised by jobs designed to functionally exercise those processors. To date, neither of the users of this framework

have had a requirement to exercise such

capabi 1 i ty

.

There is also a framework for meeting

floating point accuracy requirements. This

is accomplished by the selection of the

kernels to be executed. In the NASA/JSC

application, some kernels had a requirement

for 14 decimal digets of accuracy. This

would require some systems to execute those

kernels using double precision.

Special kernels could also be designed

to exercise special capabilities required in systems to be acquired. For example,

kernels could be designed to verify special

arithmetic or logical capability of a proposed system.

2.6 UNISKEL Limitations

The primary limitations on UNISKEL BM

are two. First, program sizes of less than

10,000 36-bit words cannot be represented

due to the overhead associated with the

synthetic program. We found this not to be

a problem in the NASA/JSC benchmarks.

Second, the generation and testing of new benchmarks utilizing UNISKEL BM, even

assuming the workload and locality of

reference characteristics are available,

represent a significant task both in terms

of human resources and computer time. The

generation of these benchmarks by a new

using agency is the subject of paragraph 3.

It should be noted that although

significant effort is required, the human

and computer resources required to build

benchmarks using UNISKEL BM is probably an order of magnitude less than starting from

scratch and building benchmarks utilizing

synthetic programs.

3. Benchmark Generation

This section describes how an agency uses the UNISKEL framework to build a benchmark. Each step of the process is discussed briefly; then automatic generation

tools are discussed. Figure 3 illustrates

the benchmark generation process.

Figure 3. Benchmark Generation

The first step is to determine from the

workload model which parts of the benchmark

will be represented by synthetic tasks and

which by system processor tasks. As

149
discussed, a system processor task is the

execution of a standard system program to accomplish specific work. A synthetic task

is the execution of a synthetic program to consume the same resources as a user written

program.

In the case of the non-prime shift

workload model presented in section 2.4, 23%

of the work is accomplished by system

processors, and 77% by synthetic tasks.

These percentages apply only to the baseline

system, as system processor functions may

require different resources on different

systems. For example, a text editor command

requiring 80 Service Units to execute on an IBM system may require 0.1 SUP seconds to execute on a UNI VAC system. This is based

on differences in accounting methods, system

speeds, operating systems, and software

efficiency. There may also be a difference

between systems for synthetic tasks due to compiler efficiency, etc. These differences

are not undesirable, as the procuring

agency's requirements are not for a certain

amount of service units to be consumed, but are for a certain amount of work to be

accomplished in a specified amount of time.

Utility tasks such as text editing,

file copying, and compilation are best

represented by system processor tasks.

These tasks are more expensive than

synthetic tasks for the agency to develop

and for the vendor to convert, but more accurately represent the real workload and

differences between competing system

software. Some utility tasks and all user programs will be represented by synthetic

tasks.

3.1 System Processor Tasks

A system processor task is constructed

from a functional description (script) of a sequence of operations to be performed.

This script, commonly written in English, is translated into JCL for a particular system.

If the task is to be interactive, think

times are also specified. For example, the

script for a text edit system processor task

may be:

Change all occurrences of ENT to ENTR.

List lines 12 through 50. On line 50, change 7.0 to 7.5.

On line 48, change RTRY to RETRY.

List the last line of the file.

The workload model includes frequency

of execution and resources but due to system

accounting limitations may omit number of

transactions per interactive execution and

transaction think time. The agency must

estimate any missing factors, then develop

by trial and error a script which consumes

the proper resources and seems "reasonable"

for the real user activity being emulated.

In a competitive procurement these

scripts must be designed with conversion in mind. When writing a script for system A,

how the same function would be accomplished

on system B must be considered. Then the

function must be clearly specified in such a way that vendor B will accomplish it in a realistic way, neither taking unfair

advantage nor being unfairly prevented from

using a special feature of system B. For example, if a vendor has a text editor

feature of "change string, and list changed

line", the agency should not force him to use two seperate commands "change string",

and "list changed line". If a vendor has a single editor command that accomplishes all five steps of the above example, he should

not be permitted to use it, since a user would be unlikely to work that way. Command

stacking, entering multiple commands on one

line, may be permitted, however.

3.2 Synthetic Tasks

Building synthetic tasks requires

several steps. First, CPU burning kernels

are chosen. A kernel is a subroutine that

does a certain amount of work; that is, on the baseline system it burns a calibrated

amount of CPU time. Then the synthetic

program sizes and composition are

determined, and the locality of reference

model is incorporated if desired. Then the

synthetic programs are compiled and linked.

A synthetic task is an execution of a syn- thetic program with parameters which select

CPU time, number of I/O's to disk and tape,

disk file size and record length, number of

lines of print, and frequency of locale

change. The selection of a synthetic

program to execute for a task selects the

kernel type (and therefore the instruction

mix) as well as the memory size. These

steps are described in more detail below.

3.2.1 Synthetic Program Structure

Figure 4 shows the overall structure of

the synthetic program. For the data array,

there is simply a declaration of an array in blank common. Also contributing to the data

space size (D-size) of the program are the

local data for each kernel and for the

control logic.

150
COMMON // P0SI(6000)

kernels' local data

control logic

local data

Fortran library

local data

INKl - INK3

FPKl - FPK3

KER, DATA

Invariant Control Logic

Fortran Library

Figure 4. Program Composition

The control logic comprises the main

program SYNTH, the input/output routine lOW,

and other routines, all of which are invariant whatever the type and size of the

program. The control logic also includes two routines KER and DATA which are specific

to the program size and type. They have

encoded in them knowledge of the number and names of kernels and the length of the data

array. The last components of the control

logic are the Fortran library subroutines

whose size and number is system and compiler

dependent

.

A program uses one or more types of

kernels. There are enough replicas of each

kernel type to achieve the desired instruction space size (I-size). For example, a program using the general floating point

kernel (FPK) and the integer Bucholz kernel

(INK) may include FPKl, FPK2, FPK3, INKl,

INK2, and INKS. The only difference between

the kernels of a type is the entry point

name.

After initialization, the interactive

synthetic program sends a THINK command to the RTE. The RTE delays the specified time

(THINK time), then sends the time of day.

Then the synthetic program executes a transaction and sends another THINK command.

The response time is the time between time

of day being sent and THINK being received.

The batch execution of a program is simply

the execution of a single transaction

without the RTE dialog. Figure 5 shows the

execution flow of a transaction. The CPU time for the transaction is interleaved with

the proper number of I/O's and locale

changes

.

ditarQ)

send THINK

command

recei ve T.O.D.

determine

locale

locale

execute

kernel (s) no

time for \

I/O or locale

^ change? /

I/O

do I/O

Figure 5. Execute Transaction

Each of these bursts of CPU time is

generated by executing one or more kernels

(Figure 6). It is determined how much of

the burst to consume in each kernel type.

For example, suppose it is determined by the

Code Interruption Analyzer, or by estimation, that a program uses 60% INK and 40%

FPK. A 15 millisecond burst would be

divided 9 ms INK and 6 ms FPK. If one pass

through INK has been calibrated at 0.9 ms and one pass through FPK at 1.2 ms , the

burst will be done by 10 executions of INK and 5 of FPK. These multiple executions may

be accomplished by looping around a call to the kernel, or by passing a loop count to

the kernel which loops internally. This

selection is made to best represent the

actual frequency of subroutine calls.

151
done

For each type

of kernel

done

calculate portion

of CPU time

to burn

calculate number

of kernel

iterations

based on locale

select a kernel copy

and data block

For number of

ernel iteration

execute

kernel

Figure 6. Execute Kernels

3.2.2 Kernels

The kernels used should be

representative of the agency's workload

because this relatively small portion of the

benchmark code consumes the bulk of the CPU

time. They could be actual subroutines from

the real workload, or could be code which

provides the same frequency of logical and

arithmetic operations or high level language

operations as the real workload. Thus,

though the benchmark programs are synthetic,

they execute very much like real programs.

The kernels may be written in FORTRAN

or in any language callable from FORTRAN.

Thus, though UNISKEL is FORTRAN based, it has also been used to represent COBOL

workloads. The kernels should conform to applicable ANSI language standards in order

to eliminate or minimize the conversion

effort required by various vendors. Real

subroutines may be modified to conform to the necessary transportability standards

while remaining representative of the

workload.

Other restrictions may be followed

which make benchmark generation easier. The

compiled size of a kernel should be small

enough that the task sizes can be

represented with the desired granularity and

large enough to allow the largest desired

program to be constructed. The size of the

instruction space of a program is accurate

to within the size of one kernel. But compiler and UNISKEL limitations restrict

the maximum number of kernels which may be

included in a program. So in order to represent large programs, large kernels may

be required.

Similarly, the CPU time consumed by one pass of a kernel should be low enough that

the desired task CPU times can be achieved

with the desired granularity. The CPU time

consumed by a synthetic task can be accurate

only to within the CPU time of one kernel

execution. But the overhead of the control

program is proportionally higher for short

kernel execution times. This does not mean that the task CPU time will be wrong, but

that task calibration will be more difficult, and that the instruction mix will not

be so representative. In order to avoid

this, longer executing kernels may be

requi red

.

The execution of a kernel should be

independent of other routines. A kernel

should have no output parameters and should

not modify its input parameters. Local

variables should be minimized and common variables should be used with caution.

Particularly to be avoided is non-uniform

execution time and run-time data initial-'

ization. A kernel reads its parameters, and

works in blank common, thus exercising the

locale mechanism.

The CPU time of the kernels must be

calibrated to within the required precision.

At NASA/JSC the method used was a FORTRAN

main program that queries the CPU time used,

executes a kernel a large number of times,

and again queries the CPU time used. The

CPU time of the kernel is the total CPU time

divided by the number of times executed.

3.2.3 Program Sizes

The compiled size of each the com- ponents of a synthetic program must be

determined. Then the number of kernel

copies and amount of blank common necessary

to achieve the desired instruction and data

sizes on the baseline system are calculated.

152
3.2.4 Locality of Reference

The locality of reference may be

specified for a synthetic program by means

of a reference histogram; this is called

directed locale. Blank common is logically

divided into a number of blocks; for JSC we arbitrarily chose 1000 word blocks. A locale is achieved by executing a certain

kernel copy and referencing a certain block

of data. For each kernel copy and for each

data block, a probability of access is

entered in the histogram. When the

synthetic program makes an instruction

locale change, it uses a pseudo- random

number generator to choose a kernel copy on the basis of the instruction histogram.

When it makes a data locale change, it uses

a pseudo- random number generator to choose

a data block on the basis of the data

histogram. It is not necessary that the

sequences of random numbers be the same for

different vendors. The agency may permit

the vendor to use a convenient modulus, as long as the algorithm remains intact.

These histograms are compiled into the

synthetic programs. Two locale parameters

supplied as parameters at run time are the

I-locale threshhold and the D-locale threshhold. The former is the number of CPU milliseconds to consume between instruction

locale changes. The latter is the number of

instruction locale changes to make between

data locale changes.

If a locale model is not available,

random locale may be used, in which case the

probability of choosing each locale is

equal. The I-locale and D-locale parameters

are entered at run time as with directed

locale. The working set of a program on a virtual system may tend to be larger with

random locale than with directed locale for

any given locale threshholds. So if random

locale is to be used, slightly longer locale

threshholds may be chosen to compensate.

Figure 7 shows a locale histogram for a program of 18 kernels and 19 blocks of blank common. The histogram value represents the

probability of access of a locality. The

peaks in the histogram correspond to high

activity subroutines, loops, and data

structures in the real program. Note that

there are 6 kernels and 10 data blocks which

are rarely referenced. On a virtual memory

system these might not be in the program's

working set; but they would be referenced

occasionally. Random locale corresponds to

a flat histogram: no locale is subject to high activity or low activity.

Directed Locale

*

* * ** ** *** * ** * *** * ** *** ** ***** *** *** * **** *** *****   ** * * ******** ****************** *******************

KERNELS DATA

Random Locale ****************** ******************* ****************** ******************* ****************** *******************

KERNELS DATA

Figure 7. Directed and Random

Local

e

3.3 Benchmark Jobs

The number of jobs in which to apportion the tasks of the workload is first

decided, then the jobs are created. The

minimum number of jobs is the degree of

concurrency needed in competing systems.

The goal is to allow all vendors to use their machines to full potential. Having more jobs also minmizes tailoff, the time at the end of the benchmark during which the

system is not fully utilized due to

insufficient concurrency. The maximum

tailoff is on the order of the execution

time of one job. The factors limiting the

number of jobs are granularity of task

execution times and overhead of job

initiation and termination.

A job, consists of JCL for initiation

(job identification, file assignment, etc.),

JCL for each task, and JCL for termination.

Thus, for example, job 1 may consist of

tasks 3, 7, 7, 2, 14, 3, and 10. Job 2 may

consist of tasks 7, 2, 8, 17, and 3. The

jobs are constructed to have roughly equal

execution times to minimize tailoff. The

executions of tasks within a job are

independent, and so may be in any order.

Support jobs are also created which

catalog, initialize, and delete the benchmark files. These run before and after the

benchmark proper. In the NASA benchmark,

source files are initialized by copying from

base source files. Binary files are

initialized with date and timestamp records.

153
3.4 Batch and Interactive Benchmarks

The work required to build a benchmark

down to the level of job generation (dotted

line in Figure 3) should be significantly

less than that required by conventional

methods. Even greater savings can be

realized if more than one benchmark need be

generated. This will frequently be the case

as an agency's requirements evolve during

the course of benchmark specification and

construction

.

From this job generation level the

benchmark implementor may change: PR size

of benchmark, number of jobs, number of

tasks, and interactive think times. And for

synthetic tasks the implementor may also

change: CPU, I/O, lines of print, output

record length, output file size, and

frequency of locale change. These possibly

extensive modifications can be made and a new benchmark generated and calibrated in a matter of days. Even if a complete

benchmark generation is done, this will be

easier the second time after the agency is familiar with the techniques. The generation of a benchmark can be simplified by

the use of automatic generation tools,

described below.

3.5 Generation Tools

The UNISKEL approach can be used to manually generate a benchmark. Or, if access to a UNIVAC 1100 system can be

arranged, there are a number of automatic

generation routines available, written in

UNIVAC Symbolic Stream Generator language.

This section briefly describes these

routines

.

One routine (SKEL/PROGRAMS) determines

the composition of the synthetic programs

based on the desired kernel (s) and program

size, the control program size, the kernel

sizes, the FORTRAN library size, etc. It considers both the instruction space size

and the data space size. It detects certain

errors which would make the desired program

size infeasible.

Based on the above criteria,

SKEL/PROGRAMS generates the unique source

code for each program. It also generates

routines which compile the source code and

link it into executable programs. It allows

different (FORTRAN callable) languages to be

used for the kernels if desired.

Another routine (SKEL/ASSIGN)

determines the tasks which comprise each job

based on estimated task elapsed time. All

jobs are of approximately equal length to minimize tailoff. A related routine

(SKEL/ORDER) randomly reorders the tasks

within each job.

Based on the job composition,

SKEL/RUNBUILD generates the JCL or RTE

scripts for each job. It considers the

files neccesary for each run and generates

the JCL to assign them. It also generates

support routines which catalog, initialize,

and delete benchmark files.

Other routines assist in calibration

and documentation by producing formatted

tables describing the tasks and jobs, and by

producing a job which executes each task once. Additional information on these

routines will be furnished on request.

4. Benchmark Execution

4.1 Benchmark Testing

It is necessary to consider the

execution of the benchmark by the agency and

by the vendors. The agency will run the

benchmark for pre-release verification, for

accurate sizing of its own system, or for

system tuning. The vendor will convert and

generate a benchmark and will conduct a Live

Test Demonstration to demonstrate

performance to the agency.

In the construction of a benchmark, an agency should consider the requirements for

testing the benchmark on its own system.

For realism, the benchmark typically

includes many files, large and small, infre- > quently referenced as well as frequently

referenced, both catalogued and temporary.

It will, therefore, require large amounts of mass storage and require special procedures

for execution on a general purpose system.

This could require that a system's files be

"unloaded" prior to testing the benchmark.

This is time-consuming and expensive. As an alternative for testing purposes, a second

benchmark can be constructed which accurately represents the workload characteristics but which requires less storage.

Since it would be almost identical to the

real benchmark, it would require very little

additional effort but would minimize the

cost of testing.

4.2 Benchmark Conversion

Two major goals of benchmarking are often difficult to achieve together. The

benchmark should be representative so that a system which performs acceptably on the

benchmark will perform acceptably on the

154
real workload. But it should not be too difficult for vendors to implement, because

the vendor's implementation cost may be

passed on to the government in terms of

higher bids.

Most of the synthetic program source code is a subset of ANSI 66 and of ANSI 78

FORTRAN for easy transportability. Only the

I/O routine and the clock routine are

written in assembler language and must be

receded by the vendor. These two routines

total 50 lines.

Some incompatibilities may remain,

however-, between compilers said to conform

to the ANSI standard. So the modular

construction of the benchmark minimizes the amount of code to be converted. The FORTRAN

control software modules total 500 lines.

For each program the two unique modules (KER

and DATA) average 200 lines together. For

as many copies as are needed by the largest

program there are kernel modules of about 50

to 100 lines each.

All the KER and all the DATA modules

are very much alike. All the kernel copies

are identical but for entry point name. There are approximately 300,000 lines of

code in the JSC benchmark; however, there

are only about 1000 lines in the unique

modules

.

The components to be written or converted are the source code discussed

above, the system processor scripts, the

synthetic task JCL, the files, and the RTE commands. The system processor scripts

should be chosen with conversion in mind.

Benchmark files are either text files,

binary data files whose structure is

dictated by the vendor supplied I/O routine,

or files created by system processors, so file conversion should be minimized.

After the system processor task JCL is written, the JCL conversion should be

straightforward. Each synthetic task is the

invocation of a synthetic program with two

lines of parameters. Each synthetic program

uses the same file(s) in the same way. Files are neither created nor destroyed

except possibly by system processor tasks.

Temporary files are assigned at job start

and are not freed until job end. Therefore,

the execution of one task is independent of

the execution of another, and without

knowing the containing jobs, the vendor may

determine the JCL for each synthetic task.

The JCL for each job in the base

workload is constructed. Each job is

specified as a sequence of tasks whose JCL

can be combined with job initiation and job

termination JCL to form the complete job

JCL. The rest of the jobs are constructed

from the base jobs by changing job names and

possibly changing file names.

The vendor converts and compiles the

synthetic programs, converts the system

processor tasks, generates and replicates

the files, and builds the jobstreams. The

benchmark is then ready to run.

The main elements of a description of

the benchmark for the vendor are descriptions of programs, files, tasks, and jobs.

The vendor is supplied with source code for

each routine in the benchmark and specifications for each assembler routine. This source code includes one copy of the invariant portion of the control logic, one copy

for each program of the variant portion of

the control logic, KER and DATA, and many

copies of each kernel. The programs are then described by their constituent modules.

For example:

Program 5: SYNTH ,SETTR ,BMTIME ,FFGTST, ICV, lOW,

LIBRY,LOCD,LOCI,ZOR

KER5,DATA5

INK1,INK2,INK3,INK4

FPK1,FPK2,FPK3,FPK4

The benchmark files are described as

fol lows:

File 1:One copy per job

temporary

300KB

indexed sequential access binary data

initialized by supplied program

The tasks are described as follows:

Task 1:Execute synthetic program 3 with

parameters

0,20,448,256,5,2,0,218,5

5,16,0,1,9

Disk output to file 9, FORTRAN Unit 9

Task 3:Copy file 6 to file 7

The jobs are described as follows:

Job 1:Task 3, Task 7, Task 7, Task 2,

Task 14, Task 3, Task 10

155
4.3 Verification

The procuring agency will verify at LTD time that the benchmark work was done, that

it was done in the required time, and that

performance goals were met. UNISKEL provides convenient ways for the agency to do

as much verification as it deems necessary.

The system clock measures the benchmark

elapsed time. The system log verifies that

the work was done. The vendor supplied RTE

log analysis program verifies that response

times were acceptable. These primary checks

are easy to use, but may not be reliable

enough for the agency's needs, so other spot

checks are typically used.

A stopwatch verifies the benchmark

elapsed time, as well as correct system

clock operation. Print output from some of

the jobs is examined to see that the start

and stop times from the system log are correct, and that the proper tasks were executed. The timestamped RTE log is examined for the same reason, and to verify

response times. The synthetic program

writes timestamps in all its output, which

are checked for consistency.

In interactive mode, the synthetic program reads timestamps from the RTE, which it

prints along with its own timestamps. Prior

to LTD, the agency test team may have the

system clocks of the RTE and of the System

Under Test set to different dates and times.

This difference is checked in the RTE log.

The binary files in the benchmark are created by an initialization program that

fills them with timestamps. The synthetic

program writes over some or all of these

files with timestamps of its own. Prior to

LTD, the test team selects certain temporary

files to be made permanent. The timestamps

in these files, as well as those in some other permanent files, are examined after

LTD for consistency.

The synthetic program keeps a count of

the number of times the kernels are called,

and this value is printed for verification.

A more rigorous check can be accomplished

with an addition to the kernel. The kernels

may compute pseudo- random numbers based on

a seed supplied by the agency prior to LTD. The final numbers generated by each program

execution depend on the seed and on the

number of calls to the random number

routine. These values may be printed and

compared against the known values.

156
COMPARING USER RESPONSE TIMES ON PAGED AND SWAPPED

UNIX BY THE TERMINAL PROBE METHOD

Luis Felipe Cabrera

Department of Mathematics

and

Electronics Research Laboratory

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720

jehan-Frangoi s pSris

Department of Computer Sciences

Purdue University

W. Lafayette, IN 47907

In this paper we present a comparison of user response times on paged and swapped versions of the

operating system UNIX for the DEC VAX 11/780. The technique used was to construct a script that periodically

evaluated the system's work -load and measured the

system's response times to a set of benchmark programs.

These measurements, collected at two different

sites, show that differences of responsiveness observed

between the two systems depended much more on the workloads and the configurations than on the operating systems themselves.

Since we only used standard UNIX tools to build our scripts, they are highly portable and can be installed on any standard UNIX system in a matter of minutes without

bringing the system down.

Keywords: terminal-probe method; UNIX.

1. Introduction

A change from one version of an operating system to another one always constitutes a difficult problem for the management of a computer

installation. The problems of

updating the software while attempting to keep the user's interfaces as unchanged as possible are well

known. We will address here another

problem, namely, the performance

implications of the change.

Numerous tools already exist

with the purpose of predicting or measuring the performance of a computer system. In contrast to many

of these tools, the method we present here requires no special

hardware and very little effort for

modeling the system or estimating

its work-load. The technique used,

which applies to all interactive

systems, essentially consists of

constructing a script that periodically evaluates the system's work157
load and measures the system's

response times to a set of benchmark

programs. As we will see, the only

drawback of the method is that systems with highly variable work loads

will require longer data gathering

periods

.

Since standard UNIX tools were used to build these scripts, they

are highly portable and can be

installed on any standard UNIX system in a matter of minutes without

bringing the system down. Moreover,

the philosophy of the method is by

no means specific to UNIX systems

and could be applied to other

interactive systems.

Section 2 of this paper

presents those features of the UNIX

operating system which are relevant

to our problem. In Section 3 we introduce the data gathering method.

In Section 4 we present and analyze

diagrams which compare the performance of the installations under the

different versions of the operating

system. Section 5 discusses some general issues about comparing distinct operating systems. Section 6 has our conclusions.

2. The UNIX System

UNIX is a trademark for a family of time-sharing operating systems developed at Bell Laboratories

during the last twelve years [10,

9]. The first version of UNIX was implemented in 1969 on a PDP-7.

Since then, several versions of UNIX

have been developed at Bell Laboratories. They were primarily aimed

at various members of the PDP-11

family of minicomputers and, in

1978, Bell Laboratories released a version of UNIX aimed at the new VAX

11/780. Despite the fact that the

VAX hardware was designed to support

a paged virtual memory system (DEC'S own VMS), the successive versions of

UNIX developed at Bell Laboratories

did not support paging. This

motivated a group at the University

of California, Berkeley, to implement a virtual memory extension to

UNIX for the vAx [1]. This extension used a Global LRU (Least

Recently Used) page replacement

strategy with use bits simulated by

software and is now an integral part

of what is known as the "Berkeley

UNIX."

One of the most remarkable

features of UNIX is its user interface. On logging in, each user is

assigned a special process containing a command interpreter that

listens to the terminal. This command interpreter, known as the s hell

[2], parses the input line decod ing

the command requested, its flags,

and the arguments passed to it. The

shell then exec 's the command. The

shell also has a Fedirection mechanism that allows it to read command

lines stored in files. Users can thus define sequences of shell commands, known as shell scripts, and

store them in files awaiting later

invocation. The versatility of

these scripts is greatly enhanced by

the fact that the shell language

also contains control-flow primitives, string-valued variables and even simple arithmetic facilities.

Itius, building a sequence of com- mands that will be repeatedly executed at fixed time intervals is on UNIX a nearly trivial task.

The portability of our tools

was also facilitated by the fact

that UNIX handles automatically all

file allocation decisions. UNIX

files are accessed through a hierarchy of directories and the typical

user is not aware of the physical

location of the files he or she

manipulates

.

3. The Data Gathering Method

Our strategy for monitoring

each system's responsiveness was the same one used in Cabrera's perfor- mance analysis study of UNIX [3].

It consists of running periodically

a set of predefined benchmarks in a totally automatic way. This was achieved by writing a shell script

that is essentially a loop containing the benchmarks together with

commands that gather statistics

about the work loads and measure the

time it takes each benchmark to complete. Each time the script has

cycled through the execution of

these commands, it executes a sleep

command that suspends its execution

and then wakes it up after a predetermined number of seconds.

158
This script is then run as a background job (with the same priority

as any user process) during the

operation time of the system.

This data gathering method can

be categorized as a time-sampling

method [7] and in fact is very similar to Karush's terminal probe

method [8]. By using it, we measure

the work load of the system as well

as the dependency of our performance

indexes on the underlying equipment.

We are thus evaluating the performance of an installation.

Although running a script

affects the load of the system —and

thus its responsiveness, it was felt

that this would not affect the validity of our comparison study since

each system would be presented with

the same script. The main purpose

of our comparison experiment was precisely to observe how each system

reacted to this stimulus.

Our commitment to use only

standard UNIX tools decided us upon

the usage of the t ime command for

measuring the completion time of

each benchmark. The t ime command

returns, upon completion of the com- mand it prefixes, three measurements; response time, system time

and user time. Response time is

only accurate to the second ( time

truncates, does not round o f f ) . This low resolution of time , together with our desire that no individual measurement be off by more than 10%, led us to restrict

ourselves to benchmarks that would never take less than five seconds to

complete

.

4. The Measurements

The design of a comparison

study like ours is faced with many

constraints and trade-offs. There are basically three main areas in

which major decisions have to be

made: the selection of the benchmarks, the length of the data gathering period and the representation

of the data.

Since our method measures the

performance of an installation,

i.e., the work load is also included

in the observations, a desirable

goal is to use as benchmark a task

representative of the user's tasks.

At the same time, one must try to

capture the work load through some characterization. Then, the

response time of the task is plotted

against the characterization of

load .

We have chosen tasks which

exercise the system in a "natural"

way (i.e., we did not run tasks

which would a priori perform better

in a paged env ironment or in a swapping environment) and which were representative of the user's activities at the time. Since text processing constituted on both sites a significant part of the system's

load, we decided to use, in both

sites, the command man man as benchmark The man command retrieves and

formats the entry for any given command out of the on-line copy of the

UNIX Programmer's manual; thus man man retrieves and formats the manual

entry for the man command. This

task is interesting because the

entry is retrieved from disk using

the widely used formatting program

nroff . lb avoid screen output prob1 em s wh e n running the script, the

output of man man was sent to

/dev/null instead of sending it to a real terminal. This had the effect

of discarding the already formated

text of the retrieved page. The

length of each data gathering period

was determined at each site and will

be discussed in the next two subsections. As for the display of the

data, after an exploratory analysis

of our measurements it was decided

to use 7 5-percentile curves. In Figures 1 and 2 we display four curves for the task man man using

the number of logged in users as characterization of load. The four curves are the median (50-

percentile) , mean, 75-percentile and

90-percent ile of the distribution of

response times per value of our work

load characterization.

Figure 1 displays these curves

for the swapping system and Figure 2 for the paging system. In them we may appreciate how the influence of

the outliers becomes apparent in the

90-percent ile curve. We may also

notice that the median of the

response time samples are con159
sistently lower than the mean of the

samples. This happens in any distribution which is skewed towards

the lower range values or, whose

outliers lie in the higher range of

the values. These tWD characteristics were common to all our data.

*Ito deemphasi ze the effect of

outliers we chose to use the 75-

percentile curve to display our data. This decision was partially

motivated by unavailability of abundant data from one of the sites;

95-percentile curves would have been

too much influenced by outliers.

We decided on two singlevariable characterizations of load:

number of users logged in and number

of user processes. This latter

index represents the number of

processes which have been generated

by user commands. It does not

include any system generated

processes

.

4.1. The Berkeley Measurements

This analysis was based in 431

data points for the swapping system

and 1455 points for the paging system generated during the second half

of 1979. Throughout the data gathering period the system's hardware

remained unaltered. The work load,

however, underwent a substantial

change (by very large programs such

as the VAX version of the algebraic

manipulation system MACSYMA [6]) to

thoroughly exercise the memory

management capabilities of the new

kernel

.

Given the small amount of main

memory the system had at the time,

these large address space programs

did influence significantly the work

load of the system. The hardware

configuration of the system was a VAX 11/780 CPU, 512K bytes of main

memory, 16 ports, two RP06 disk

drives with a DEC disk controller

and one TE 16 tape drive.

We shall present data for three

tasks: the command man man , the

execution of a cpu-bound job and the

compilation of a short C program.

The choice of the cpu-bound job was motivated by our desire to observe

the effect paging had on a task that

would almost never be swapped out:

its size is 2K bytes.

Figures 3 and 4 display the

75-percent ile curves of the response

time for the command man man. On

both figures we see that the swapping system performs slightly better

than the paging system at higher

load levels. This difference can be

justified by the dramatic change in

the workload which occurred v\*ien the

paging system was brought up. Since

we do not have data from stand-alone

measurements, we cannot rate the two

systems solely on these data, but it

becomes apparent that neither outperforms the other one throughout

all the values of load.

Figures 5 and 6 display our data for the CPU-bound job. This

job consists of two nested loops and

an inner block of statements. A 9 statement sequence of integer arithmetic operations is executed 100,000

times. The size of the object code

is only 2K bytes—i.e. four 512 byte

pages-- and thus its probability of

being swapped out is quite small.

It is quite interesting to observe

that the paging system outperforms

the swapping system under both characterizations of the workload. This can be explained in terms of the

additional I/O activity existing in

the paging system. Indeed, since

our job is very small in size and

performs no I/O, the only impediments that may block it to run to

completion are time-quantum expirations and multiprogramming delays.

Thus our cpu-bound job is either

running or in the ready queue. In the paging system it more often gets

the CPU because of other jobs being

blocked by page faults. This fact

makes us believe that trivial tasks

should perform better in the paged

version of UNIX.

Figures 7 and 8 display our data for the C compilation of a small C program. This is the only

observed task where the swapping

system appears superior. This is

specially clear in Figure 8 where

the number of user processes characterization of load is used. We

believe that the difference in performance observed in this case is

mostly due to the change in workload

which occurred in the system. The

160
execution of processes whose size

was much larger than the available

memory created high contention for

memory. Ihus medium size processes

like the C compiler would always be

losing their used pages and paging

in those pieces of code needed for

further processing. Their resident

set would never be allowed to remain

at any reasonable size. The effect

of large processes was quite noticeable at the time, specially when

processes like VAXIMA [6] would do

garbage collection through a 2 Megabyte address space. At those

points, response time for all com- mands would degrade ostensibly.

4.2. The Purdue Measurements

These experiments were performed during the Summer of 1980 on the VAX 11/780 of the Department of

Computer Sciences at Purdue University v\^en the Department decided to

switch from UNIX version 7 to Berkeley UNIX. At that time, the machine

had 3 Megabytes of main memory, 56

ports, three RM03 disk drives on Massbus 0 and one TE16 tape drive on Massbus 1.

Vfe chose to run as benchmarks

the UNIX command man man , which

formats and displays the entry of

the UNIX manual describing the command itself as veil as a small

script containing "man man" and

several small tasks. As said

before, this choice was motivated by

the fact that text processing constituted then the application con- cerning the greatest number of users. In UNIX version 7, the man

command is implemented as a shell

scr ipt while Berkeley UNIX uses directly executable code. Since

this latter alternative is

inherently much faster than a script, which must be interpreted by

the shell at each execution, a direct comparison of the response

times for the man man command would

have been grossly unTair to the version 7. Vfe thus decided to run the

version 7 script in place of the

original man command in our measurements with the Berkeley UNIX. As a result, the response times for the man man command measured at Purdue

were much higher than those observed

at Berkeley, where the same problem

d id not occur . Because of the short interval

of time left between our decision of

running the script and the scheduled

switch from swapped to paged UNIX,

we were only able to collect 152

measurements with the swapped version of UNIX. This left us with

about ten observations for each load

level, as expressed either by the

number of users logged in or the

total number of user processes.

These values were obviously much

lower than those required to obtain

acceptable estimators of the 75 percentiles of the response time.

f^ced with the same problem,

but on a much smaller scale, one of

the authors [3, 4] decided to cluster neighboring load levels with

insufficient numbers of observations. For instance, if 30 was the

minimum acceptable sample size and

there were 19 observations

corresponding to 15 users logged in

and 12 observations corresponding to

16 users, the tWD sets of observations would be merged into a single

set of 31 observations and this set

made to correspond to a work load of

(15+16)72 = 15.5 users. The same approach applied to our Purdue data

would unfortunately resulted into

too little load levels after clustering. We decided therefore to use

a scheme in which the 75 percentile

for the load level i would be computed taking in account all the

measurements at load levels i-1, i and i + 1. This filtering greatly

reduced the influence of outliers on the 75 percentiles. It has, however, the unfortunate side-effect of

introducing a positive correlation

between neighboring values on the

percentile curves and therefore

should not be considered as a substitute for more measurements

Figure 9 and 10 display the

75-percent ile curves of the response

time for the script version of the man man command. As one can see on both fig ures , the response times for

the swapping version of UNIX appear

to be somewhat higher than those

corresponding to the paging UNIX and

exhibit also a more erratic

behavior. These results apparently

do not agree with those observed on

161
the Berkeley VAX. One should however point out that the Purdue VAX

had a much larger memory and that

all our measurements relative to the

paging version of UNIX were made

during the month immediately following the conversion to Berkeley UNIXr

thus before any change in the working habi ts of the users could have

occurred.

Another point to mention is

that the curves representing the

75-percentiles of the response time

against the number of user processes

are somewhat better behaved than

those corresponding to the number of

users. Ttiis suggests that the

number of user processes is a better

estimator of the system's workload.

5. Discussion

One can conclude from our measurements that the switch from UNIX

version 7 to Berkeley UNIX did not

alter significantly user's response

times on any of the two monitored

installations. This conclusion,

however, depends on the work loads

observed on the two machines and is

by no means an answer to the question: "Which one of the two operating systems is better?"

Paging was introduced, more

than twenty years ago, in order to

allow bigger jobs to run on machines

then characterized by very small

main memories. It became later a nearly universal feature of largescale multi-access systems because

it allowed to keep more jobs simultaneously residing in main memory,

thus avoiding swapping delays. As

it was quickly noticed, paging

unfortunately never comes for free

:

it requires special hardware, introduces a fair amount of software

overhead and performs very poorly

with programs exhibiting scattered

reference patterns.

One may then question the efficiency of paging at a time where

main memory is so cheap that it

becomes possible to keep residing in

memory enough conversational users

to saturate the CPU of a machine

like the VAX. Wbuld this be the

normal case, jobs would typically

run without having been ever swapped

out during their execution. Hhis

would remove any incentive for

implementing a paging scheme. Moreover, it would even make straight

swapping more effective than paging

since it is usually more efficient

to bring into memory the whole

address space of a program in a single I/O operation than by succes- sively fetching faulting pages.

This argument does not, however, stand against the well-known

fact that larger address spaces have

always resulted in larger programs.

In fact, one of the strongest

motivations of the Berkeley UNIX was

to provide the larger address space

required by algebraic manipulation

programs. Our measurements on the

Berkeley VAX show indeed that the

switch from swapping to paging has

significantly altered the system's

work load by allowing bigger jobs to run on the machine. Although it did

not appear in our data, the same phenomenon also occurred on the Purdue VAX, whose current work load is

strikingly different from the one existing before the switch to Berkeley UNIX.

The main advantage of one operating system over the other one

is thus more a question of increased

capabilities than faster response

times. As a cynical observer could

point out, the switch to a better

system might be accompanied by an increase of the average response

time resulting from the increased

demands placed on the system's

hardware

.

6. Conclusions

We have presented here a simple

method for comparing user response

times on two versions of an operating system. The method used consists of constructing a script that

periodically evaluates the system's

load and measures the system's

response times to a set of benchmark

programs. This method can be very

easily implemented on UNIX or any

other system that has features

allowing to submit periodically a set of tasks and to collect information on response times and system's

workload. It does not require the

system to be brought down and does

162
not affect the normal operation of

the installation.

Results concerning a paged and

a swapped versions of the VAX 11/780

UNIX system show that the observed

differences of responsiveness

between the systems depended more on the workloads and the configurations

than on the operating systems themselves .

Thus our methods should not be

construed as a technique for comparing the inherent merits of two

operating systems, but rather as a tool giving prompt quantitative

answers on the responsiveness of any

particular installation.

Acknowledgements

Ihe work reported here was supported in part by the NSF grant MCS

80-12900. The authors express their

gratitude to their respective

departments for having provided the

facilities used in this study.

Nether 1 ands ,pp 205-215.

[5] Digital Equipment Corporation,

VAX 11/780 Techn ical Summary . Ma yn aT3 , Mas sT^ 197 8

.

[6] Fateman, R. J., Addendum to

the Mathlab/MIT MACSYMA Reference Manual for VAX/UNiX VAXIMA, Department of EECS

Computer Science Division,

University of California,

Berkeley (Dec . 1979) .

[7] Ferrari, D. Computer Systems

Performance ITvaluati on , Prentice-Hall , Eng lewood

aiffs, NJ, 1978.

[8] Karush, A. D. , The Benchmarking Method Applied to TimeSharing Systems, Rept. SP-3347,

System's Development Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, August

1969.

[9] Kernighan, B. W. and J. R. Mashey, The UNIX Programming

Environment, Computer 14, 4 (Apr. 1981), 12-24.

References

[1] Babaoglu, 0., W. Joy and J. Porcar, Design and Implementation of the Berkeley virtual

Memory Extension to the UNIX

Operating System, Department of

EECS —Computer Science Division, University of California,

Berkeley, ( 1979).

[2] Bourne, S. R. , The UNIX Shell,

The Bell System Technical j.

5T7 6^art 2 ( Jul . -Jdig~. 19787^

1971-1990.

[10] Ritchie, D. M. and K. L. Thompson, The UNIX Time-Sharing

System, Comm . ACM 17, 7 (Jul.

1974) , 365-375. A revised version appeared in The Bell System Technical J. 57~, 6~Part 2 (Jul. -Aug. 19787/ 1295-1990.

[11] Ritchie, D. M., S. C. Johnson,

M.E. Lesk and B. W. Kernighan,

The C Programming Language, The

Bel 1 System Technical j. 5 7"^ 6 Part 2 (Jul. -Aug. 1978), 1991-

2019.

[3] Cabrera, L. F., A Performance

Analysis Study of UNIX,

proceed ing

s

of the 16th Meeting

oi tFe CPEUG^ Orlando^ FT7

October 1980, pp. 233-243.

[4] Cabrera, L. F., Benchmarking

UNIX : A Comparative Study, in

Expe r imental Compu te r Perfor- mance Evaluation (D. Fer rar i and M. Spadoni eds.) NorthHolland, Amsterdam,

163
120.0

6. 8. 10.

NUMBER OF USERS

Figure 1 Median, Mean, 75 and 90 percentiles for ""man man""

and Swapped UNIX

LiJ

I—

I

I—

UJ

cn

100.0

80.0 -

60.0 -

40.0 - O

Q_

CD^ 20.0

.0

X MEDIAN

<!> MERN

+ 75-PCTILE

90-PCTILE

2. 6. 8. 10,

NUMBER OF USERS

12. 14

Figure 2 Median, Mean, 75 and 90 percentiles for "man man"

and Paged UNIX

164
Figure 3 Response Time 75-percentile vs Number of Users

for the "man man" command

100.0

.0 5. 10. 15. 20. 25.

NUMBER OF USER PROCESSES

Figure 4 Response Time 7 5-percentile vs Number of User

Processes for the "man man" command

165
HO. 00

CO 30.00

20.00

X SNRPPING

O PfiGING

.00

.0 2. 6 8

NUMBER OF USERS

10, 12. 14.

Figure 5 Response Time 7 5-percentile vs Number of Users

for the CPU-bound job

40.00

30.00 -

20.00

CD

co 10.00

LU

X SNAPPING

O PAGING

.00

.0 5. 10. 15. NUMBER OF USER PROCESSES

20, 25.

Figure 6 Response Time 75-percentile vs Number of User

Processes for the CPU-bound job

166
80.00

CO

IxJ

CO

60.00

^o.oo

X SNRPPING

O PRGING

o

to 20.00

LU

.00 ±

.0 2, H. 6. 8. 10. NUMBER OF USERS

12.

Figure 7 Response Time 75-percentile vs Number of Users

for the C compilation

80.00

LiJ

60.00 -

40.00

UJ

CO

O

CO 20.00

LU

X SWRPPING

O PRGING

.00 _L

.0 5. 10. 15. 20,

NUMBER OF USER PROCESSES

25.

Figure 8 Response Time 7 5-percentile vs Number of User

Processes for the C compilation

167
150.0

CO

Lu 100.0

UJ

CO

O 50.0

Q_

(D

UJ

OH

X SNRPPING

- 0 PRGING

e

1

1 1 1 1 1

1 .0 6. 8. 10.

NUMBER OF USERS

12. 14. 16,

Figure 9 Response Time 75-percentile vs Number of Users

for the script version of "man man"

150.0

.0. 2. H.. 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16.

NUMBER OF USER PROCESSES

Figure 10 Response Time 75-percentile vs Number of User

Processes for the script version of "man man"

168
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF REMOTE TERMINAL EMULATION

IN THE PHASE IV COMPETITIVE SYSTEM ACQUISITION

Deanna J. Bennett

Air Force Phase IV Program Management Office

Directorate of System Engineering

Gunter AFS, AL 36114

The Air Force's Phase IV program is the largest computer system

acquisition ever attempted. It will replace the Air Force inventory of

base supply UNIVAC 1050-11 and base level support Burroughs B3500 cccn- puter systems. At the outset, a strategy was developed for expressing

the workload requirements for the more than 200 systems to be replaced.

Specific system throughput requirements were established. Along with

this the decision had to be made how to validate the capabilities of the

proposed systems to support the workload.

The point of this paper is to outline how the following questions were answered by the Air Force in the currently on-going Phase IV acquisition: Given a real acquisition situation, how can we test effectively? What are the practical day-to-day decisions that must be

made to support the selected testing strategy?

The end decision regarding the workload test approach was to use some tools from the classic benchmarking tradition, but to enhance their

effectiveness with the use of remote terminal emulation. This determination was only a starting point for a number of implementation decisions that had to be made by the Air Force to support effective use of an emulator.

The current status of the Phase rv program is that contracts have

been awarded to two contractors to compete for worldwide system

replacement. The contracts require transition of five major standard Air

Force on-line automated data systems (ADSs) and a small sampling of stan- dard Air Force batch systems, and demonstration of contractor-proposed

systems with the transitioned Air Force standard software. At the end of

the contract, based on cost and evaluation of performance, one contractor

will be selected for vrorldwide system replacement.

Key words: Benchmark testing; Phase IV; remote terminal emulation;

response time; terminal networks; workload sizing.

1 . Introduction

The Phase IV program was formally

established in early 1976, as the vehicle

by vAiich a large inventory of nearly obsolete computers in the Air Force inventory

could be replaced. Because of its size and

conplexity, the Program was established on

an innovative basis, unhampered by precedents in the competitive conputer selection

and acquisition process. The replacement

strategy was developed to fit the need and

169
to recognize the economies of scale that

could devolve from such a massive acquisition. In its overall management and procurement approach. Phase IV falls somewhere

between off-the-shelf ccsnputer acquisitions

typically managed by the Air Force Computer

Acquisition Center (AFCAC) , and the weapons

system development and acqujsition projects

normally managed by system program offices

(SPOs) throughout the Air Force.

One of the concepts typically implemented by SPOs is "fly before you buy," in

which prototypes, including aircraft, are put through their paces in a real life

environment before any ccxnmitment is made

to large-scale manufacture. This was the

most attractive aspect of the weapons

system approach for Phase IV and was incorporated into our acquisition strategy.

This is why we have two "prototype" system

contractors. The main advantage is that it

minimizes the risk of incorrectly estimating the processing capabilities of proposed computer systems before using them to replace over 2 00 Air Force systems around

the world. A miscalculation could have severe impact on the capability of the new systems to keep up with day-to-day base

mission support demands. One basic testing

requirement emerged as paramount: workload

processing capabilities had to be validated

well in advance of commitment to worldwide

replacement by either of the competing

contractors.

2. The Communications Testing Problem

In Phase IV, we are using classic

benchmarking techniques to create inputs to exercise the batch workload profile on the

proposed system. This is necessary to verify batch processing throughput

capabilities, but is not sufficient to satisfy us that the real range of workload

can be supported. The base level systems

being replaced through the Phase IV program

have a critical on-line as well as a batch

mode support roles.

There are five major on-line automated

data systems vAiich support aircraft

maintenance, supply, civilian and military

personnel, accounting and finance, and

civil engineering functional users at each

Air Force base. Depending on the location,

anywhere from twelve to over one hundred

fifty independent devices have to be sup- ported by the new systems at some time in

the system life. In addition to the physical capability to support the terminals,

the system's responsiveness to the user is a key concern.

We rapidly concluded that batch benchmark techniques were inapplicable to our problem, and searched the field for the

proper tool to apply. All the historical

options for demonstrating processing capability on-line testing problems, bearing in

mind the bounds of technical, economic, and

practical feasibility, as well as the ultimate objective : to verify not only that

the required terminal network could be supported but also that the support was timely

.

2.1. Simulation Unacceptable

The verification required for on-line

system sizing dictated that the actual

system be tested and that the mode of test

not interfere with the internal system

processing. On this count alone, a simulation or model-based verification was rejected. Construction of proper models

would be expensive. The technical feasibility of performing the effort was assessed

as minimal, given the short time available,

the range of vrorkloads that would have to be modeled, and the likelihood that newly

announced equipment lines could be proposed.

Also, for all practical purposes, since the

contractor would have to be performing the

simulation/modeling exercise for the final

test, the Air Force assurance of accuracy

would cCTne down to "trust me" as the verification that the model was performing v^at was required. A convincing bottom line to the brief consideration of simulation is

the GSA prohibition of simulation as the

sole basis for a Contract Award, a tacit

acknowledgement of simulation's more artistic than anpirical nature.

2.2 No Sample Terminals

or Alternative Inputs

Before computers became sophisticated

enough to handle more than a few terminals,

the verification of a system's capability

to handle a small number of terminals could

be done simply by hooking the actual ter- minals up to the test system. As time and

technology progressed, often a few ter- minals were used to represent a much larger

whole in the benchmark process. The risk

increases, of course, with the dwindling

percentage of terminals actually demonstrated. After a point, the contention and

queuing problems attendant on a large num- ber of terminals are unrealistically overlooked when three or four "representative

devices" are used in their place. Also, use of live terminals implies the use of live

operators. While computers can generally be

relied on to produce reproducible results.

170
human operators cannot be counted on to do

the same. This violates one of the basic

tenets of benchmarking in the Government:

Have a controllable, reproducible

experiment.

The controllability factor led to other

experiments in stress testing, such as that

used several years ago in the World Wide

Military Command and Control Systan

(WWMCCS) computer system acquisition. In this benchmark, the externally-generated

terminal inputs were queued on tapes and

batched in. While controllability and

reproducibility were assured, the system

impact of handling large volumes of devices

and their communications overhead aspects was not assessable.

Using a combination of input messages

queued on tape and a sampling of inputs

from several live devices was judged to have too many of the disadvantages of

either technique, and not enough advantages

to reasonably pursue for Phase IV 's purpose.

2.3 The Practical Default.

The option of having a full-scale benchmark

test with an entire live terminal network was also rejected out of hand. The sheer

management burden of monitoring and

controlling activities across over 100 terminals was enough to render this practically and economically unfeasible.

Dissatisfaction with the traditional

choices for assessing workload processing

capacity led to a single reasonable option:

remote terminal onulation. The only method

that could satisfy the requirement for

testing throughput capacity in a terminaloriented environment on all practical, eco- nomic and technical counts was to require a remote terminal emulator. Emulation is

within the practical , technical state of

the art. It is controllable and reproducible. It can demonstrate all the

effects of communication contention and

line strategies on the system under test. We could see no other way of testing.

2.4 Support for RTE -Based

Test Requirements

Phase IV Program management was also

reasonably convinced that as long as we were breaking new ground in other ways, we should take advantage of the current technology and do as complete a job of sizing

verification as possible by requiring a remote terminal emulator (RTE) as a basic

test tool. Before committing to an RTE requirement. Phase IV had to verify its

legality in terms of Goverrment contracting

regulations.

Before the publication of the GSA RTE standard which applies across the

government, specially-created, tailored

variants of emulators were required when

emulation was considered for application to

a benchmarking problem. The variants

depended on the specific desires of the

individual user or acquisition office. The

result was repeated development costs for

competing vendors, seen as limiting the

field of ccxnpetition to only "wealthy"

ccxnpetitors. Because of this cost aspect,

RTE-based pre-award competition was not permitted by GSA for Government acquisitions.

In the design of the Phase IV acquisition strategy, we circumvented this historical objection to the sunk pre-award cost of

RTE-based ccxnpetition. The Phase IV com- peting contractors will perform post-award

benchmarks under paid contract while they

compete for final selection as the Air

Force-wide implementation contractor. Cost

to vendors was not an issue, because the

cost was to the Government. Because of the

large number of systems involved, this

investment for Phase IV is cost effective,

whereas in single site acquisitions it could

have been prohibitive. However, we did some groundwork before RFP release to assure our management and ourselves that our costs

would be primarily test-related costs, not

RTE development costs: A survey of the emu- lation capabilities of canputer manufacturers v^o could reasonably be expected to submit Phase IV proposals verified that each

had an existing emulator with the basic

required characteristics.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) that was issued in 1978 for Phase IV was the first

Air Force RFP which required remote terminal

emulation. It was written before publication of the GSA standard, but it should be

noted that the Phase IV RTE requirements are relatively close to the new standard.

3. Phase IV Workload Test ?^proach

The Phase IV problem was to orchestrate

a throughput test to verify that the work of

2 37 separate systems with 2 37 variations on

a common processing framework could be

handled by new systems. This required development of some method for distilling the

critical characteristics of the workload

into simple, testable quantities, and

deciding how to choose what the physical

system under test should look like.

171
3. 1 Workload Expression TXBLC !• XI AVERAGE PEAK HOUR OH-LIIIC WORKU>AD CATEGORIES

System workload representation for

replacement of a single system is done most

commonly by constructing a single line projection of future workload and constructing

a single timed benchmark test, a set of

programs which reflect the work profile for

the current system. (Naturally, the validity of the ensuing test is limited by the

validity of the analysis and the availability of programs in appropriate languages

to form the mix.) Capability to handle

workload growth can then be measured by

decreasing the amount of time permitted to run the program mix. Figure 1 shows this

approach diagrammatical ly

.

0 1 2 3 4 5 Years After Installation—

Figure 1. Typical Single System

Workload Expression

INPUT INPUT OUTPUT OUTPUT LOGICAL

CATEGORY MSG CHAR MSG CHAR DSK I/O

1 82S 72, 891 5,058 450,418 42,735

2 1,817 161,713 12,017 1,059,513 94,794

3 2, 556 225,027 15. 583 1,337,839 132,400

4 3, 218 283, 035 19,590 1,744,843 166,692

5 3,728 330,729 24,193 2,151,753 205,769

Note that as these categories were developed on the basis of collections from

individual Air Force bases, there is no straight line relationship across categories for various workload components.

This means that test development must be

tailored to each category. The single

system acquisition approach of developing a single mix and decreasing the amount of

time permitted for its execution to test increased throughput requirements is doubly

inapplicable for Phase IV. First, it is a batch-oriented approach vAiich does not account for variances in numbers of

terminals. Second, in Phase IV, each category is really a separate workload profile,

unrelated to lower or higher workload

categories.

Instead of projecting workload by base,

fixed categories are used and the Air Force

base sites move through the categories.

This simplifies the vendor sizing effort, as workload factors are already distilled

into usable form for input to sizing

models. Figures 2 and 3 give an example of

how bases might move through the categories

between two given calendar years.

To use this most common workload representation for Phase IV 's wide range of

types and volumes of processing could

require 237 separate workload projections

and tests to be developed. Besides implying

an impossible test development workload,

this would be spurious precision, given the

basic "plus or minus" imprecisions of

workload projections, however carefully

they are constructed.

For Phase IV, the performance sta- tistics from a sampling of current sites were collected and massaged into a set of

workload "categories", using both the

empirical data from sites and overall

growth rate projections. These categories were defined to the analytical level

required by sizing models. See Table 1 for

an example of the workload characteristics,

by category, for the U1050 workloads.

A,B,C

D.E.F

G,H

1 2 3 4 5 Workload Categories

Figure 2, Year 1 Workload for Bases

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H

In Figure 2, Air Force bases A through H are mapped into 5 workload categories, de172
pending on their workloads in Year 1 of

system life.

B.C.D

E.F

G,H

1 2 3 4 5 Workload Categories

Figure 3. Year 3 workload for Bases

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H

Figure 3 shows these same bases and

workload categories in Year 3 of system

life, and shows how the workloads of bases

have grown, causing most to migrate into

larger categories.

Given this analytical framework, the

testing problem is to verify that there is

a system available to satisfy the workload

requirements of each category, not each

individual base. These category examples

are simplifications. In fact there are

five workload categories for the U1050

workload projects projections and 10 for

the B3500 workloads.

3.2 Stress Testing Philosophy

Phase IV contractors are permitted by

the Air Force to match their equipanent

lines against the workload categories,

letting "break points" fall vAiere they make

optimal use of equipment capabilities. For example, a vendor could propose to satisfy

workload categories 1 through 4 with the

lowest level processor in an equipment

line, categories 5 through 7 with a slightly enhanced model , and categories 8 through 10 with yet a more powerfvil model.

Another proposal could have far different

matching of the Government's workload cate- gorizations to equipment models.

This required us to be prepared to test any

of the fifteen workload categories we had

established to anticipate all potential

"break points" in contractor proposals.

For the Air Force to develop a test for

each category and mode, as we in fact did,

required construction of 32 separate tests

-- 15 on-line, 15 batch and 2 combined on- line and batch tests.

One major feature of the Phase IV acquisition that made such a test development effort feasible is that the contractor

will be supplying all the software for the test. All workload categories and their

characteristics (messages in, characters

in, cards punched, and so forth) are ex- pressed in terms of automated data systems

(ADSs) which the contractor is responsible

under contract to transition to his proposed system. The Air Force test development effort did not require selecting a specific mix of high-order language

programs that the ccxnpeting contractors

could easily run on their systems, as in

historical benchmark construction. Rather,

a carefully measured collection of transactions was collected to exercise the collection of ADSs to fit the workload profile.

This applies equally to the batch and on- line tests (for Phase IV separate on-line

and batch workload tests are required

except in a few cases); however, this paper

addresses solely the on-line test construction problems. The amount of work done by

test developers in selecting the individual

program transactions frcsm this large pool

was monumental, but was unhampered by the

"high order language" constraint.

4. Specific RTE Implementation Decisions

The Phase IV on-line workload tests are executed by the Phase IV contractors on their own RTFs using Air Force software

they have transitioned to work on their

systems. Much of the test burden is put on

the contractors. Commitment to the use of an RTE for validating terminal-related processing capabilities did not remove all the

Air Force test burden, nor was it an end

decision. It was only the beginning of a series of other implementation decisions.

4. 1 How Many Terminals To Test?

A flexible workload testing strategy

was required to match the latitude allowed

the proposing vendors. Stress testing was

at the heart of the strategy: the workload

processing capabilities tested had to be

measured by testing the largest workload

against which a configuration was proposed.

Given the workload definition scheme

and the determination that an RTE would be

required, the next decision to round out the

definition of the test enviroment was how

many terminals would be associated with the

on-line test for each workload category.

The RFP presents two terminal profiles for

173
each system at each base : the number and

types of terminals required at initial

installation, and the number and types projected at an augmentation point 54 months

after initial installation, a point close to the end of the initial contract life. We took the obvious option and decided to test the larger number of terminals, that at augmentation.

Many Air Force base systems are asso- ciated with each workload category at the

augmentation point. We had to test the

terminal configuration for an actual Air

Force base as defined in the RFP because

this is the basis for vendor proposals,

and, most importantly, for their com- munications strategies. Our stylized

workload categories associate the same number of on-line transactions with all

bases within the category, independent of

the number of terminals actually projected

for the base. We developed tests for the

terminal profile of the base in the cate- gory with the largest number of terminals.

This tests the fullest ccanmunicationsrelated overhead, e.g., polling, multiplexing, and/or concentration (depending on the contractor-proposed methodology), for

the largest number of terminal devices. If

a configuration can support the largest

nximber of terminals projected for it, then

it certainly can support fewer terminals.

The decision involved a trade-off.

There is a Phase IV terminal response time

requirement as well as a workload volume

requirement. Spreading inputs and their

associated outputs across a large number of

terminals could have the effect of making

the average terminal response time easier

to meet than if the same number of transactions had to be queued up for fewer

terminals. The risk of making the response

time easier to meet was far lower than the

risk of specifying a test system with so few terminals that we wouldn't be prepared

to validate a unique communication strategy

a vendor might propose for larger numbers

of terminals.

4.2 Who Provides the RTE Inputs?

The contractor-transitioned Air Force

software was the basis for the test. But who would create the emulated terminal

inputs?

We could have defined a "mix" of transaction types for each transitioned data

system, (e.g., 40% updates, 50% inquiries,

and 10% record deletions), and had the

contractor provide the transactions. The

problem with this is that the system test activity must reflect the activity defined

in the Phase IV workload category definitions for the test to produce valid

results. Gross definitions of transaction

types could in fact result in the contractor being forced to generate more workload

than required by vrorkload sizing merely to fit the transaction percentage profile—or, in imposing lesser workloads than required

because the contractor could select lew

activity variants of transaction types.

Another "easy" alternative frcan the

Government test development standpoint is to put the entire burden on the contractor

and let him run any mix of transactions

which he says will fit our "bottom line"

workload category requirements. The additional test burden is on the contractor —

but there is virtually no way in which the

Air Force can be assured that what we see

is what we think we are seeing!

These two alternatives have been used

in other RTE-based system tests. They

generally stem from a desire to see the

system driven, but a lack of software on which the user can base the demonstration,

either because of the cost and time to con- vert extant complex interactive software, or because the teleprocessing requirement

is new and there is no software. Phase IV is not constrained by the lack of demonstration software. Since the contractorconverted Air Force automated data systems

have to accept the same inputs as on current equipment, we decided to specify

every transaction for every emulated , terminal. We could and did develop individual terminal scripts whose "bottom line"

total workload fit the profiles for each

workload category. Note that both the ter- minal activities and the initial vrorkload

categorization were based on our current

equipment, so the test and specification are totally compatible.

4.3 What Transactions to Select?

Methodology for test transaction selection was to individually test a small

sampling of transactions frcan all software

systems that were part of the on-line

workload test to determine their profiles

when acting against pre-defined test data

bases. This profile included number of disk

I/Os generated, number of characters input

and output, and other characteristics

directly related to the workload category

figures. Then an automated "mix and match"

program selected the proper numbers and

kinds of transactions and created the speci174
fic scripts by terminal by software system

(ADS). Each script was validated to have

the proper number of transactions and in to- tal they were validated to provide the

correct amount of work against the ADS.

Besides completion of all specified

processing in one hour, there is a response

time requirement to be met in the workload

test. The Phase IV systems must provide a maximum 10-second average response time for

80% of all on-line transactions, with a maximum 30-second response time for any one on-line transaction. The sampling of tran- saction types used in the Air Force scripts was carefully selected to support a fair

test of on-line support capability. Real,

on-line, interactive type transactions were selected. Batch-oriented transactions were not included on the rationale that response

time's importance is related to queries for

small quantities of information, not large

reports. A batch job vAiich requires significant file manipulation is not an interactive type process just because it can be

activated from an interactive terminal

.

Because of the average response time

requirement, we had to further restrict our test transaction types and test data. For Phase IV 's workload test, response time is

defined as the time between the last operator action of the input and the display of

the first human-readable character of the

output. What if there is no response?

Vfhat if the input generates output to several terminals? In our case, if that

occurs, it invalidates our average response

time calculations. You can't calculate the

time between input and output if there is no output, or if there is no input. As these types of transactions are supported

by current Air Force software that will be

carried over to the new system, the tran- sactions that exhibited unacceptable forms

of output for test purposes and response

time calculation were eliminated frc«n con- sideration in building our terminal

scripts.

4.4 Who Controls Timing of RTE Inputs?

The last critical strategic decision to be made was how to handle time spacing of

the inputs. Our terminal scripts spread

inputs for each terminal across the

60-minute test period, ensuring that the

last input was entered sufficiently in

advance of the end of the 60.00 minutes

that its respxDnse could be generated within

the timed test period. Further, the

scripts for individual terminals

interacting with the same software system

were given staggered start times

within the first few minutes of the timed

test period to avoid a "lock step" series

of contention-generated delays.

Though our scripts were generated so they could be run "as is" , we had to decide

if that should be required of the contractor. Execution completely in accor- dance with the script time spacing of

transactions might make it impossible for

the contractor to meet response time

requiranents. This is because all the

scripts for all the software systems in the

mix could not be tested in advance, at the same time. (If we could do that, we would

be able to handle our projected workload on the systems we have today, and we wouldn't

need to replace them!) There is a potential

that some combinations of transactions

across ADSs and terminals might unintentionally occur in such a way that a snowball

attenuation of response times could result.

We decided that the contractor shouldn't

have to pay for the quirks in our script

development effort, and that some adjustments to the timing of inputs should be

permitted

.

The degree of freedom permitted the

contractor was important to define. If we gave them complete control, there would be

nothing to prevent a virtual non-mix to be

run, with the terminal scripts run sequentially on an ADS by ADS basis, e.g., running all supply transactions, then all

finance transactions, etc. Our ultimate

decision was that the contractor could run all scripts as provided, or could modify

them under tight constraints.

If the time delay between inputs from

any script is to be adjusted by the contractor, the script must be changed so that the

first transaction is initiated in the first

five minutes of the test period, the last

transaction is entered in the last five

minutes, and all transactions in between are distributed evenly across the test period,

i.e., they have identical delay times between them.

5. Resulting Test Characteristics

What we ended up with at the end of

this on-line test development effort was

the following:

(1) A useful test tool, a remote ter- minal anulator, defined as the basis for

the test.

(2) A workload test strategy that

175
rested completely on the pre-defined

workload categorizations vAiich could verify

the telecommunications support capability

by the system under test in the most

stressful (largest number of terminals)

situation.

(3) Scripted terminal inputs and out- puts designed by the Air Force to specifically exercise the Air Force-defined

workload

.

(4) A strategy for permitting the

contractors to eliminate timing-related

quirks in the Air Force data without

degrading the purposes of the mix test.

What we didn't fully realize was that

we also had a flexible test basis with

which we could test the workload processing

support capabilities for any of the Air

Force sites in the world — with some test degradation. This "object lesson" came toward the end of the development cycle for

the thirty-two separate Phase IV workload

test packages.

6. Accounting for

Implementation Redirection

Original Phase IV plans called for one- for-one replacement of current U1050 and

B3500 systems, even though they usually are located on the same base. After initial

Phase IV proposals were received and after

a large amount of work had been invested in

developing workload tests. Air Force and

congressional reexamination of Phase IV 's implementation plans resulted in a redirection of this concept. The one-for-one philosophy fell by the wayside for a large

number of bases vftiich would now either get

a single computer system to replace their

two on-base computers or be remote sites

associated with regional centers. The same workload categories applied, in additive

fashion, to the single systems: the U1050

and B3500 projected workloads at a given

Air Force base would have to be handled by

the same system.

From the batch testing standpoint, no real problems were posed. The U1050-based

test and the B3500-based tests could be run concurrently to test capability to process

the combined workloads. From the terminal

network and testing stand-point, at this

point all bets were off. The workloads of

the two systems at each base are independent. The mix of new combined

workloads and remaining single workload

systems meant that workloads from separate

categories were combined on a base-by-base

basis. The "maximum number of terminals"

approach didn't fit the real life bases

anymore. The base with the largest number

of terminals for its B350 0 workload category could have far less than the maximum

number of terminals for its U1050 workload

category. We couldn't run the RTF tests

"as is" because we would be requiring the

contractors to test networks that were not proposed and not required by the contract.

The problem test designers had to deal

with was simply put: Now that the tests

have been designed and developed to spread

all the on-line work across the maximum

number of terminals for any base in a given

workload category, how can we test fewer.

One option was to redevelop the tests. This was impossible. While we were updating our strategy, the offerors were updating their proposals. Having to deal

with the proposal flexibility factor would

put us back in the mode of developing over

a hundred tests to cover all possible

combinations, just to be sure we had the

right mix available for the contractors to run

.

The other option was to maintain the

amount of work, but decrease the number of

emulated test terminals to fit the actual test Air Force base. Decreasing the number

of terminals to be emulated wDuld

apparently also lose the work input by

these terminals. Rather than "falling

back" on the amount of workload required to be processed, the work was input directly

at the mainframe instead of via the deleted'

terminals. This could be done because of

the way the Air Force software works. Live

terminal transactions can be batched into a disk file in the test set up process, and

pulled off the disk file to have the same effect on the data base as the live trans- actions for the B3500 software during the test. For the U1050 software, direct card

reader input of the transactions identical

to the live transactions has the same effect. Any terminal in the test data

package in excess of the actual test con- figuration was deleted frcm the test, but

its transactions were redirected for the

alternative input. From the network standpoint the test is somewhat easier. From the

workload standpoint, the system is performing the same test. This approach

required no redevelopment of test materials,

continued to support full vrorkload testing,

and verified to the developers that we had a powerful, well-constructed test methodology.

176
7. Conclusions

This paper has described how Phase IV decided that a remote terminal emulator

would be used for its on-line workload tests and the major implementation decisions we had to make in supporting the use of the

RTE. In addition to those mentioned above, we had to decide v*iat to call our terminal

input collections -- scripts as the Air

Force does, or scenarios as the rest of the

world does. We had to decide how fast a terminal operator types so we could include

the correct operator time in our script time

delays and in our constraints to the con- tractors. We had to weight the number of

transactions that could be input and output

at a device by the kind of device it was --

a terminal with a screen display displays

output faster than a printer output ter- minal , and so can handle more transactions

in an hour than the printer terminal. We had to decide how to present the scripts to the contractors, and decided that print

image format on tape would be acceptable.

And there were many other decisions like

this, every day of the test development

effort.

We planned RTE use into our on-line

tests the hard way. There was no GSA

standard, so we had to create our own RTE specification, and justify it as a requirement. Just about everywhere there was a decision to be made, we made the decision

that would give the Air Force the most

visibility and the most control over the

testing process. Usually this meant more

work for us. But we have the users of 2 37 Air Force systems to answer to if things

don't work out correctly.

In the end, we decided that we have a very good on-line workload test. It hasn't

been run yet by the contractors, and that

will be the final proof. We also have ccme to realize, over the course of thousands of

hours of COTiputer time and several years of

development and refinement of RTE scripts,

that use of an RTE is not to be undertaken

lightly. The end requirement must completely justify not only the burden put on the

contractor performing the test, but also

the massive amount of time and money it

takes to adequately prepare for its use.

177

Cost/Performance Evaluation - Methods and Experiences

179

AN EVALUATION TECHNIQUE FOR EARLY

SELECTION OF COMPUTER HARDWARE

Bart D. Hodgins

and

Lyle A. Cox, Jr.

Naval Postgraduate School

Monterey, CA 93940

There is a need for a decision making tool for use early in the com- puter selection process. Such early selection tools are critical to the

decision maker due to the environment in which the manager of large scale

procurements is forced to operate.

The instruction mix technique was well known in the early years of

computing. It was simple, easy to use and easy to understand. However,

as the complexity of machines and support software grew, the technique

was replaced by more sophisticated performance prediction tools. With

certain modifications, this technique can continue to provide important

information. By using a number of instruction mixes in a computer as- sisted environment, it is possible to find performance trends of hardware

in the very early design stages. These trends can be used effectively to make selection decisions.

The instruction mix sensitivity technique as demonstrated here has

the potential to aid the decision maker in evaluating the performance of

a system prior to the actual existence or availability of that hardware

without resorting to costly and time consuming techniques such as simulation or model i ng.

1. Introduction

There is a need for a decision

making/selection tool for use in the com- puter selection process (particularly for

those involved in the very large procurements typical of our government). The instruction mix sensitivity technique as demonstrated here has the potential to aid

the decision maker in evaluating the performance of a computer prior to the actual

existence or availability of that hardware

without resorting to costly and time con- suming techniques such as simulation or model i ng.

1.1 Background

Large Automated Data Processing procurements evolve through a cycle that often last five to seven years. The selection of computer hardware is forced to oc- cur early in the procurement cycle. This

long period of time from selection to operational installation often necessitates procurement decisions to be made before prototype hardware is available.

Hardware selection must be made quickly

and accurately. Errors cost time and money. Any delay caused by selection can have a ripple effect building through the

entire process. Poor selection of the

hardware to be used as the basis for a system can result in cost overruns in other areas to compensate for the lack of ac- ceptable hardware performance. At present

there is no general method for computer

hardware evaluation and selection com- pletely suitable for use early in the procurement cycle. Poor procurements are of- ten made because the decision maker is forced to make a selection without the

benefit of having candidate hardware

available. Similarly, selections of

equipments are often based on imprecise

and quantitatively vague ideas of the actual operational utilization that the sys- tem will face years in the future.

There are several methods currently

being utilized for the evaluation of a computer's performance. They include:

181
(1) benchmark programs which are existing

programs coded in a specific language,

then executed and timed on a target

machine [1], (2) kernel functions which

are typical functions partially or com- pletely coded and timed [1], (3) simulations which are a combination of a model

of the system, model of the workload, and

a measurement of the resulting data [2],

and (4) analytic models which are mathematical representations of the target

machine [1]. These methods are all in use (principally in industry) to evaluate proposed computer systems for procurement.

For smaller procurements these methods are effective because their acquisition cycle

is shorter. In some cases it is even possible to wait until both hardware and

software are available, and to use the

standard evaluation techniques in making a specific computer system selection.

In large acquisitions, selection must occur early, and unique problems arise

that cannot be easily solved by the various evaluation techniques. Evaluation by

the benchmark program method is impossible

because the different machines are not always available. Even if a prototype

hardware of a future system were available

for evaluation, the benchmark programs and

the kernel function methods often prove

inadequate because the support and applications required to validate the technique

usually do not exist at that point.

When a selection must be made quickly, there is usually neither the time, money, nor the sufficiently detailed design

information necessary to model /simul ate the proposed computer systems. How can the selection be scientifically made? It is because of this problem that the instruction mix sensitivity technique (IMSET) has been developed.

1.2 The Instruction Mix Sensitivity Technique Overview

The instruction mix sensitivity technique is based upon the older instruction

mix method for predicting computer

hardware performance. In the instruction

mix method a number was computed which

represented the average thruput of a par- ticular hardware. This number was based

upon the relative usage of a given instruction in a particular application, and

its execution time on the evaluated

hardware. Where the older method was based on a single mix representing a specific application, the sensitivity

technique evaluates trends in the differences between a computer's predicted thruput over a collection of mixes representing various applications. The advantage

of this technique is that neither the

hardware of software need be completed -- only the organization and technology need

be determined. The eventual utilization

of the system need not be precisely defined. This technique provides immediate

evaluation results with a minimum expenditure of time and money.

Using the IMSET requires only that

the vendor furnish the performance specifications regarding instruction execution

times. These performance specifications

are often available years in advance of a prototype model. With these times, and

the analysis technique presented here, the

evaluator can compare the predicted performance of any hardware against the anticipated application. The particular

machines to be considered in the selection

need not be prototyped.

The use of the IMSET as a tool for

evaluation provides the decision maker

with a profile representing the candidate

computer's average execution time for the

various applications presented in the set of instruction mixes. From the data the

decision maker can select the hardware

with the best profile for the intended ap- plication. For example, if the evaluator

is looking for a machine to perform ac- counting functions then the selection

would be based upon how sensitive each

candidate is to the mixes which represent

accounting and related functions. The

less sensitive the machine in terms of ex- ecution time the more appropriate it would

be for selection, since this indicates

that it can execute effectively a broad

spectrum of related functions.

2. Instruction Mix Sensitivity Technique

2.1 History

The instruction mix as a technique

for evaluating the performance of a computer's hardware came into being in the

late 1950's and early 1960's. It evolved

as a result of the limitations of an earlier technique for measuring a computer's

performance called the instruction execution timing method.

The instruction execution timing

method considered only a single class of

instructions. The instruction mix technique incorporated along with the arithmetic class, the logical class (i.e. COM182
PARE, SHIFT, MOVE, etc.), and in some in- stances I/O and other miscellaneous instructions. Associated with each instruction in the mix was the percentage of use

of that instruction, called a weighting

factor unique to that particular mix.

This weighting factor represented the ap- proximate probability of occurrence of

that instruction in the programs to be

used on the machine. For instance, in a scientific instruction mix one would find

that the percentage of floating point multiplications would be higher than the percentage for that same instruction in a data processing instruction mix. The probabilities in an instruction mix were determined by either statically or dynamically tracing the programs representative

of specific applications.

The instruction mix technique is easy

to apply. By multiplying the execution

time of each instruction by the weighting

factor and summing, one obtains the time

required to execute an average instruction

for that particular mix on that particular

computer. This average time can be inversely related to a thruput rate in

instructions-per-second (IPS). These to- tals can then be compared with similar

rates obtained from other machines, to give an idea of relative CPU thruput.

Mixes for many applications have been

developed. The most popular of all mixes

was the Gibson Mix [3] developed by Jack

C. Gibson in 1959 on data obtained on the

IBM 7090 computer. The Gibson Mix was considered a general -technical mix. There

were other similar mixes [4, 5, 6, 7, 8,

9, 10] for data processing, navigation,

scientific, and a myriad of other applications.

As computer hardware and software

technology advanced, especially as systems

moved into a multiprogramming environment,

it soon became apparent that using a single instruction mix to evaluate absolute

performance was no longer adequate. Among

the shortcomings of the technique was its

failure to account for differences in addressing modes, word sizes, and operand

lengths. The effect of system software

upon the mix weights was difficult to assess. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage

was the problem of how to validate the instruction mix to insure that a particular

mix accurately reflected the intended application. How can the instruction probabilities be determined if the programs

representing the eventual workload have

not yet been written?

2.2 IMSET

The variation of the instruction mix

technique described here is called the instruction mix sensitivity technique (IMSET) [11]. The IMSET uses a set of ten instruction mixes chosen from over 20 can- didates [11] to represent a wide range of

computer applications, spanning from

real-time thru scientific to business com- putations. Utilization of the IMSET pro- vides the evaluator with a profile

representing a hardware's execution times across all mixes in the set (and hence across a broad spectrum of applications).

The comparative profiles of execution

times provide the decision maker with a quantitative prediction of how sensitive

each computer is to the various mixes and

hence how the system would perform over a wide range of applications. This is in contrast to the instruction mix technique

which only provided the evaluator with a thruput evaluation on one mix -- one appl i cat ion.

The IMSET uses eighteen functional

instructions which constitute the basis

for evaluation. These include seventeen

specific instructions and one "I/O miscellaneous" category. The eighteen functional instructions and ten mixes which con- stitute the IMSET are shown in Table I.

To use IMSET it is necessary to determine the execution times of the 18 instructions for each central processor to

be evaluated.

A detailed discussion of the development of this technique and the details of

calculating hardware timing figures are discussed further in Hogin's report [11].

While particular care must be paid to determining the timing figures, the pro- cedure is not difficult.

Of particular interest is the handling of concurrency in modern hardware.

In the standard application of the instruction mix technique many special

features such as concurrency of a central

processor's hardware were ignored. For example, some processors begin execution

of a second instruction before the current instruction has finished its execution.

This allows effective execution times to

be cut significantly. The IMSET presented

here takes into account the overlap capabilities of the machines being evaluated

by applying a "Knuth Factor". This idea was provided by [12], and is described in [11]. The Knuth Factor compensates for

183
TABLE I IMSET FUNCTIONAL INSTRUCTIONS AND MIXES

IMSET niXES

I. ARITHMETIC

FiXFn PpINT

(SP) (DP)

FLOATING

POINT (SP)

II. LOGICAL III. CONTROL IV. I/O

1ISC.

BRANCH

XLU

C3

PROCESS CONTROL

MESSAGE PROCESSING

REAL TIflE

COmUHICATION CNTL

DATA COflPRESSION

NAVIGATION

TLfl THRUPUT

TECHNICAL GENERAL

SCIENTIFIC

COMPOSITE GENERAL

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0.0

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O.Q

.^oo .m

,500

,'175

,27fl

,30C

,22r

.36]

28' M

.480

.ItO

.100

0.0*

.060

.ma

.15(1

.775

.132

0.0*

o.o

0.0

.0501

0.0

0.0

0.01

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

.03CI

0.0

.03(|o

.06(

.0';

.o'ld

0.0

o.o

0.0'

0.0

058

0.0*

.0*

.060

0.0

0.0

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

035

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

0.0*

225

0.0'

020

052

020

.090

.120

140

.190

.103

.187

057

* Weight not assigned by mix for this functional instruction

184
the machines which have overlap or parallel processing abilities by scaling down

their execution times by an amount comparable with the typical use of this feature

by most programs and compilers.

2.3 Some User Notes

The I/O instructions omitted from

many mixes caused problems with early

evaluations. I/O instructions are a mixture of peripheral capability and a central processor capability. The mixes

presented here include the I/O instructions in the miscellaneous category rather

than as a specific instruction. In this

way the central processor's ability to handle I/O is treated as an average over

all of the I/O instructions without having

to specify an exact instruction or particular device.

It should be pointed out that the instruction mix was a tool to be used principally for the comparative evaluation of

the central processor hardware. The way

the central processor is configured with

other system components such as storage

devices and other I/O and peripheral devices must be considered separately. This

characteristic of the instruction mix

technique carries over to IMSET.

The user must be aware that the

software associated with the system includes the operating system, language pro- cessors, in addition to applications programs. All these have an impact upon

overall performance. The mixes in IMSET

reflect all types of computation, making

it possible to consider performance in

both system software and application

software areas.

3. A Demonstration of IMSET

In the final stage of the IMSET

development process six micro-computers

were selected for competitive evaluation

to demonstrate the strength of the IMSET

when used to evaluate machines closely re- lated in characteristics. This was intended to reflect an actual evaluation for

selection situation. The micros selected

are all 8-bit or 16-bit machines ranging

from some earlier models to some much more

recent ones. Those selected are the ZILOG

8000, INTEL 8086, MOTOROLA 68000, DIGITAL

EQUIP. CORP. LSI 11/23, and the TEXAS

INST. 9900.

Determination of the individual instruction times for each of the microcomputers is presented in [11].

The demonstration to obtain the profiles of all hardwares chosen versus the

set of ten mix applications of the IMSET

was conducted on the computerized evaluation system. Three sample profiles are shown in Figures 1 through Figure 3. Figure 4 is the composite of all the micros.

Table II provides a key for the instruction mixes listed by letter for each of

the computer profiles.

When analyzing the profiles it is important to remember that the purpose of

the IMSET is to compare a machine's execution time sensitivity between applications, not only its estimated effective

execution speed for any one application.

The sensitivity between applications is determined by comparing the times of exe- cution -- the performance trends. Consider

the following example:

Table II

KEY TO THE INSTRUCTION MIXES PRESENTED

IN FIGURE 1 THROUGH FIGURE 4

LETTER INSTRUCTION MIX

a Process Control

b Message Processing

c Real Time

d Communication Control

e Data Compression

f Navigation

g TLM Thruput

h General Technical

i Scientific

j General Composite

Suppose we wish to select a microcomputer whose principal purpose is ex- pected to be the processing of both navigation and telemetry applications.

We first screen all candidate

machines to verify that they 1) meet our

185
13

16L

14 .

TIME

MICRO

SECS

^"^^

4 .

. S

d e f 3 h

IH3TRUCTI0H

Mi:<ES

'1=4. 352309

to=6. 171390

':=» 1 0.53665:

d=»3. '350

f»l 1 . 31405:

3=6. 163400

h-3. 375123

i = i: J =7. 420423

FIGURE 1. DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP LSI 11/23

TIME

MICRO

SECS

5 .

4 .

3 .

2 .

1

d e f 3 h i INSTRUCT I OH

MIXES

.1=2. 739150

b=2. 521359

c=4. 379433

d=3. 445000

«=4. 367409

f=6. 627600

j=3. 406500

h=4. 071330

i =6. 374759

J =3. 663729

FIGURE 2. ZILOG 8000

186
13

IS

14

TIME 12

MICRO

SECS

8

S i

4 .

a=3. 299730

b»4. 361490

c =5. 3 13333

6=7. 79&388

C = 9. isc'S??;" f = li-J. 341731

9»i3. i52S29'j

»la5. 307403

i=»15. 134319

J "4. o34>5oi3

d e 1^ h IHSTRUCTIGM

f-li;-1E3

FIGURE 3. MOTOROLA 68000

INSTRUCT I CM

HIXE3

Figure 4. Composite sensitivity profiles of microcomputer hardwares

(1) ZILOG 8000, (2) INTEL 8086, (4) MOTOROLA 68000,

(5) TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 9900, (6) LSI 11/23.

187
minimum absolute performance requirements

and 2) conform to other system requirements such as availability of support

software, peripheral compatibility, etc. For those machines which meet these criteria, we apply the IMSET procedure. The

micro-computer selected should present the

smallest change between the two applications (since the eventual percentage of

workload is not known for the two com- ponents).

For our example, we will assume that

the IMSET technique will be used to decide

between the Digital Equipment Corp. LSI 11/23 and the Motorola 68000 for our navigation and telemetry problem. The IMSET

results are:

Table III

IMSET Demonstration Results

Avg. time/inst. Sensitivity

PROCESSOR (microseconds) (per cent) NAV Mix TLM MIX

Motorola 58000 10.8 8.6

DEC PDP 11/23 11.3 6.2

26

84

This analysis suggests that the

MOTOROLA 68000 might be the more preferable micro-computer due to its lower sen- sitivity (more uniform performance) to the

two appl ications.

If we were certain that the principal

function of the system was telemetry, that

the navigation functions to be performed

are minimal, and that this balance betvveen the functions would never change significantly during the lifetime of the system,

the DEC 11/23 would be the better choice

due to its greater thruput for telemetry

applications. In the early stages of sys- tem design we are seldom sure of all these

things. Averaged over both applications,

the performance of the two candidates is roughly equal. However, as long as we cannot be certain of what the workload

proportions will be between navigation and

telemetry, it would be prudent to select

the machine whose performance is less sen- sitive to fluctuations in the job mix, in this case the Motorola 68000.

This is a very simple example. The

IMSET is capable of being used in much more challenging evaluation situations.

with more complex workloads and complicated computer systems. It does, however,

demonstrate its utility and ease of use.

5. Conclusions

We have introduced a method, the IM- SET, with which the decision maker can quickly and efficiently select a computer

hardware from a number of candidates. One

simple example of the application of this

method was presented and profiles of actual hardwares were shown.

Validation of the mixes vs. applications when using the IMSET for evaluation

is not the problem it was for the instruction mix method. When evaluating by the

IMSET method, particular sensitivities

within a broad area of intended use are being measured, whereas with the instruction mix method, execution time of a specific application was being estimated.

Thus, validation is not an issue when

utilizing the IMSET.

The advantages to using the IMSET over other currently used techniques are tremendous. As mentioned above when early

selection is required, the decision makers

are often not able to utilize many of the more sophisticated, and proven methods.

With the IMSET the decision maker needs

only the manufacturer's projected instruction set execution times. With these

times it is possible to obtain the evaluation data within a matter of hours and at minimal cost. This technique provides a savings in time, savings in money, and

greater confidence in the selection.

Perhaps its most attractive advantage is its ease of use.

The data provided by IMSET can be integrated easily into more comprehensive

selection techniques. While a discussion

of this aspect is beyond the scope of this

paper, it is easy to see how IMSET could

be used in specifying or selecting systems

when used in the context of the Cost-Value

Selection Technique [14], or similar

methodologies.

The strength of the IMSET as an evaluation tool lies in the fact that it

is able to be applied in the absence of

available hardware and specific knowledge

of intended application. It is very important that a tool such as the IMSET be an integral part of any decision making

process affecting the procurement of com- puter systems in the future.

188
REFERENCES

1. Lucas, Jr. H. C, "Performance Evaluation and Monitoring," Computing Surveys,

V. 3, No. 3, P. 79-90.

2. Svobodova, L., Computer Performance

Measurement and Evaluation Methods:

Analysis and Applications, p. 52-56, American Elsevier, 1976.

3. IBM Technical Report TR00.2043, The

Gibson Mix, by J. C. Gibson, p. 2, 18 June

1970.

4. Corsiglia, J., "Matching Computers to

the Job - First Step Towards Selection,"

Data Processing Magazine, p. 23-27, De- cember 1970.

5. Arbuckle, R. A., "Computer Analysis

and Thruput Analysis," Computer and Automation, V. 15, No. 1, p. 12-19, January

1966.

6. Flynn, M. J., "Trends and Problems In Computer Organization," Information Pro- cessing 74, p. 3-10, 1974.

7. Knight, K. E., "Changes in Computer

Performance," Datamation, V. 12, No. 9, p. 40-54, September 1966.

8. Raichelson, E. and Collins, G., "A Method for Comparing the Internal Operating Speeds of Computers," CACM, V. 7, No.

5, p. 309-310, May 1964.

9. Weitzman, C. , Distributed

Micro/Minicomputer Systems, p. 18-19,

Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980.

10. Honeywell Inc., St. Petersburgh Fla.

Aerospace Div., ESD-TR-76-295 , Secure Communications Processor Selection Trade

Study, by C. H. Bonneau, March 1976.

11. Hodgins, B. D., "A Computer Evaluation Technique for Early Selection of

Hardware" Naval Postgraduate School , De- cember 1980.

12. Computer Science Department Stanford

University Report CS-186, An Empirical

Study of Fortran Program, by D. E. Knuth,

p. 32, 1970.

13. Eckhouse, Jr., R. H. and Morris, L. R., Minicomputer Systems, 2nd ed. , p. 138-139, p. 142-143, Prentice-Hall, 1979.

14. Barbour, R., Holcombe, J., Harris,

C, and Moncrief, W. , "Applications and

Limitations of the Cost-Value Techniqu

for Competitive Computer Selection

Proceedings, Computer Performance Evalua

tion Users Group 15th Meeting, 1979.

189

DEFICIENCES IN THE PROCESS OF PROCURING

SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEMS:

A CASE STUDY

Andrew C. Rucks

Peter M. Ginter

University of Arkansas

College of Business Administration

Fayetteville, AR 72701

The Latin phrase caveat emptor is nowhere more applicable than in the

practice of acquiring computer systems for small business and small government entities. In a recent issue of Business Week, it was estimated that

approximately 50 percent of the purchasers of small computer systems are dissatisfied with their systems. While many computer users are litigating vendors for redress of losses caused by insufficient data processing

capability, this does not address the major failings of the process of

procuring small systems. The small system procurement process produces

a high rate of failure because many buyers inadequately analyze their

data processing needs and fail to express these needs to potential vendors

in a manner that will lead to the procurement of need satisfying computer

systems.

Key words: Computer procurement; proposal evaluation; RFP preparation;

small systems.

1. Introduction

Many small organizations have experienced dissatisfaction with procured computer

systems [l]. Ample evidence of the frustration experienced by small organizations is

found in recent litigations brought against

computer vendors [2,3]. A recent procurement undertaken by the County Commission of

Escambia County, Alabama offers a typical

example of the major cause of user dissatisfaction — a poorly developed solicitation

document. The inadequacy of the Escambia

County solicitation document was precipitated by a lack of technical expertise and a general reluctance to obtain assistance

that could have contributed to the planning

and execution of a successful procurement.

The purpose of this paper is to (1) discuss

a poorly prepared request for proposal (RFP)

,

(2) indicate the probable consequences of

issuing an inadequate request document and

(3) offer a simple but effective RFP outline tailored for small organization procurements .

The RFP that is the basis for this paper

was issued by the County Commission of

Escambia County, Alabama in December 1980.

Proposals were submitted to the Commission

by three vendors. These vendors are not identified in this paper since to do so would be in variance with disclosure restrictions specified in the proposals.

2. Critique of the RFP

The Escambia County RFP is typical of

proposals for which far too little data

processing needs analysis has been performed

and too little computer procurement expertise has been utilized. As a result, the RFP failed to precisely express the County

Commission's requirements to potential

vendors. The Escambia County RFP suffered

from three major deficiencies; (1) perfor- mance specification vagueness, (2) requirements contradictions, and most importantly

(3) a lack of functional requirements. The

RFP was divided into seven major sections including: I—General Conditions, II—Vendor

191
Support, III—Escambia County's Responsibilities, IV—System Requirements, V—Soft- ware Requirements, VI—Form of Surety Guaranty, and VII—Appendix (see table 1). The

major sections of the RFP will be reviewed

briefly in order to delineate the proposals

debilitating weaknesses.

Table 1. Contents of the Escambia County

RFP

Page

I. GENERAL CONDITIONS 1

1. Purpose 1 2. Closing Date 1 3. Vendor Proposals 1 4. Demonstrations 1 5. Acceptance of Proposal

Content 1

6. Rejection of Proposals .... 2

7. Incurring Costs 2 8. Vendor Contract Responsibilities 2

9. Equipment Expandability ... 2 10. Delivery and Installation . . 3 11. Site Preparation 3 12. Type of Contract 3 13. Vendor's Guarantee 3

II. VENDOR SUPPORT 5

III. ESCAMBIA COUNTY'S RESPONSIBILITIES 6

IV. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 7

1. System Summary 7 2. Equipment Requirements .... 7 3. Equipment Operating Software

Requirements 8

4. System Installation 8

V. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS 9

A. Financial Management

Information System 9

1. Vendor Accounting .... 9 2. Payroll Accounting .... 10

3. General Ledger and

Budgetary Accounting . . 11

B. Property (Real and Personal)

fax Billing and Collection . . 13

VI. FORM OF SURETY GUARANTY ..... 15

VII. APPENDIX 17

2.1 Section I—General Conditions

All three of the deficiencies suggested

above were apparent in Section I of the

Escambia County RFP. For instance, the RFP suggested "vendors may be required to demonstrate the capability of their proposed equipment and system software." Yet there was

little in the RFP to suggest the actual capacity requirements. Also in this section, the RFP required vendors to "submit his best and

cheapest proposal." This requirement was rather contradictory and provided little in

the way of a meaningful statement of expectations. Additionally, the Escambia County RFP confounded vendors' proposals by demanding

delivery of a "garbage collection service

billing and collection system" but never

itemized specifications in Section V—Soft- ware Requirements. The County also weakened

considerably its negotiating position by

indicating that it desired to consider only

lease-purchase procurement plans. The RFP stated "Escambia County prefers a three-year,

lease-purchase plan (lease with option to purchase)." This requirement precluded vendors

from offering alternative methods of acquisition.

2.2 Section II—Vendor Support

The vendor support section of the

Escambia County RFP likewise left considerable

to the Imagination in terms of specificity

and clarity. The RFP called for "vendors...

to supply both tested hardware and software"

but failed to describe what tests were re- quired. This section also contained such

vagaries as: "the vendor is requested to , furnish maintenance within four hours of

being called on an 8-hour day basis..." and

"The vendor would be required to train the

county's personnel..."

2.3 Section IV—System Requirements

Section IV was potentially an important

part of the RFP and yet this section con- tained specifications which were contradictory

with the general conditions specified in

Section I. Moreover Section IV contained

statements such as "only equipment currently

in production shall be proposed" which left

the door open for a variety of vendor interpretations .

Within one subsection of Section IV was

an attempt to specify the operating software

for the system to be procured. The RFP speci192
fied a "disk-operating system." The meaning

of this requirement was never clarified.

Additionally, programming languages and utility software were treated with equally vague

and non-specific language. For example the RFP stated:

The vendor shall provide

interpreters and/or compilers

considered to be the prime

programming language for the

equipment offered. These

programming languages shall

be the latest and most up- to-date versions available.

Also, sort and utility routines

to support the system shall be

supplied by the vendor.

2.4 Section V—Software Requirements

Applications software specifications were a consistent and persistent problem

with the Escambia County RFP. Application

software was mentioned in three sections of

the RFP and these references were not con- sistent in terms of identifying the required

application software. Table 2 illustrates

these inconsistencies. It is interesting

to note that even though "Voter Registration" software was mentioned in the Soft- ware Requirements section of the RFP, a statement of requirements for this software

package was not included in the RFP. The

property tax system was the only applications software item mentioned in all three

applications software references.

Table 2. Application Software References in

the Escambia County Alabama RFP

Application Software RFP Paragraph References

Title 1-10* IV-1** V***

Financial Management

Information System yes no yes

Property Tax Billing

& Collection System yes yes yes

Garbage Collection

Service Billing & Collection System yes yes no

Voter Registration no yes yes

Automobile Liscense

Records no yes no

*Section title—Delivery and Installation

**Section title—System Summary

***Section title—Software Requirements

3.0 Vendor Responses

As a result of RFP specifications which

were often contradictory and much too general,

the task of evaluating the actual requirements

of Escambia County was subject to a variety

of interpretations. This vagueness provided

vendors an opportunity to interpret the RFP according to their own equipment and soft- ware availability. In addition, vendor proposals could legitamately contain vagaries

which seemingly satisfied the purchaser's

needs. A summary of the vendor's responses

is provided in table 3.

4. Proposed Remedies

The incompleteness, vagueness, and

inconsistency of the Escambia County RFP precipitated the delivery of proposals that were incomplete and impossible to compare

in terras of system costs. It was difficult

to make a cost comparison because each of the

vendors chose to interpret at least one of the

"may include" clauses in the RFP to mean

"not required", therefore, incongruous systems were proposed. As a result the Escambia

County Commission was strongly urged to withdraw, rework, and resubmit its RFP.

4.1 RFP Outline for Small Organizations

An RFP becomes the basis for dealings

between the organization acquiring a computer

system and computer system vendors. Simply

stated an RFP discloses to potential vendors

thewho, what, where, when and how of a procurement action. Thus an RFP can be divided

into as few as five major sections including:

(1) procuring organization, (2) contract terms

and conditions, (3) delivery schedule, (4)

system specifications and, (5) operating

environment

.

4.1.1 Procuring Organization

This section of an RFP should be used

to provide vendors with information con- cerning the business name and address of the

organization issuing the RFP. The organization's agent (s), contracting officer, procurement manager and other responsible individuals and their responsibilities should be

listed. It may be desirable to include a brief description of the mission of the organization and its history.

4.1.2 Contract terms and conditions

This section of the RFP delineates all

procurement and contract administration procedures. Potential vendors must be told when

proposals are due, the form of proposal sub193
RFP Para.

Table 3. Summary of Vendor Responses

Vendor I Vendor II Vendor III

I-l

1-2

1-3

1-4

1-5

1-6

1-7

1-8

1-9

I- 10 (a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

I-ll

1-12

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Questionable concur- rence

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Qualified concurrance

Concurrance assumed

Exception: 120 days

after award (DAA)

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance asstuned

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Concur: No cancellation

penalty at end of years

1 and 2 (unknown in third

year) ; 50% lease payment

credited to purchase, soft- ware not included in

lease agreement

Concur

Concur

Concur

Concur

Concur

Concur

Exception: Escambia

Co. to incur all "living/traveling cost" associated with a demonstration

Concur: includes Unknown

copies of warranties

and performance

guarantee

Qualified concurrance Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Concurrance assumed

Unknown

Concur

Exception: 240-360

DAA

Concurrance unknown,

but assumed

Unknown

Exception: implemen- Unknown

tation by Oct. 1, 1981

Exception: implemen- Unknown

ted by Oct. 1, 1981

Concur

Concur

Concur: Cancellation

penalty-the lesser of

20% of remaining con- tract value or 4 times the montly

lease charge. No penalty charged if

converted to purchase.

Maximum price increase

under contract 5%

per year

Unknown

Unknown

Exception: does not offer a lease with

option to purchase

(LWOP) plan-offers

"Government Installment Sales Plan"

that calls for 10%

down and the remainder financed over

36 or 60 months.

Requires Escambia

County to sign a "Non-Funding Clause"

which disallows

termination of the

194
RFP Para.

Summary of Vendor Responses (cont.)

Vendor I Vendor II Vendor III

contract, except

when the county

does not have sufficient funds in a fiscal period to pay the contract

amounts. The clause

precludes Escambia

County from securing

replacement services,

except from thisvender

curing the life of

the contract.

1-13 Concurs with perfor- mance bond provision.

Exception to requirement of specifications

and vendor responses

becoming part of con- tract .

Concurs with perfor- mance bond provision.

Exception same as Vendor I

Unknown

II Proven hardware and

operating software

supplied. An account

manager will be

assigned, the qualifications of this person were not supplied.

The number and type of

"Customer Service

Representatives" assigned to the county is

determined by the

manager. Telephone

support provided. No charge for support services. Concurrance as- sumed with provision of

backup facilities.

Page 3 of Appendix A

indicates that

Covington Co. , is a comparable installation. However, does not indicate if backup can be obtained.

Preventive maintenance performed

monthly. On call

maintenance with 4 hour response time

between 8 and 5 (assumed to be 8 a.m.

to- 5 p.m.). Whether

or not this applies

7 days per week is

unknown. Parts depots

in Montgomery and

Concur on tested

hard-ware and software. A Marketing

Representative and

a Systems Engineer

will be assigned

as Project Manager (s) . Some

categories of System

Engineer support

offered at no charge, other types

of service offered

at the rate of $68.00

per hour. On call

maintenance service

available on a 24 hour per day, 7 day

per work basis for

major system components and 7 a.m. to

6 p.m. Monday

through Friday

for minor systems

components. No added charge for

leased systems,

except for the

minor system

components serviced outside the

afore mentioned

limits which will

be billed at a fee to be determined. No re- sponse time

Proven hardware and

operating software

will be supplied,

the quality of

application soft- ware is unknown

.

Does not address

project manager or systems analyst support. No preventive

maintenance offered.

"Same day" response

time offered, but

no cost stated.

195
Summary of Vendor Responses (cont.)

RFP Para. Vendor I Vendor II Vendor III

II (cont.

)

III

IV1

IV3

IV- 4

V-A 1.

V-A 2.

V-A 3.

V-B

Mobile. Concurs with

training of country

personnel

.

Concurrance assumed

Concurrance assumed

Master Control Program

COBOL

RPL

General Ledger and

Budgetary Accounting

Payroll

Same as V-A 1.

Property Tax System

guarantee is offered.

Concurs with training

needs

.

Concurs

Concurs

System Support

Program RPGII

compiler

No promised delivery

schedule

Financial Management

Information System

Same as above

Same as above

Property (Real and

Personal) Tax

Billing and Collection

System

Unknown

Concurrance assumed

by Virtue of a proposal being

submitted.

Interactive Multiprogramming Operating System

COBOL Compiler

Unknown

Financial Management

Information System

Same as above

Same as above

Tax Collection

System

mission, the procedure for contract award,

the procedure for conducting face-to-face

negotiations, the penalties to be imposed

if the vendor fails to deliver any or all

of the items specified in the RFP, the

procedure to be followed for terminating

a contract, and the procedure for resolving

disputes arising from the contract. In summary the contract terms and conditions

section of an RFP presents all of the legal

understandings among the parties.

4.1.3 Delivery schedule

The delivery schedule should contain a list of all of the items to be delivered

under the contract—not only hardware and

software", but also training and manuals,

etc. ; and the date by which the items must

be delivered. It is customary to express

delivery dates in terms of days-after-contract award (DAA)

.

4.1.4 System specifications

This section informs potential vendors

of the procuring organization needs in terms

of a complete system. As a complete system

specification, this section of an RFP is

divided into five subsections: (1) hard- > ware specifications, (2) software specifications, (3) system performance specifications, (4) maintenance requirements, and

(5) training requirements.

Hardware specifications should be

stated in functional terms. In other words,

the procuring organization should not place

itself in the position of specifying system

architecture to vendors. Included in hard- ware specifications are the desired characteristics of terminals, printers, secondary

storage devices, etc. Since it is unlikely

that a live test demonstration (LTD) will

be conducted as part of the pre-award proposal evaluation process, it is particularly

important to be specific concerning the

type and quantity of secondary storage.

Software specifications fall into two categories: system software and applications software. The system software to be

delivered includes: an operating system,

system utilities, text editor(s), programming

196
language interpreters and compilers, and programming support utilities (e.g. link/editor).

For small systems, the description of these

items should be general and functional in nature.

The major emphasis in developing the

system specifications section of the RFP should be devoted to providing vendors with

detailed descriptions of the applications

software that is to be delivered. This

description should include as much detail

as possible concerning the purpose of the

software, the quantity and description of

input data, the quantity, frequency, and

description of all reports to be generated

by the software system.

The majority of procurements of large

scale computer systems include provisions

for an LTD. An LTD is used to determine

if the data processing capacity of a proposed system is sufficient to meet the

intermediate term (five to eight years)

needs of the procuring organization. However, this is generally not feasible for

small system acquisitions. The expense of

preparing and conducting an LTD makes it

impractical for small system procurements.

The procuring organization may achieve some protection from insufficient capacity by

requiring a "proof of capacity period" after

delivery during which system capacity can be tested.

Maintenance and vendor support are perhaps the two most critical elements to be measured in the procurement of small

computer systems. Since most small organizations do not have personnel with the technical background to repair either the soft- ware or hardware, the procuring organization

must rely upon the vendor to provide these

critical services. Therefore, it is important to precisely state requirements for

maintenance of hardware and software. On- site maintenance, common for large installations, is impractical for small systems,

therefore, the user of small systems must

decide between on-call and per-call maintenance services. A good approach to this

problem is to specify the temporal requirements for vendor response to service calls

and then request that the vendor provide the

organization with descriptions of their

offerings in these areas.

Vendor training of the procuring organization's personnel must be specified in the

RFP. The organization must decide the

scope of training required and the location

of training. The most frequently followed

scenario is to identify the training required and have vendors provide a list of

dates and locations for the desired training.

4.1.4 Operating Environment

This section discloses to vendors the

characteristics of the site where the sys- tem will be installed. It shouJ.d contain

detailed drawings of the site with dimensions that will indicate to vendors such

important considerations as the length of

cabel runs. Other important information

includes air conditioning and electrical

system capacity.

References

[l] Computers: A burst of critical feedback. Business Week , February 2, 1981,

pp. 68-71.

[2] Laberis, B,, Judge OK's $2.3 million

award to NCR user, Computerworld , May 25, 1981, p. 11.

[3] Davis, L. , Burroughs admits to 160 suits,

MIS Week , Vol. 2, No. 29, July 22, 1981,

pp. 1+.

197

COST/PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

SOFTWARE ON MINI- AND MAINFRAME COMPUTERS

Anneliese K. von Mayrhauser

Raphael T. Haftka

Illinois Institute of Technology

Department of Computer Science

Chicago, IL 60616

Due to an ever-increasing selection of machines and widely different charging algorithms, the question often arises "on which machine

does a program run most efficiently and/or cheaply". The program's

behavior, i.e. its resource demands on the machine under consideration and their impacts on charges to be explored, as well as accuracy and correctness of the program's results and reliability of

the computer service. Human factors influence decisions as well.

We will discuss the selection of computer services from a user's point

of view with an emphasis on structural analysis software. However, the

data collection and evaluation procedure which analyses cost and

performance relevant factors and their relationship with each other

can also be applied to other software. The decision making process

uses a set of automated tools which we developed.

Key words: Performance comparison; program behavior;

structural analysis.

1. Introduction

A number of studies have described

approaches for machine selection from a com- uter center management perspective

([1]-C4],C7]) . Other work has taken the user point of view, but has only examined

measurable technical factors such as re- ponse time and transmission rates ([8], [9]).

In assessing the cost-effectiveness of

computers or computer services for a particular application task, these methods turn out to be less than useful, because they do not deal with human factors adequately and

they leave little room to compare different

software packages which could be used to perform the application tasks with respect

to their quality on the various machines

under study.

Morgan and Campbell ([5]) suggest to construct an executable model of the set of

programs to be run on machines under con- sideration because they are more flexible

and avoid conversion problems. Since a user

is also interested in the correctness of re- sults of those programs on all machines,

executable models of them will not do. Bell ([6]) reports that experimental com- parisons are likely to be either very crude

or very expensive. One of the biggest problems is that performance indices, resource consumption and therefore charges can vary

for the same job, due to differing workload

situations which the user is unable to control. This variability factor should be

assessed and taken into account when selecting a computer service installation. Usually

a more stable, predictable job cost is to be

preferred- but this depends on the charging

algorithm employed as well as on the machine

characteristics. Because of these limitations

as well as a limited budget for the study,

accurate performance studies for some

199
problems were augmented by more informal

approaches, such as a general experience with

systems, studying installation statistics,

or interviewing users, and limited model

building for some programs.

One question which has been interesting

the scientific computing community in the

last few years is that of the cost-effectiveness and viability of minicomputers

versus main frames. Minicomputers promise

cheaper, more widely available computing

facilities, but they pose many problems,

particularly to those with large calculations

in mind. The smaller main memory means that

users have to make more use of disk I/O.

Many minicomputers have a smaller word size

with a devastating effect on accuracy.

Storaasli and Foster (QO]) report 4-digit

accuracy on PRIME 400 for a medium-sized

problem as compared to 8-13 digit accuracy on

a CDC CYBER 173. Longer elapsed times leave more room for machine hardware failures

during a run. Pearson et al . (CUIl) report

some theoretical calculations required

twenty-four hours or more, but the mean time

between failures was also approximately

twenty-four hours. Lack of adequate software

libraries, debugging facilities, documentation and operations staff often hampers

users of minicomputers. Some studies

([11] - [14]) show that based on machine

cost alone minicomputers may be two to four

times more cost-effective than main frames.

The users of structural analysis software

on minicomputers have conducted several

studies that point to the economic advantages

of using such machines (e.g., ClOD, [15]).

These are based on data gathered by running

structural analysis programs for a limited

set of problems and machines.

When assessing the cost-effectiveness

of services, the following steps should be

followed:

(a) Set up of evaluation experiment.

This involves designing a representative set of problems which are to be

solved by the computers. The software

packages and the computers/computer

services also need to be determined.

These are the input variables. Output

variables, e.g. the class of performance

indices and other relevant information

need to be determined as well. This will

influence the relevant data to be collected during the measurement phase.

(b) benchmark and data collection and their

analysis.

The set of problems is actually run on some of the machines and technical and

human performance factors are observed.

The raw performance data are processed

and transformed into more concise information which enables their interpretation with respect to relevant performance indices.

(c) comparison, trade-off, evaluation

Finally the quality (or lack thereof)

of the various choices is assessed with

respect to all performance indices. This

may be done by interpreting actual

measurement data or by interpolation

and/or extrapolation of measured data, or estimation of system performance

through the use of results for another

system.

As an example, let us take a user of

structural analysis software. If he wants to assess the cost-effectiveness of a minicomputer versus a mainframe, the previously

mentioned studies need to be extended in

several directions. First, to use a wider

mix of programs and more representative mix

of problems for the comparison. Second, to include in the study several machines so that the results do not reflect only the

charging algorithm at a particular installation. Last, to further assess the human fac- tors involved in such comparison.

2. Experimental Design

Since the overwhelming majority of

structural analysts use finite element methods, the present study is limited to such

programs. By judicious choice of the type of

problems and the type of structural analyses

employed, one can obtain a reasonably reliable comparison. The following are the

elements in such a comparison.

2.1 Most commonly used types

of analysis

(i) Linear static solution for displacement

and stresses

(ii) Linear eigenvalue analysis - calculation of buckling loads and vibration

modes

(iii) Nonlinear response due to large deformations and material nonlinearities

2.2 Type of problem

(i) A simple cantilever beam

(ii ) A plate with a hole

(iii) A stiffened cylinder

These problems are solved for the

different analysis types. Several models are

used for each problem, ranging from a very

200
crude model to a refined one, with varying

degrees of freedom ranging from a few dozen

for a crude model to more than a thousand for

the refined one.

2.3 Computer programs

Three computer programs are used; these

programs are:

1. SAP IV - A general purpose finite element program developed at the University

of California at Berkeley is probably

the most widely used "free" (it costs

$200.) finite element code.

2. SPAR - A general purpose finite element program developed by W.D. Whetstone

which serves as a prototype of a com- mercially developed code.

3. TWODEL - A special purpose finite element program developed by D. Malkus at

IIT for large deformation analysis of

two dimensional elasticity problems. It is representative of in house codes.

2.4 Computers and Charging

algorithms

Our study on the cost-effectiveness of

minicomputers and mainframes from a user's point of view uses the charging algorithms in several installations as the measure of the cost of running any of the selected problems.

In most cases the charging algorithms are devised to recover the total cost of owning

and operating the system, and in some cases

to show profit.

Most of the runs were performed at the

computer center at the Illinois Institute

of Technology. The school operates its own PRIME 400 minicomputer and buys computing

services on a UNIVAC 1100/81 from the United

Computing System Corporation. A few runs were

made also on the CDC CYBER 176 owned by a large manufacturing firm, and on the UCS CDC CYBER 176 and on the VAX 11/780 owned by the

IIT Research Institute. The performance on these computers was used to predict costs on

a few additional systems. The following is a brief description of the computer systems

that were used in this study, their charging

algorithms and the method used to predict

costs on them.

IIT - PRIME 400 - The PRIME 400 is a medium size computer which is used at IIT to support interactive computing. The present

configuration has 1.25 Megabytes of memory

and two disk drives. The system is very busy

from 9 AM Monday through Saturday with about

20 to 30 users. However, most of the users

are not CPU intensive and do not put a heavy

computing load on the system. As a result, the

CPU intensive structural analysis programs

often show very good response times even during the day. In running on the PRIME 400

it was found that the response time and I/O

times are quite sensitive to the workload

while the CPU time is not. The amount of

workload depends on the number of users, but more importantly on the kind of work they are doing, i.e. whether they are doing simple

editing tasks or compiling and running CPU intensive jobs with considerable working set size or core requirements. To account for the

variability, runs were performed for light,

medium,and heavy load periods on the PRIME. The results were averaged to indicate an expected result, as well as to give an idea

of the possible deviation from it. It is important to realize that a considerable

spread in the consumption of a particular re- ource need not entail the same difference in cost. Whether it does or not depends on how

sensitive the corresponding charging algorithm is with respect to that response. The

charging algorithm for the system is given in Table 1 (considerable discounts are available

at non-business hours).

NASA - Langley Research Center PRIME 400-

The NASA Langley Computer Center operates

several minicomputers including a PRIME 400

computer. The charging algorithm (see Table 1) was devised to recover the capital and operating costs. Although the NASA PRIME 400

supports a small number of users, they run more CPU intensive jobs than the IIT users resulting in a comparable system load. Therefore it was assumed that program performance

is similar on the IIT and NASA systems.

Experience confirmed this. The cost of run- ning a job on the NASA PRIME 400 was calculated based on this assumption. The two PRIME computer services charge for an unstable resource such as wall time (one may

also call it connect time, since these

services are interactive); this was not un- common among the charging algorithms for

computer services which we encountered. The

charge serves a regulatory function, because

it is a deterrent when the system is crowded and any additional work would slow it

down further. For long jobs it also encourages the use of batch runs when they are offered as an alternative.

NASA - Langley Research Center Cyber 173

The NASA Langley Research Center operates

several CDC main frames including two CYBER

173 computers which are used to support interactive computation. The charging algorithm is

devised to recover capital and operating ex- penses.

201
Haftka has an extensive experience using

the SPAR program on both the I IT and NASA

SYSTEMS. Based on this experience the following assumptions were used to predict cost on the NASA Cyber 173.

1. The CPU time on the Cyber is 1.5 times

that of the CPU time on the UNIVAC

1100/81.

•2. The I/O charges are calculated based on the number of reads and writes from the

SPAR data base available in the SPAR

output. It was assumed that these numbers are similar for both systems, and

that the charge per disk access is 1.1

times the minimum charge per access. This is based on the feature of the

charging algorithm which is relatively

insensitive to the number of words in each read or write operation.

3. The amount of core required is assumed

to vary from 70K octal for the smallest

number of nodes to 120K for the largest

number of nodes.

4. Based on the above considerations the

cost of running SPAR on the NASA Cyber

is:

Cost = (1 + 0.048A) {0.0136T, + O.OO3ni0)

where

T^ = UNIVAC 1108/81 CPU time (sec)

ni0 = combined number of disk reads and

writes reported by SPAR

A = core storage (in units of lOK octal

words)

Large Manufacturing Company CDC Cyber 176 - A few runs of SPAR were made on a Cyber 176 which is owned by a large manu- facturing company. The charging algorithm is

given in Table 1. It appears to be fairly

high on CPU and low on I/O and core storage

charges. In predicting costs on this machine

it was assumed that CPU times can be predicted

from the UNIVAC 1100/81 results based on published data ([16]) rating the UNIVAC 1100/81

at 1800 KOPS and the Cyber 176 at 9300 KOPS.

It was assumed that the ratio of I/O time to CPU time is the same on both machines. Be- cause the I/O cost on the Cyber 176 is low, even a large error in this assumption is not

expected to change the cost much.

Concordia College Computer Network (CCCN)

CCCN provides administrative, instructional

and research computing services to a large

number of educational institutions. The service includes a large software development

staff and the charges are computed to recover costs of operating the center. Interactive

and batch services are provided by a UNIVAC

90/80 mainframe installed in December 1980.

The UNIVAC 90/80 is roughly equivalent to an IBM 370/158 in raw processing power.

The prediction of costs of running on the CCCN UNIVAC 90/80 were based on the

charging algorithm given in Table 1 with the

following assumptions:

1. CPU times are 2.25 longer than on the

UNIVAC 1100/81. This is based on published data ([16]) rating the UNIVAC

1100/81 at 1800 KOPS and the UNIVAC

80/90 at 800 KOPS.

2. Core requirements were estimated at 200K bytes for the small problems and at 300K bytes for the large problems.

I IT Research Institute VAX 11/780 - The I IT Research Institute (IITRI) operates

a DEC VAX 11/780 with 3 Megabytes of core memory and 650 Megabyte disk space. It does

not have a floating point processor. As it is not heavily loaded, time is available to out- side users. The charges are given in Table 1.

2.5 Performance indices

As part of the design, performance vaV*- iables must be chosen. The "utility" of a service to a user is a function of those

performance factors which affect the value

and usefulness to the user and thus necessarily subjective and dependent on particular

needs in a given situation. For this study we chose the following performance variables as being most important in comparing the com- puter service alternative.

1. correctness of results

2. turnaround time

3. system availability or "uptime"

4. support - technical help, documentation

These factors are fairly self explanatory and were selected because they are obviously important. Other situations and

users may choose a different set of factors

which reflects their goals better. For a com- prehensive list of performance variables see

202
[17] and [18].

3. Benchmark and data collection

analysis

3.1 Data collection and analysis

Measurement data collected during the

benchmark are used for job cost prediction

and performance comparison of the two ma- chines. The following statistics are collected for each run:

-CPU time (measured in seconds)

-I/O time (measured in seconds)

-memory used (measured in K bytes)

-turnaround time (measured in seconds)

-number of disk I/O operations

-job cost (measured in $)

A comprehensive program performance

measurement system was developed for the data

collection and analysis. This system will

automatically instrument the FORTRAN source

programs by inserting CALL statements at the

entry and exit points of each module in the

system. The CALL statements invoke a routine

called REFSTR which will collect performance

data. Example:

SUBROUTINE ELT3A4 (A,B)

CALL REFSTR ('ELT3A4', 'ENTRY')

. body of subroutine

IF (ISTOP.EQ.O) GOTO 99999

99999 'call REFSTR ('ELT3A4', 'EXIT')

RETURN

END

The REFSTR data collection routine logs

entries and exits from modules in the system,

captures the CPU and I/O times at each of

these points, and writes this program trace

information out to a permanent file in very

large blocks. The program trace data from

REFSTR looks like this:

ROUTINE CPU I/O

$MAIN$ ENTRY 11 1694 9 1964

FACMGT ENTRY 11 1704 9 1964

FACMGT EXIT 13 0202 9 1964

LODCMN ENTRY 13 0246 9 1992 INPUTJ ENTRY 13 0522 9 2172 ELTYPE ENTRY 13 4028 9 4352

PLANE ENTRY 13 4034 9 4352

ELT3A4 ENTRY 13 4098 9 4454

PLNAX ENTRY 13 4104 9 4454

Calibration studies have been performed on REFSTR to determine the CPU and I /a overhead

which is generated by the data collection itself. This instrumentation overhead is removed

during analysis by the ANALYZ program. ANALYZ

processes the raw data from REFSTR, removes instrumentation overhead, and prints summary

performance results (Figure 1). ANALYZ also

produces the following dynamic call matrix to

be used for further analysis or program re- structuring for virtual memory systems

(Figure 2). A routine called LSP was developed

to fit polynomial curves to the resource con- sumption and cost data using a least squares

technique. LSP also can plot the data points

and fitted curves.

The benchmark performance data is collected at the job level for all jobs, at the

program level for all SPAR jobs, and at the

subroutine level for a few selected SAPIV

jobs. Since SPAR is a modular sequence of

rather independent tasks, it was not necessary

to collect measurement data at the subroutine

level. SAPIV, on the other hand, is not se- quentially structured, but is a conglomerate

of subroutines with frequent interaction.

This necessitates more detailed performance

data collection from which SAPIV s resource consumption models are derived (see sample

output from ANALYZ for example of detailed

analysis). The resource consumption statistics are collected differently on each machine. In each case instrumentation overhead

is measured and removed from the data, if it

is significant. Job cost computations are based on resource consumption and are not directly taken from the job accounting output.

3.2 Benchmarks and their results

3.2.1 Beam problem

A cantilever beam was modeled by plane

beam elements (E24 elements in SPAR) and

three vibration modes and frequencies were calculated using the SPAR program. The num- ber of nodes was varied from 5 to 600 degrees

of freedom per node. This simple problem ex- posed a bug in the PRIME version of SPAR. The program could not calculate more than two vibration modes and frequencies. On the

UNI VAC there was no problem. Performance

data and cost (prime time rate) for the beam

problems are given in Tables 2 (UNIVAC 1100/

81) and 3 (PRIME 400). The total cost proved

to be very close to a linear function of the

number of nodes for both computers. It was therefore possible to predict accurately the cost of 600 node runs by extrapolating the

cost of the 5-280 node runs, It is therefore

assumed that the 5-600 node results can be

used safely to extrapolate cost up to 1200

nodes. Figure 3 shows the actual cost points

203
and the predicted cost curves for both computers. The triangles represent cost points

for the UNIVAC 1100/81, the circles averages

for different load situations on the PRIME

400, It can be seen that although the results

may have been sensitive for certain resources,

they are not very sensitive in their cost, and

cost predictions for other problem sizes can

be expected to lie within an analogous range.

The beam runs are about twice as expensive to run on the UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 than on the I IT PRIME 400. The response time or turn- around time is favorable on the PRIME for the

small problems. The UNIVAC is quite faster for

the larger problems.

The performance of the other computers

for the beam problem was actually measured or estimated and the results are summarized in Table 4. The costs of running the problen on the NASA PRIME-400 are comparable to those at

IIT. The UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 is the most ex- pensive mainframe. The low cost on the Cyber

176 is a result of low I/O charges on that

machine compared to the NASA Cyber 173 ($0.84

of $2.25 versus $8.00 of $ 8.60). When evaluating the total cost results in Table 4 the

main difference is not between minicomputers

and mainframes but between service bureau

computers (the two UNIVAC machines) and the user owned machines and their lower charges.

3.2.2 Plate problem

A rectangular plate with a hole was modeled with quadrilateral plane stress finite

elements (Figure 4 insert). It is subjected

to uniform loads. Stresses are calculated with

the number of nodes varying between 35 and 594.

The problem was run with the SAP IV and SPAR

programs. Tables 5 and 6 show results for

various machines.

The turnaround time on the UNIVAC is

much better than that of the PRIME. Just as for the beam problems, the measured data were

used to predict costs of running problems upto 1200 nodes. The cost data and the predictive curve are given in Figures 4 (SPAR) and

5 (SAPIV). The cost of the plate problems in- creases much more rapidly on the PRIME than on the UNIVAC. Table 7 shows a cost comparison

for all computers based on the data in Table 5 and 6. For SAPIV, the user owned CDC has the

lowest charges whereas the two UNIVACs and

the minicomputer IIT PRIME 400 are most ex- pensive. For SPAR, the 1200 node figures show

a clear disadvantage for the IIT PRIME 400.

The plate problem was now analyzed for

large deformations using the TWODEL program.

Performance and cost variables for the UCS

UNIVAC 1100/81 and the PRIME 400 are given

in Tables 8 and 9. The problem is much cheaper

to run on the PRIME 400 than on the UNIVAC

1100/81. The 289 node problem was the largest

that could be run on the UNIVAC 1100/81 be- cause of core limitations. The PRIME 400

with its virtual memory could handle larger

problems. The excellent performance of the

program on the PRIME 400 is attributed to two factors. First, the large core requirements on the UNIVAC 1100/81 are very expensive (fifty percent of the cost of the 289

run was core cost). Second, the program was written by the developer on both machines.

As a result it does not suffer from the deterioration in performance that afflicts programs that have been converted to different

machines by users who are not as knowledgeable about the program as its developer.

This applies to the SPAR and SAP IV programs.

A comparison of the CPU times on the PRIME 400 and the UNIVAC 1100/81 for the plate

problem shows the following ratios. The PRIME 400 CPU times are 7-15 times longer for

SAP IV, 7-13 times longer for SPAR, but only

5-8 times longer for TWODEL. The comparison

with other computers is given in Table 10. The cost on the two UNIVAC computers is very

high and the cost on the CDC computer is very

low compared to the PRIME 400.

3.2.3 Stiffened cylinder problem

A stiffened cylindrical shell, see

figure 6, modeled by plate and beam elements.

The lowest four vibration frequencies and the

buckling load of the cylinder were calculated

using the SPAR program. Three models were used

with 5x5, 10x10, 15x15 grids of elements o,r 36, 121 and 256 nodes, respectively.

The cylinder problem revealed two bugs

in the SPAR program on the PRIME. The stress analysis which is preliminary to the buckling

calculation was not correct when combined

membrane-bending elements were employed. As

a result it was necessary to use twice as many plate elements; pure membrane elements

and pure bending elements. Unfortunately, the mass matrix was not calculated properly with

this replacement. As a result we had to perform the calculations in two separate runs, one using double elements for buckling

analysis and one using combined elements for

the vibration analysis. This did not increase

the cost of the run substantially but was an inconvenience for the analyst.

The results of CPU and I/O times, re- ponse time and cost are given in Table 11 for the UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 and in Table 12 for the IIT PRIME 400. Comparison with other

computers is given in Table 13 for the

204
largest problem of 256 nodes. It can be seen that for this problem the performance of the PRIME 400 is dismal and that of the CDC very

good. Next the same problem was run with the

SAP IV program and produced quite different

results. The PRIME 400 performed excellently

whereas the UNIVAC 1100/81 and the UCS Cyber

176 had convergence problems. A change of

parameters solved them for the 36 node problem, but difficulties remained for larger

ones. To resolve these was beyond the knowledge of an average user.

The benchmark results showed that cor- rectness of the results cannot automatically

be assumed. One problem area was improper

conversion for those packages which were developed on one machine and subsequently

transported to another. We found several

problem types that could not be run correctly

on the PRIME due to those problems (30 percent of the beam runs and 50 percent of the

plate runs were completely correct when run on the PRIME). Another contributing factor

lies in the fact that certain problems require

high precision floating point values to be

stored and manipulated and the minicomputer's

smaller word size and floating point operand

size can produce incorrect or poor results.

On the other hand, some of the mainframes

exhibited correctness and feasibility problems

as well. The most important thing a user can

do to protect himself is to check results

carefully and validate them, if possible.

3.3 Other performance factors

Availability was considered important.

Table 14 shows percentage of uptime, mean

time between failures (MBTF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) for UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 and PRIME

400. The UNIVAC data is taken from published

figures (UCS "Data Link") for January through

December 1980, PRIME 400 data could only be

obtained for the months of October through

December 1980. The PRIME system is down fewer

times than the UNIVAC, but is down for extended periods of time. The overall uptime of the

UNIVAC is somewhat better than the PRIME.

Support is a very important performance

factor for many users. Support includes

availability and quality of technical help

and documentation. We found both the UNIVAC

and PRIME centers to be somewhat deficient in

support. We found the UNIVAC documentation to

be fairly good, the access to documentation

to be good, but the access to technical help

to be poor (due to contract between service

bureau and university). We found the PRIME documentation to be weak and unavailable for

reference on site. Purchase is always required. Only standard PRIME manuals are available.

Information about IIT PRIME 400 particularities is communicated by "word of mouth".

Although the technical people are fairly

competent, they are far overburdened and un- able to provide a consistent level of support.

The results for all performance factors

can be used with a weighted scoring method

to determine which of the machines has the

highest utility and to perform a utility/cost

trade off analysis. For a subset of the

results in this paper such an analysis was performed in [17], the same method could be

used for the results presented here.

4 Concluding remarks

The study of the performance of structural analysis programs on mainframe and

minicomputers has not shown a clear cut advantage of either type of computer. Both

mainframe and minicomputer had difficulties,

but with different problems. For minicomputers some of these problems were due to portability problems (SAP IV, SPAR) and imperfect conversion from mainframe software

to a minicomputer. As the problem sizes

increased, the minicomputers were less efficient for those programs which were not developed for them; but some of the mainframes could not run those problems adequately, either. The minicomputer clearly out- performed the main frame for the one program

which was developed on the minicomputer

(TWODEL).

The cost comparison does not show any

drastic difference between main frames and

minicomputers except for the user owned

CDC CYBER. This probably reflects a competitive marketplace where the decrease in the

cost of raw computation has stimulated an increase in programming and computer services

offered. There is no longer a main frame

monopoly on (structural analysis) software

and services have to be priced to be com- petitive with minicomputers. The user owned

machines which just charge to cover their

costs naturally are cheaper than those which

need to show profit and may have marketing

and other related expenses. This reduces the

problem to one of microeconomics and price

theory ([19]).

The study reported in this paper has

been supported by the office of Naval Re- search under contract No. N00014-80-C-0364.

The authors wish to acknowledge the help of

Mr. Dennis Witte in obtaining and processing the performance data.

205
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Statistical Methods for the Comparison

of Computer Services, Computer , Vol. 10,

No. 11, 1977, pp. 32-39.

[10] Storaasli, 0.0. and Foster, E.P.,

Cost-Effecti ve Use of Minicomputers to Solve Structural Problems, AIAA Paper

No. 78-484, 1978.

[II] Pearson, P.K., Luchese, R.R.,

Miller, W.H., and Schaefer, H.F.,

Theoretical Chemistry Via Minicomputer,

Minicomputers and Large Scale Computations , American Chemical Society, 1977,

pp. 171-190.

[12] Norbeck, J.M. and Certain, P.R.,

Large Scale Computation on a Virtual

Memory Minicomputer, Minicomputers and

Large Scale Computations , American

Chemical Society, 1977, pp. 191-199.

[13] Wagner, A.F. Day, P., Van Buskirk, R.,

and Wahl , A.C., Computation in Quantum

Chemistry on a Multi -Experiment Control

and Data-Acquisition on a Sigma 5 Minicomputer, Minicomputers and Large

Scale Computations , American Chemical

Society, 1977, pp. 200-217.

[14] Freuler, R.J. and Petrie, S.L.,

An Effective Mix of Minicomputer Power

and Large Scale Computers for Complex

Fluid Mechanical Calculations,

Minicomputers and Large Scale Computations, American Chemical Society, 1977,

pp. 218-234.

[15] Conway, J.H., The Economics of

Structural Analysis on Supermini s, Proc. 7th ASCE Conference on Electronic

Computation , 1979, pp. 373-385.

[16] Lias, E.J., Tracking the Elusive KOPS,

Datamation , November 1980, pp. 99-105.

[17] Von Mayrhauser, A.K. and Witte, D.E.,

Cost/Performance Comparisons for Pro- grams on Different Machines, to be

presented at EC0MA.9 , October 6-9, 1981,

Copenhagen.

[18] Miller, W.G., Selection Criteria for

Computer System Adoption, Educational

Technology , Vol. 9, No. 10, 1969,

pp. 71-75.

[19] Cotton, I.W., Microeconomics and the

Market for Computer Services, Computing

Services , Vol. 7, No. 2, 1975,

pp. 95-111.

206
Table 1. Charging algorithms (dollars)

1. IIT PRIME 400

2. NASA Langley Research Center

PRIME 400

3. UCS UNIVAC 1100/81

4. Concordia College UNIVAC 90/80

5. Large Manufacturing Company CDC CYBER 176

6. NASA Langley Research Center - CDC CYBER 173

7. UCS CDC CYBER 176

8. IIT Research Institute VAX 11/80

0.02 {1, + T„) + T,

T^ = CPU time (sec)

T^ = I/O time (sec)

Tj = wall time (hours)

SOTj + 15T2

T^ = CPU time (hours)

T, = wall time (hours)

0.18T^ + 0.0011A(T^ + T^)

Jr

T^ = CPU time (sec)

I/O time (sec) A = (core/512) words

(0.156 + 0.0000248A)T

T = CPU time (sec)

A = core (kilobytes)

0.2T

1 0.0003A (T^ + T2) + .03 * T2

Tj = CPU time (sec)

T^ = I/O time (sec)

A = core (kilowords)

See section on "Computers and Charging

Algorithms," pages 2-4.

Confidential

0.05Tj + 5T2

T^ = CPU time (sec)

T2 = connect time (sec)

Table 2. Beam results on the UCS UNIVAC 1100/81

using SPAR

Number of

Nodes

5 25

60

90 125

280

450

600

1200 *

* predicted

CPU I/O Time Turnaround Time Cost

(sec) (sec) (min) (dollars)

5.06 15.77 3:21 1.83

5.74 16.12 2:50 2.07

7.07 18.17 6:04 2.66

8.30 19,79 2:41 3.16

10.29 22.81 4:26 4.07

16.70 32.59 7:17 6.90

22.52 41.73 3:16 9.53

30.73 59.68 7:45 13.80

60.76 72.12 8:55 30.89

207
Table 3. Beam results on the IIT PRIME 400 (averages)

liUlllUC 1 U 1 U 1 1 MIC T /D Timo

f C 1 1 e 1 V acL ) Ti (tie ^ uo 1 1 ars )

C 1itd . 7n/ u 17 fiS X / . Do 1 • m n fi7 U . 0/

1 7 4"^ i / . HO 1i 'fn . UJ n 7"^ 60 30.65 28.45 2:37 1.22

90 37.07 22.84 1:57 1.23

125 47.82 37.25 6:02 1.80

280 94.24 63.11 5:41 3.25

450 141.07 132.87 11:04 5.16

600 197.38 125.76 13:47 6.68

1200 * 422.92 262.02 26:36 14.14

* predicted

Table 4. Comparison of the 600 and 1200 node beam problems

on various computers (the estimated 1200 node results

are given in parentheses)

Computer CPU I/O Turnaround Time Total

(sec) (sec) (min) Cost (dollars)

IIT ^ 197.38 125.76 13:47 6.68

PRIME 400 (422.92) (262.02) (26:36) (14.14)

NASA LRC * 197.38 125.76 13:47 5.08

PRIME 400 (422.92) (262.02) (26:36) (10.17)

UCS UNIVAC 30.73 59.68 7:45 13.80

1100/81 (60.76) (72.10) (8:55) (30.89)

NASA LRC 46.1 8.60

CYBER 173 (91.14) (20.78)

LMC 6.05 24.5 2.24

CYBER 176 (11.76) (35.4) (3.98)

Concordia 69.14 11.13

College (136.71) (22.34)

UNIVAC 90/80

* estimated

+ average

208
Table 5, Plate linear analysis with SPAR on various computers

Number of

Nodes

UNIVAC 1100/81

35

72

143

285

594

1200

IIT PRIME 400

CPU

(sec;

4.80

6.98

11.89

24.46

60.58

170.27

I/O

(sec)

14.25

15.55

18.36

25.27

44.78

102.31

Turnaround

(mi n: sec)

1:27

1:44

2:08

2.48

4:36

9:23

Cost

(do! lars]

1.69

2.46

4.22

8.69

21.94

62.89

35

72

143

285

594

1200

32.11

58.40

123.14

285.14

805.96

2500.40

19.18

29.91

44.96

123.65

679.25

1370.10

1:23

2:58

4:30

8:56

41:24

144:15

1.05

1.81

4.18

8.39

28.71

126.21

Table 6. Plate linear analysis with SAP IV on various computers

Number of CPU

Nodes (sec)

UNIVAC 1100/81

35 4.52

72 6.77

143 11.85

285 25.38

594 78.59

1200* , 316.58

IIT PRIME 400

35 30.82

72 66.40

143 166.12

285 396.80

594 1186.52

1200* 3791.00

UCS CYBER 176

35 .54

72 1.00

143 1.69

285 4.10

594 11.96

1200* 32.96

IIT Research Institute VAX 11/780

35 10.36

72 20.94

143 59.62

285 182.43

594 568.33

+ **

I/O Turnaround Cost

(sec) (mi n: sec) (dollars)

1.11 1:13 0.90

1.93 1:51 1.56

3.54 2:12 2.97

8.19 3:08 7.15

26.94 10.08 23.61

122.14 18:54 98.67

25.65 7:55 1.26

41.15 11:00 2.33

47.15 21:27 4.62

82.61 25:32 10.01

216.10 54:08 28.95

685.74 112:12 108.60

1.88 0.96

3.08 1.92

4.48 3.36

10.82 7.20

38.21 21.60

99.18 70.81

0:25 0.52

0:30 1.05

3:30 2,98

5:28 9.12

12:41 28.42

* estimates

+ averages

** jobs were run in batch mode, no connect time charges

209
Table 7. Comparison of the cost of linear analysis of the 594 (1200) node

plate model on various computers (in dollars)

Computer SAP IV SPAR

System 594 1200* 594 1200*

I IT PRIME 400+ 28.95 108.65 28.71 126.21

NASA LRC PRIME 400* 23.38 59.64 17.06 56.90

UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 23.61 98.67 21.94 62.89

NASA LRC CYBER 173 ** 6.84 18.90

LMC CYBER 176* 4.23 11.39 2.85 7.82

Concordia College UNIVAC 90/80 28.98 116.42 22.28 69.57

UCS CYBER 176 21.60 70.81

I IT Research Institute VAX 11/780 28.42 **

+ average of several runs

* predicted results

** data insufficient for prediction

Table 8. Plate nonlinear analysis on the UCS UNIVAC 1100/81

Number of CPU Time I/O Time Core Storage Turnaround

Nodes (sec) (sec) (Kwords) Time (min)

35 19.97 0.35 22.9 32:47

72 54.15 0.66 28.4 38:01

143 156.91 1.29 42.5 55:10

289 549.69 1.78 76.0 137:21

600* 2030.59 3.59 175.7 650:43

Cost

4.61

13.13

42.68

189.33

1151.80

* estimates

Table 9. Plate nonlinear analysis on the I IT PRIME 400

Number of CPU I/O Time Response Cost

Nodes Time (sec) Time (min) (dollars)

35 156.01 2.74 7:08 3.29

72 379.95 3.81 10:09 7.84

143 978.05 19.47 29:59 20.45

289 2693.59 69.70 70:50 56.44

600* 8693.00 287.91 204:14 193.06

* estimates

Table 10. Comparison of the cost (in dollars) of nonlinear analysis of the

289 and 600 node plate models on various computers using the TWODEL program

Computer CPU Time (sec) Core^ Cost (dollars)

System 289 600* 289 600* 289 600*

IIT PRIME 400 2694. 8693. -- -- 56.44 193.06

NASA LRC PRIME 400* 2694. 8693. — — 40.13 123.50

UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 550. 2030.6 76.0 175.7 189.33 1177.66

LMC CDC CYBER 176* 58.8 217.1 42.2 97.6 12.52 49.80

Concordia College 1238. 4570.7 320. 740. 203.03 794.20

UNIVAC*

* estimates: + UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 and LMC CDC CYBER 176 core requirements are given in

K words. Concordia College UNIVAC core requirements are given in K bytes.

210
Table 11. Cylinder buckling and vibration analysis on the UCS UNIVAC 1100/81

Number of CPU Time I/O Time Turnaround Cost

Nodes (sec) (sec) Time (min) (dollars)

36 27.28 19.34 7:09 7.36

121 110.65 28.16 10:11 29.21

256 302.59 48.45 19:52 79.97

Table 12. Cylinder buckling and vibration analysis on the IIT PRIME 400

Number of CPU Time I/O Time Turnaround Cost

Nodes (sec) (sec) Time (min) (dollars)

36 579.93 343.28 64 19.53

121 3197.10 1184.54 156 90.23

256 10784.0 6589.98 774 360.38

Table 13. Comparison of the 256 cylinder problem on various computers

Computer CPU Time I/O Time Total Cost

(sec) (sec) (dollars)

IIT PRIME 400"^ ^ 10784 6590 360.38

NASA LRC PRIME-400 10784 6590 283.37

UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 302.59 48.45 79,97

Concordia College 680.8 110.96

UNIVAC 90/80*

LMC CDC CYBER 176* 58.2 24.2 12.64

NASA LRC CYBER 173* 453.9 29.55

+ averages

* predicted results

Table 14. Uptime - downtime characteristics

UCS UNIVAC 1100/81 IIT PRIME 400

98.9 96.7

56.79 87.98

34.7 178.2

Uptime % MBTF (hours) MTTR (minutes)

211
MODULE CPU %CPU I/O %l/0 #CALLS #RETURNS

$MAIN$ 0.065 .08 .007 .04 1 1 FACMGT

ELAW 0.139

1.849 2.38

.18

.0.128

.0.48 546

11

546

ADDSTF 21.396 27.51 9.023 34.09 1 1

SESOL

STRSC

TOTAL

CPU

%CPU

I/O

%I/0

#CALLS

#RETURNS

31.583

.944

77.769

40.61

1.21

10.213

1.255

26.467

38.59

4.74

amount of CPU time spent in module

fraction of total CPU time spent in module

amount of I/O time spent in module

fraction of total I/O time spent in module

number of entries into module

number of exits from module

1 10921 1092

Figure 1. Summary performance results

TO: 1 2 3 4 5 FROM:

1 $MAIN$ 0 1 1 1 1 2 FACMGT 0 0 0 0 0

3 LODCMN 0 0 0 0 0 4 INPUTJ 0 0 0 0 0

5 ELTYPE 0 0 0 0 0

6 PLANE 0 0 0 0 0

7 ELT3A4 0 0 0 0 0 8 PLNAX 0 0 0 0 0

9 ELAW 0 0 0 0 0 10 POSINV 0 0 0 0 0

Figure

CALL MATRIX

6 7 8 9 10

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

2 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .0 546 0 0 0 0 0 546

0 0 0 0 0

Dynamic call matrix

212

Dollars

610—

/ /

/

40-

28—

e— 1 1

1 1 1 '

1 1

1 1

1 e zee 4ee eee eee leee i2ee

Number of Nodes

Figure 5. Comparison of total cost for the plate problem using the SAP IV program

2\H
Figure 6. A typical cylinder model

215

Special Technologies and Applications

Track B

217

Focusing on Secondary Storage

219

SESSION OVERVIEW

FOCUSING ON SECONDARY STORAGE

H. Pat Artis

Morino Associates, Inc. Vienna, VA 22180

During the past decade, secondary storage has been the fastest

growing resource for most installations. These devices now dominate the

physical planning process and they represent an ever more significant

portion of hardware budgets. The papers in this session address three

secondary storage management topics. They are:

o user experiences with an automated space

management system. These systems attempt to reclaim space occupied by datasets that have

been unreferenced for long periods of time.

o guidelines for designing IBM I/O configurations

to insure system performance.

o an analysis of the architecture and performance

characteristics of the CDC 844-41 disk

subsystem.

Each of these papers provide a valuable perspective and the

session should be informative for those who attend

.

221

EXPERIENCES WITH DASD , TAPE, AND MSS

SPACE MANAGEMENT USING DMS

Patrick A. Drayton

Southwestern Bell Telephone Company

St. Loius, MO 63101

This paper was written to share our experiences in the space

management of DASD, Mass Storage and tape datasets in order to reduce DASD cost and improve the performance of the I/O subsystem. Included is a description of

the situation which precipitated our turning to space management as a solution. Also included are the standards and procedures we introduced and the

software products we utilized and wrote to service our needs. Finally the

results that were achieved and some unforeseen problems that arose are documented

.

Key words: data set, migration, DASD, MSS, space management, performance, disk

management system.

1. System Configuration

The system under discussion was an IBM 3033AP with 16MK running under

MVS-SE2. It was configured with 73 3350-type DASD and 4 STC 8360 DASD.

In addition, it utilized 12 tape

drives, one 2305 drum and one 100

GIGABYTE Mass Storage System (MSS)

with four readers. The drum and

8360s, were dedicated to local page

data sets.

The system served as the corporate

test system and was used by 800

programmers from primarily 7 A.M.- 5 P.M. The average daily workload

consisted of 1700 batch jobs in 25

initiators, 65,000 TSO transactions

processed by an average of 70 on-line

users, plus a small test IMS system

with two message processing regions.

2. Problem Definition

The problems came to light in

October 1980 when the 3033 was upgraded to an attached processer (AP)

but the user community did not experience any measureable service

improvements. The CPU could not be

driven above 65% busy and batch

thruput was below our service

objective of 80% jobs turned around in

under two hours. TSO response time on average was acceptable (2.2 seconds)

but intermitant responses of 2-5

minutes were not unusual.

Initial investigation identified the

problem as the MSS. Its four readers were busy 90-100% of the time with an average of six data sets awaiting

service, this caused data sets to require over a minute from initial

request to accessability on the

staging packs. This resulted in jobs

being swapped out for an average of

4.3 minutes of a total average elapsed

time of 11.5 minutes. In other words

37% of the time a job was awaiting

data set servicing. On comparing long

wait swap times on MSS and non-MSS

systems it was estimated that 80% of

the long wait time was directly

attributable to the MSS related

223
functions. Further investigation

uncovered the fact that the operating

systems method of new data set allocation caused severe degradation

to MSS performance. During MSS space

allocation no additional new or old

data sets could be allocated even if

they were already staged until after

the initial new space allocation

request was satisfied. MSS volumes

are considered mountable devices and

MVS allocation will stop all

like-device allocations until the

current allocation recovery is resolved. With these problems in mind

we felt the improvement of MSS service was the number one priority item to improving overall service to the user

community

.

In the process of developing solutions

to improving MSS service, additional

problems were uncovered. One of these was extensive use of the private pack

concept by application programming

groups. That is, each application was given a number of dedicated DASD

volumes to use as they saw fit with no guidance or policing. This was an outgrowth of capacity planning which

required applications to justify their

DASD requirements. These requirements

were translated into DASD volumes and

distributed as dedicated packs. The

problem we found with this concept was

the application programmers were not space managers and the packs contained

old data, over-allocated data sets,

and were badly fragmented.

Also the shared DASD pool was badly

fragmented, it contained many

out-of-date data sets and the current

data sets were badly over-allocated

and poorly blocked. This had resulted

in uncontrolled growth of DASD

requirements. When the user community

could not allocate adequate real DASD

they turned to MSS for their data

space needs. This further aggravated

the MSS busy condition by placing many

highly active partitioned, TSO data

sets and indexed files on MSS.

Two additional problems soon became

evident. There were no data set naming standards in place. Data sets were named at the whim of the user so

that the ownership could not be

ascertained. In addition no data set

placement guidelines had been issued.

The problem this presented to MSS was previously described. In addition

this caused system and user data sets

to be spread throughout the real DASD

pool. Data sets were placed by the user wherever space was available

without regard for DASD contention or data set performance.

3. Corrective Action

Now that the problems had been

identified we set about to relieve

them. Our solutions are summarized as follows

:

1. Disk Pack Reconfiguration Plan - this plan grouped

functionally-related data sets together, removed the private pack

concept, and configured packs

based on performance.

2. Data Set Naming Standard - in

order that ownership could be

established and to allow data

migration the data set name had to be in a standard form and this

standard had to be automatically

enforceable.

3. Data Set Placement and Migration

Plan - this plan established where

data sets should be placed based

on their data set characteristics

and usage activity. In addition,

a

criteria for moving data sets after their creation if their

usage activity changed was

required. Finally an automated

method of accomplishing the above was essential to minimize manpower

requirements.

3.1. Disk Pack Reconfiguration Plan

As described earlier there existed a need to configure data sets by usage

to allow better control and

performance of the DASD subsystem.

One of the first criteria implemented

was the termination of the private

pack concept. This was met with

resistance from the user community but was overcome with upper management

backing plus the commitment that

future user data space requirements

would be met.

224
All DASD was then divided by function

as follows:

1. Scratch/work volumes - these nine

(9) volumes contained temporary

data sets which would be deleted at job termination.

2. System data sets - all data sets containing system-required modules

plus system-wide data sets such as

SMF, JES SPOOL, JES checkpoint, and

page/swap data sets were located on

these 13 volumes. Page and swap

data sets were on dedicated volumes.

3. Application libraries - each

application's object, load and source libraries were contained on

these six (6) volumes. Because of

their low usage levels source libraries were used to fill the

space remaining on local page

packs. We found this was an excellent use of this space and did

not cause any paging service

degradation.

4. TSO data sets - these five volumes

contained TSO edit type data sets. In order to insure space was available for TSO edit usage all

data sets not used in 14 days

were deleted and user data sets older than 28 days were copied to user DASD (see item g)

.

5. VSAM data sets - these three (3)

volumes contained volume-size VSAM

data spaces. This eliminated

hundreds of user VSAM data spaces

spread throughout DASD. This also

allowed for more accurate space

management of VSAM data sets. Our

initial survey found 45% of the

VSAM data sets were either empty or

-unusable.

6. Test data bases - frequently we had

.requirements for 1-4 volumes of

DASD to perform volume tests or conversion work for an application. In the past this

precipited a mad scramble

attempting to secure unused volumes

from other systems. This was replaced by a pool of four 3350s;

which were scheduled on an as needed temporary basis.

Requests for a total of more than

four volumes from multiple users caused volume sharing. For example

one application would have the

volume for twelve hours a day. At the end of their test period the

pack would be dumped and then

restored with the next user's data.

7. User data sets - the vast majority

of DASD was contained in this

pool. All user test data sets,

libraries, and data bases were

located on these 39 volumes. These were the only volumes to participate in data set migration.

8. New MSS allocation staging - these

three (3) volumes contained all

newly created permanent data sets. During nightly maintenance the data

sets on these packs were migrated

to either real DASD (user data set volumes) or MSS. This was done to avoid the degradation new data set allocation caused on the MSS and to allow efficient placement of user

data sets on real DASD.

This new DASD configuration greatly

enhanced our ability to control space

requirements and I/O performance.

3.2 Data Set Naming Standard

The naming standard was beneficial in

locating the owner of a data set when

problems arose. It also made possible

the accounting for space usage back to the user department. This in turn allowed for better capacity planning

of future DASD and MSS requirements.

However, the naming standard was essential for continuation of the MSS

group concept after data set migration

was started. MSS performance is

enhanced by the use of the group

concept. This concept causes the

volumes of MSS to be logically

connected and space requests to be

directed to a group name and be

satisfied by any volume in that group

(similar to a generic name). We chose

to assign groups by application.

Therefore, any migration to MSS must go

to a particular group. The data set name must, therefore, correctly identify

the application owner.

225
The standard we implemented was as follows

:

Each data set contained two index

levels "DD.dddt" where DD is the

department level (we have three) ddd

is the division level within that

department, t is the district within

that division.

This standard matched our current TSO user ID scheme of DDdddtu with u representing the individual user. All

data sets created over TSO by a user

are automatically supplied the two standard indices. In addition, for

performance we installed three user catalogs based on the department level

qualifiers. As an aside, many of our users added a third level index of

their initials to allow them to interogate the catalog for their

unique three levels to obtain a listing of their data sets. Enforcement of our standard was accomplished through the use of DMS

(see below)

.

3.3 Software Products

There were two software products used

to take the data placement/migration

plan from paper to reality. It will

be noted in each portion of the plan

where a particular tool was utilized.

Following is a brief synopsis of the

software used.

1. DMS- (Disk Management System) by

Application Development Systems,

Inc. This was our primary

migration tool and our standard

enforcer. This product

accomplished the following:

a. Movement of data to and from MSB

and DASD.

b. Archival to tape of old data

sets.

c. Deleting of old data sets.

d. Deleting of non-standard named

data sets.

e. Releasing of over-allocated

space in sequential and

partitioned data sets.

f. Deleting of non-catalogued data

sets.

2. SAS - Statistical Analysis System

by SAS Institute Inc. We made use

of this wide-spread data tool as follows.

a. Process SMF data to report on data set activity.

b. Process RMF data to report on DASD pack and string contention.

c. Process MSS trace data to report

on MSS performance.

d. Produced control card data to direct DMS processing.

3. Local Programs - local programs were required to build control

cards for DMS to handle the

migration from DASD to MSS.

3.4 Data Set Placement Plan

The purpose of this plan was three-fold

:

1. Reduce the load on the MSS readers

by migrating busy data sets from

MSS to DASD.

2. Reduce the need for increased real

DASD by migrating unused data sets

to MSS.

3. Avoid the degradation of new

allocation on MSS by delaying the

placement of new data sets until

nightly maintenance.

The placement standards were established as follows:

1. DASD - frequently accessed (more

than 15 times/week) user data sets; system data sets, ISAM data sets,

application group object, load, and source libraries; large (over 50

MB) IMS, VSAM data bases.

2. MSS - Intermediate access (1-14

times per week) , intermediate sized

(0-50MB) data sets. The MSS

cartridge holds 50MB of data).

3. Tape - not frequently accessed

(less than once/week), large

sequential data sets (larger than

200 MB), system log files, archived

data sets.

The DASD placement of system and

application libraries was handled in

the reconfiguration plan. In addition

at this time each application's

libraries were given a 20% space

increase for growth and placed on DASD

226
so that no further expansion of these

libraries was possible without the

space manager's knowledge. The

application programming staffs were

then made accountable for their

library contents and insuring that

they remain within the established

space limitations. Large data sets and IMS data base were placed as specified by the space manager. All new large space requests were handled

by the space manager. VSAM data sets were placed in the common VSAM data

spaces.

MSS placement was handled by the

introduction of a new-WSS DASD pool

and the elimination of direct new

space requests to MSS by all but

system maintenance jobs. This was accomplished through the use of JES

and TSO exits to restrict the use of

the MSS unit parameter. The users placed all new non-TSO, non-tape type

data sets on the new-MSS DASD volumes

and during nightly maintenance the

data sets were either copied to real

DASD or MSS based on the following

usage criteria: A data set used four

times in two days was copied to DASD.

Otherwise it was moved to MSS.

Tape data set placement was basically

the catch-all for data sets that were

too large for MSS or DASD.

3.5 Migration Procedure

The final phase of the space

management solution was the

development of a migration procedure

which would reduce the load on MSS and remove uneeded DASD data sets without

inconveniencing the user community.

Figure 1 is a summation of the final

migration procedure parameters.

MIGRATION PROCEDURE

DASD - MSS

NOT ACCESSED IN FIVE DAYS

DMS AND LOCAL PROGRAM USED

MSS - DASD

ACCESSED 15 TIMES IN 7 DAYS

SAS AND DMS PROGRAM USED

DASD - TAPE DATA BASES NOT ACCESSED IN TWO MONTHS

MSS - TAPE NOT ACCESSED IN SIX MONTHS

TAPE - DELETED

NOT ACCESSED IN ONE YEAR

FIGURE 1

3.5.1 DASD to MSS

Smaller (less than 50MB) data sets were migrated to MSS if they had not been accessed in five days. This

resulted in an average of twenty data

sets being migrated daily. This

figure would have been larger but we were not able to keep up with the

growing demand of MSS space. For economy reasons MSS cartridges were

not ordered until they were needed.

Therefore our MSS had only 42% of the

allowable cartridges installed but the

cartridges installed were 67%

allocated. DMS was used to identify

those data sets not accessed in five

days and a local program was written

to read the MSS control table and to assign MSS group identification based

on data set name. It also supplied

control cards to DMS so that it would

perform the copy.

227
3.5.2 MSS to DASD RESULTS

All MSS data sets accessed 15 times in

the past seven days were migrated to DASD. This was done so that the delay

from a data set being heavily accessed

and its migration to a faster device

would be minimal but also avoid the

migration of every MSS data set that was accessed. This resulted in an average of ten data sets being

migrated daily. SAS was utilized to read SMF data to identify heavily

accessed MSS data sets and to build

control cards for DMS to perform the

copy

.

3.5.3 DASD to Tape

Larger data sets (over 50MB) not used

for two months were archived to tape.

If required, the user had to request a restore via a TSO command and the data

sets was returned during nightly

maintenance. This was a slight

inconvenience but one day turnaround

for data inactive for over two months

was not felt to be excessive.

3.5.4 MSS to Tape

MSS data sets not accessed in six

months were archived to tape. This was caused because of the pressure of

cartridge growth. Again, the user needed only to request a restore on

TSO to retrieve his data set.

3.5.5 Tape to Delete

Tape data sets, which had their

retention periods exceeded were

deleted. In addition, DMS archived

data sets which were over one year old were deleted. For MSS data sets that were archived after six months, this

involved a six month retention on

tape. For DASD data sets archived

after two months, this involved a ten

10 month retention.

4 . Results

The total effort from the perception

of the problem to the attainment of

improved results was six months. The

total manpower required was one person

full time and two people for 25% of

their time. Figure 2 summarizes the

outcome of this effort.

Before After Change

MSS READER BUSY 95% 57% -38%

MSS DATA SET

STAGE TIME 62SEC 2 7SEC -3 5 sec

MSS DATA SET

QUEUE 6.0 1.1 -4.9

JOB LONG

WAIT TIME 4.3MIN 2.1MIN -2.2 min

JOB ELAPSED

TIME 11.5MIN 7.9MIN -3.6 min

JOB INPUT Q TIME 65MIN 20 MIN -45 min

TSO RESP TIME

(TRIVIAL) 2.2SEC 1.5SEC -.7 sec

TSO TRANSACTIONS (8-5) 55K 67K +12K

JOBS PROCESSED

(8-5) 1100 1700 +600

CPU BUSY(8-5) 65% 85% +20%

DASD ADDITION

(6 MON) 8 2 -6

FIGURE 2

As oulined previously, the MSS device

was a "bottleneck to good system

performance. The migration /placement

efforts reduced the MSS reader busy

from S% to 57^ with the IBM guideline

value issued as 70^. More importantly,

the service provided by MSS improved

as measured by average data set stage

time reduced from 62 to 27 seconds and

average number of MSS data sets awaiting

service reduced from 6.0 to 1.1. This

in turn was reflected in improved batch

performance by reducing long wait

swapped out time from U.3 to 2.1

minutes and average job elapsed time

from 11.5 to 7-9 minutes. This also

effects the batch service queues by

reducing average job input queue time

from 65 to 20 minutes. The TSO system

also benefited as evidence the

reduction from 2.2 to 1.5 seconds in

TSO trivial response time while the

228
workload executed by TSO increased

from 55,000 to 67,000 transaction per

day. This increased workload was also

evidenced in the increase in CPU busy

from 65 to 85%.

Two notes on those results -

1. All of this was accomplished with

an increase of only two DASD

volume s

.

2. The greatest performance

improvements were realized by

eliminating the allocation of new

MSS data sets directly to MSS (i.e.

reader busy was reduced from 80% to 57% after this was implemented) and

the dedication of 8360 's as local

page data sets (this increased the

CPU busy percentage from a level of

75% to a level of 85%).

We are satisfied that the results

experienced justified the effort

expended

.

4.1 Continuous Monitoring

In order to insure a good system

performance, continuous monitoring of

the DASD/MSS environment was done.

This included weekly reviews of:

1. DASD channel and string usage using

RMF data.

2. DASD pack usage and queueing using

RMF data.

3. Allocated and available DASD space

using DMS reports.

4. MSS available space using IDCAMS

utility reports.

5. MSS reader busy and data set staging performance using SAS analysis of MSS trace files.

Any time the data indicated a problem

in, a particular area corrective action

was taken immediately. This prevented

small performance problems from

becoming major system bottlenecks.

4.2 Experiences

Not always was it obvious that the end

would justify the means. There were

times where it was doubtful any

progress could be made. I felt it

would be informative to relate some of our more interesting experiences.

1. Data set naming standards - the users were given six weeks notice

that only standard names would be

retained - all non-standard data

sets would be deleted. The user community said there was no way

they could handle that change in

under one year. Management

supported our decision and we cut over as planned. Suprisingly, there were fewer than ten requests to restore data sets of the more than

4000 that were scratched. That

indicated to us the larger number

of unused data sets on DASD and MSS.

2. Private packs - next to the naming

standards the elimination of

private packs was the least liked

of our changes. But we found that

if the needed space was provided

when the user required it that was

all that the user desired. They

didn't relly want or need their own volume

.

3. Reference date updates - since DMS

used a data set's last reference

date for migration purposes it was Imperative that this be accurate.

We found that soon after we implemented our plan users developed programs that opened all

their data sets on a weekly basis

in order that they remain on DASD. We have caught a few users doing

this and stopped them. We have

also coded programs that process

SMF data to identify this activity

and report it to upper management.

4. PDS directory problems - with our release of MVS (SE2) there occurred

a problem. DMS updates the VTOC

each time a data set is opened ;the

reference time, date, and jobname.

If two users are updating the same partitioned data set, a problem can occur of having overlapped VTOC

updates which are not replaced in

the correct sequence. After losing

track of a few partitioned data

sets, we turned DMS tracking of

system-wide partitioned data sets

off.

229
MSS maintenance procedures - due to

the way MSS picks and stages each

data set, any maintenance which

operates at the data set level is

very time consuming. DMS operates

at this level, and it takes about 12 hours to do a DMS backup of 30 MSS

volumes and three (3) hours to scan

100 MSS volumes for invalid data

set names. For this we chose the

incremental backup featyre if DMS

whereby only changed data sets are backed up. This dramatically

reduced our maintenance time.

Large record length on MSS - a data

set with a record length larger

than track size (13030 bytes) could

not be placed on MSS. This

occurred because the DASD (3350)

maximum is (19069 bytes). We had no solution to this problem and were

forced to move these data sets to tape after two months of non-use.

Non-catalogued data sets - all of our migrations from MSS to DASD and

vice versa assume that the user can

find the location of his data set by means of its catalog entry. For that reason all volume references

had to be removed and all

non-catalogued data sets were

deleted

.

Empty data sets - when the initial

migration concept was announced

many users sought to guarantee DASD

space by allocating empty data sets

just in case they would need it.

DMS released over-allocated space

but as of this writing could not free totally empty data sets. This

resulted in a manual process of

reviewing listings and deleting

empty data sets.

APF libraries - data sets in the

Authorized Program Facility have

their volume serial number listed.

Movement of these data sets caused

system problems. We had to exclude

these from our migration.

10. Release over-allocated. Through

the use of DMS we released

over-allocated space in

partitioned and sequential data

sets. We averaged two volumes of

space released during every weekly

run. This process required less

than fifteen minutes per week.

5. Conclusion.

In summary there are three areas which were vital for the success of this

project. They were communication to the user community, management

commitment; and credibility.

Throughout our effort we continually

communicated with the user via letters

to their management and bulletins to the programmers as to what we were

doing, when the change was effective,

why things were changing, and the

effect of the change. To this end we made extensive use of an already

established user group. This user group contained one representive from

each application and served as our liaison to the users.

There were numerous times where the user complaints of changes required

could have turned management off to our project. But fortunately they

stuck with us and weathered the storm. With their backing the

changes were made, the standards wer^

followed, and our project was a success.

The fact that we showed the user that we could deliver service was very

important. After placing all those

restrictions on them if we had not been able to accomodate legitimate

space requests all of our efforts

would have been for naught. I feel

this was the most important concept of

making a data set placement and

migration plan work-credibility with

the user community.

I would like to acknowledge the

efforts of Greg Marshall, in trouble

shooting DMS problems and Jeff Wides,

for sharing his MSS expertise and

performance data.

230
DASD CAPACITY PLANNING

3350 DASD

Keith E. Silliman

IBM Corporation

Federal Systems Division

18100 Frederick Pike

Gaithersburg, MD 20879

A pragmatic approach to Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) I/O

capacity is viewed as the ability to do I/O in terms of the number of I/O

operations and bytes of data transferred. Maximum and "average" I/O

capacity algorithms are developed for 3350 DASD, Data transfer and

density of reference capacity values are derived. Examples of capacity

value usage are given.

Key Words: DASD I/O Capacity, Density of Data Reference, I/O Capacity

Algorithms, 3350 DASD.

INTRODUCTION

There is an increased need to understand

the capacity of Direct Access Storage Devices

(DASD) to do I/O, in terms of the number of

I/O operations or data bytes transferred per

unit of time. DASD technology has made

tremendous advances in increasing data

density. The resulting reduction in the cost per megabyte has made possible increased

amounts of "online" data. Those increased

amounts of online data, the fixed size of

existing computer facilities, and the

increasing floor space costs associated with

new facilities have necessitated even higher

density DASD.

Sizing of DASD subsystem based on the

number of megabytes of data to be stored,

floor space, and available funds frequently

produce configurations with the fewest number

of the highest density DASD available. As a result, we believe there is an increased

awareness of the performance impact of the

I/O subsystem [ 1,2,3,^,5,6 ] and considerable emphasis is being placed on capacity

planning [ 7,8,9 ].

DASD capacity to do I/O is a critical

consideration in the design and tuning of

high performance computer systems, especially

online, data retrieval or Data Base

Management Systems (DBMS). Increasing

amounts of data are stored, accessed and

retrieved from DASD. Responsive user interactions require an adequate DASD

subsystem. The design of the DASD subsystem,

inturn, depends on definitive system

requirements and knowledge of device

characteristics and capacities. This paper

explores the capacity of the 3350-type DASD

to do I/O in an IBM 3/370 MVS environment.

3350 DASD

The IBM 3350 [10] is a large capacity,

fast access, high data rate. Direct Access

Storage Device unit. A unit consists of two

drives, each with a head/disk assembly (HDA)

with 16 recording surfaces. Each drive has a data storage capacity of 317.5 million bytes,

allocated in 16,650 tracks (19,069 bytes per track) and grouped into 555 cylinders (30

tracks per cylinder). The disks rotate at 3,600 revolutions per minute, sixty

revolutions per second, or once every 16.7

milliseconds. A minimum of 10 milliseconds

is required to move the access mechanism

(read/write head). The maximum head movement

time (seek) is 50 milliseconds. The data

transfer rate is 1.198 million bytes per second

.

231
The 3350 is a Rotation Position Sensing

(RPS) device [11]. It logically disconnects

from the channel following the set sector

conmand and waits for the specified sector to come under the read/write head. That waiting

time is the rotational delay time. When the

specified sector comes under the read/write

head, the device attempts to logically

reconnect with the channel. Following a successful reconnect, data transfer

commences. At the end of data transfer, a simultaneous channel end/device end I/O

interrupt is presented to the CPU, completing

the DASD portion of the I/O operation.

A projection of device utilization to

100 percent with a device service time of 20 milliseconds indicates a device capacity of

180,000 I/O operations per hour or 50 per

second. If the device service time was 16.7

milliseconds and 100 percent busy, the

capacity would be 216,000 I/Os per hour or 60

per second (one per revolution)

.

However, the elongated queue delay effect as

a function of resource utilization (response

time = service time/(1-resource utilization)

will cause I/O response time degradation with

higher device utilizations.

If at I/O initiation time the read/write

head is not positioned to correct cylinder, a seek occurs to move it. During the seek, the

I/O pathway is available to service other

requests. At seek completion, the channel is

notified and the set sector command is

issued .

If the device cannot logically reconnect

because a pathway component is busy (i.e.,

head of string, control unit, or channel), a missed reconnect occurs and a full rotation

(16.7 milliseconds) must complete before

another logical reconnect is attempted. All

the while, the device is busy "processing"

the I/O operation.

3350 CAPACITY MEASUREMENTS

Measurements of I/O activity provide

insight to DASD I/O capacity. A plot of 3350

device busy and I/O operations per hour is

presented in Figure 1. The data plotted are one-hour samples for individual 3350 devices

that exhibited device utilization greater

than 10 percent. (The 10 percent threshold

was an arbitrary choice to reduce the total

number of samples plotted.) They are from a one-week period on two IBM S/370 158 attached

processor (mixed online and batch workload)

systems and an IBM 3033 (batch) system. The

maximum rate for a one-hour sample was

approximately 127,000 I/O operations, or 35 per second, and a 72 percent device

util ization

.

33§0 I/O CAPACITY

MEASURED 1 HOUR SAMPLER

so

«> P fiOC- 30- o ao

10- Legend

X saas 30000 72000 lOaOOO 144000 180000 I/O OPERATIONS / HOUR

FIGURE 1 3350 I/O CAPACITY MEASURED 1 HOUR SAMPLES

A measure of queue delay is plotted with

device busy for the same samples and is

presented in Figure 2. That plot indicates

an increase of queue delay with increased

device utilization but with some significant

deviations. Samples of relatively high

device utilization and low queue delay occur, implying synchonized arrivals, probably a single user on the device.

The plot in Figure 1 indicates an average device service time of approximately

20 milliseconds (derived by multiplying the

device utilization by the number of seconds

per hour and dividing by the number of I/Os per hour) . Samples in the lower right have

shorter device services times, indicating

small effective data block sizes and/or

minimal seeks and missed reconnects. Samples

in the upper left have longer device service

times, indicating larger effective data block

sizes and/or increased number or duration of

seeks and missed reconnects.

232
3350 I/O qUEUEING

MEASURED 1 HOUR SAMPLES

mso- o

80- X

W- 1 ao00~ X*

X

X

4oaoao- Legend

to- * IBB &P

X soas 0- A iBS53B4StoflB7BaBge

PIRCBNT I/O ^UBUGD

FIGURE 2 3350 I/O QUEUEIKC MEASUSED 1 HOUS SAMPLEStask then processes the data read or prepares

additional data to be written and may repeat

the process. A schematic diagram of a complete DASD I/O operation is presented in

Figure 3.

10

Tim*

I0S2 I A«o«k«T(on

I flotnien Y_ _ _ Tf I

0*nc* Sanrla Tim*

Excp Tima

General guidelines, or rules-of- thumb

,

for performance tracking and comparison have

been developed. Batch system environment

values are 35 percent device busy and an average queue length of 0.1 [2,33. Data base

system values are 30 percent device busy and

average queue length of 0.04 [4]. Measured

I/O activity rates for 30 to 35 percent

device utilization are 36,000 to 72,000 per

hour or 10 to 20 per second (see Figure 1).

Up to 15 percent of the I/O operations are queued for 30 to 35 percent device

utilization (see Figure 2).

DASD I/O

A DASD I/O operation is the sum of a combined effort of the CPU, channel, control

unit, head of string, and device. The

sequence of events is as follows: A software

task requests a DASD I/O operation by

executing the Execute Channel Program (EXCP)

code which includes a Start I/O (SIO)

instruction. With the successful execution

of the SIO (condition code = 0), the I/O

subsystem portion of the operation is

initiated. A seek may occur to position the

read/write head to the specified cylinder.

The set sector command is issued by the

channel. The device revolves to position the

requested data area under the read/write

head. The device logically reconnects with

the channel and data transfers. The

simultaneous channel end/device end I/O

interrupt is processed by the I/O Supervisor

(lOS) routines in the CPU. Finally, the task

that requested the I/O operation is informed

that the data transfer has completed. That

Device service time is the elapsed time

from successful SIO to data transfer

completion [3,4]. The EXCP, or I/O time, is

the device service time plus the combined CPU

processing of the EXCP, any queue delay

incurred initiating the I/O, and the I/O

interrupt processing which follows data

transfer

.

The DASD I/O process may be interrupted

or delayed at any of several steps. Higher

priority tasks may preempt the CPU from the

task attempting to execute the EXCP. A busy

component of the logical channel (channel or device) can cause the request to be queued

for later processing when the component is

available [1]. An unsuccessful SIO

(condition code = 1) will occur if the DASD

control unit or head of string is busy even though the channel and device are not busy

[3]. Tha condition occurs in a shared DASD

or a channel/ string switched environment.

Seek frequency and duration are a function of

data set placement, access methods used, and

concurrency of device use. The duration of

rotational delay is primarily a function of

missed reconnects which occur because of I/O

pathway component busy.

Our experience indicates that DASD I/O

times (from EXCP to EXCP) should average 100 milliseconds or less on S/370 Model 158 or larger systems. Five general areas contrib233
ute to that elapsed time: (1) CPU time re- quired to execute the EXCP and process the

I/O interrupt, (2) logical channel queue time

waiting to successfully start the I/O, (3)

seek time, (4) rotational delay time, and (5)

data transfer.

The time required by the CPU to process a DASD I/O operation depends on the CPU speed

(MIPS/MOPS) and the number of instructions

executed. Measurements of MVS environments

indicate 10,000 to 50,000 instructions per

I/O operation [5] for supervisory and

application functions combined. The number

of supervisory instructions is fixed for a given access method. "In MVS 3.7 . . . the

path length for an EXCP is approximately 3800

instructions" [12]. The number of

application instructions depends on the data

block size and the intensity of the scan of

the data read or the build process for data

written. The number of instructions divided

by the CPU instruction processing rate

provides the CPU time.

The logical channel queue time is the

delay time spent waiting for the required I/O

pathway components to become available to satisfy the request and is a function of the

I/O subsystem utilization [6]. The magnitude

of the delay will vary up to a multiple of

the device service time when multiple

requests are made to an individual drive.

The seek time delay will occur whenever

the read/write head is not positioned at the

correct cylinder. Seek times for an IBM 3350

are 10 to 50 milliseconds. Random access

data will generally have one seek per I/O

operation, whereas sequentially accessed data

will generally have multiple I/Os per seek.

On a contended DASD, even sequentially

accessed data may have one seek per I/O.

Rotational delay time will occur for

essentially every DASD I/O. The average

rotational delay (not including missed

reconnects) is 8.3 milliseconds (one-half of

a revolution) . Missed reconnects occur as a function of the I/O pathway component

utilization [6]. Each missed reconnect adds

16.7 milliseconds to device service time and

corresponding increases in I/O response time.

Consecutive missed reconnects can, and do,

happen

.

Data transfer time depends on the data

block size; the number of bytes transferred

at the rate of 1.198 million bytes per second

(roughly 1,000 bytes per millisecond). For direct access I/O using Basic Direct Access

Method (BDAM), the effective data block size

is the actual block size. Using search

previous I/O, with either Basic Sequential

Access Method (BSAM) or Queued Sequential

Access Method (QSAM) , may result in an "effective" data block size twice the actual

block size [31. Use of multiple buffers may

also cause the effective data block size to

be larger than the actual.

Three of the I/O component times (CPU

time, seek time, and data transfer time) are fixed as a function of the hardware and

software. Logical channel queue time and

rotational delay time, including missed

reconnects, are not bounded, especially in a shared DASD environment.

DASD CAPACITY DISCUSSION

The preceding discussion of 3350 DASD,

DASD I/O characteristics, and the data

presented in Figure 1 indicate that, in

general, a maximum of one I/O operation can occur per device revolution, or 60 per

second. Because of contention at the CPU and

I/O pathway component level (seeks, missed

reconnects, and variable data transfer

times) , the "average" capacity is significantly less then one transfer per revolution.

Consecutive data blocks can be read or written (if the CPU is fast enough to execute

the required I/Os and application instructions to process the previous I/O interrupt,

process the data, and initiate the next I/O

operation) in consecutive device revolutions,

assuming sequential BDAM reads or writes on one cylinder (no seeks) of a dedicated device, string, control unit, channel, and CPU. However , after the last data block on a track

is transferred, the next revolution will occur without a data transfer. Following the

transfer of the last data block on the track

N, the CPU will be busy processing the I/O

interrupt while the first data block on track

N+1 is moving under the read/write head.

An analytical representation of that relationship for different data block sizes is

presented in Figure i». To read or write 10 consecutive one-tenth track size data blocks

requires 11 revolutions. An average of five

revolutions will be required to read or write

four one-quarter track data blocks. Two con- secutive half track blocks require an average

of three revolutions, and an average of three

revolutions, and an average of two revolutions will be required for each full track

block

.

DASD I/O CAPACITY ALGORITHM

Based on the assumption of the effective

maximum of one I/O operation per device

revolution and a missed revolution between

the consecutive accesses of the last data

23**
block on a track and the first on the next

track, a Maximum DASD I/O Capacity Algorithm

was develop)ed. That algorithm is as follows:

This algorithm indicates the maximum

capacity of a 3350-type DASD to be 216,000

I/Os per hour (60 I/Os per second) for very

small data block sizes. Capacity decreases

steadily with increased data block size to

108,000 I/Os per hour (30 I/Os per second)

for half track blocks (9,300 bytes) and

remains at that level to full track blocks

19,000 bytes). Data block sizes in excess of

full track cause a further decrease in I/O

capacity.

head movements (seeks), (3) missed reconnects, (4) and application tasks are not dispatched in a timely fashion. A minimum

seek (one cylinder) requires 10 milliseconds,

or more than half a revolution, a maximum

seek requires 50 milliseconds, or three

revolutions. A single missed reconnect

causes a 16.7 millisecond (one revolution)

delay.

"Average" DASD I/O capacity may be

one-third (or less) of the mazlmum capacity.

An algorithm for Average DASD I/O Capacity,

using the one-third value, is as follows:

Average DASD

I/O Capacity

Maximum DASD I/O Capacity

3.3

.10 Track Stock Sin

1740 BvtH CPU

Oi/Cu

D«vici

.25 TndE Block Sn

4628 Byw

CPU

0«v

50 Trtdc Block S»

CPU

Oi/Cu

LXTrKdc Block Su

1902S

CPU

Ch/Cu

-I—J _ CE/DE mSI

PSIO CE/OE SIO

CE/OE SIO CE/DE SIO

CE/OE SIO n I ^ p

wsn wmn mm

CE/DE EnSIO

] I

CE/OE SIO a

CE/DE SIO CE/DE

I

Figuie 4 Aa:e»ing Comtcutiva Data Blocks

This algorithm indicates the average

capacity of a 3350 DASD to be approximately

65,000 I/O's per hour (18 I/Os per second)

for very small data block sizes. With

increased data block size, it decreases to 32,000 I/Os per hour (9 I/Os per second) for

half track (9,300 bytes) data blocks and

remains at that level to full track (19,000

bytes) block size. Figure 5 presents the

algorithm results for maximum and average

DASD I/O capacity for data block sizes from

1,000 to 19,000 bytes per data block.

MODELED 3350 PERFORMANCE

I/O PER

eo- M46- g

«- 8 »- ^ 30- O

:> iB12-

0-

0-

C> 1 k

-|—I—I—I—I—I—r-

"T

I I . 1—1—

I

Legend

A MAXIMWM

EFFBCTIViS DATA BLOCK SIZE k bytes

AVERAGE DASD I/O CAPACITY

FICUEIE 5 MODELED 3350 PERFORMANCE I/O PER SECOND VS DATA BLOCK SIZE

The "average" capacity should be of

primary interest to the computer systems

analyst not the maximum capacity. Where

average connotes practical or realistic

values. The maximum rate projections assumed

dedicated CPU and I/O subsystem components.

DASD revolutions will be missed (i.e., go unused ) in a contended environment because;

(1) I/O operations cannot be initiated, (2)

The I/O capacity values obtained from the

algorithm are consistent with the measurement

data presented in Figure 1 and the "rule-ofthumb" value of 30 to 35 percent for I/O

component busy. Twenty-seven percent (62 of

229) of the samples in Figure 1 are between

32,000 and 65,000 I/Os per hour. Only six

percent (14 of 229) exceed 65,000 per hour.

235
Those values are from a population of samples

of unknown data block sizes that did not include any samples with device utilization

less than ten percent.

The 35 percent device busy rule of thumb

implies similar capacity values. For device

service times of 20 milliseconds (approximately the value derived from the samples in

Figure 1), the device capacity at 35 percent

busy would be 63,000 I/Os per hour or 17.5

per second (.35 * 3600 / .020 sec). For 35

millisecond device service times, the device

capacity would be 36,000 I/Os per hour or 10 per second (.35 * 3600 / .035 sec). For a constant device utilization value (e.g., 35 percent), the device capacity decreases as device service time increases.

DATA TRANSFER CAPACITY

Multiplying the derived DASD I/O

capacity values by the corresponding data

block sizes produces capacity data rates in

bytes transferred. The maximum and "average"

data rate capacities are plotted as a function of data block size in Figure 6. The

maximum data rate capacity indicated is

approximately 570,000 bytes per second (30

full track blocks) which is half the 1,198

million bytes per second instantaneous data

rate. The corresponding average data rate capacity is 170,000 bytes per second (9 full

track blocks ) . Smaller data block sizes

produce a lesser number of bytes per second even though the number of data blocks

transferred is larger.

MODELED 3350 PERFORMANCE

BYTES PER SECOND VS DATA BLOCK SIZE

Legend

10 ti |2 18 14 IS 10 IT 10 IS BFFBCTIVE DATA BLOCK SIZE k bytes

DENSITY OF REFERENCE CAPACITY

Dividing the algorithm-derived I/O

capacity values by the number of hundreds of

megabytes of data stored on a 3350 (3.17)

gives a measure of I/O capacity per 100

megabytes of data storage, or Density of

Reference Capacity. The maximum and average

3350 density of reference capacities are

plotted as a function of data block size in Figure 7. The maximum density of reference

(per 100 megabytes ) is indicated to be 18 I/Os per second for very small data block

sizes, decreasing with increased data block

size to 9 I/Os per second for half track and

larger. The average density of reference is

indicated to be 5 I/Os per second for very

small data block sizes, decreasing with

increased data block sizes to 3 I/Os per

second at half track and larger data block

si zes

.

CAPACITY VALUE USAGE

DASD I/O capacity values can be utilized

as guideline, or rule-of-thumb values. For

example, while doing a data flow analysis of

a planned response-oriented computer system,

the implicit requirement to accomplish 18-20

I/Os per second (at 4 k bytes each) to a 3350

file becomes apparent. A comparison with the

3350 DASD capacity values indicates that

18-20 I/Os per second is within the capacity

of the device but above the average for that

data block size. Project management should

be alerted to a possible performance problem.

Cost/ performance trade studies should be

initiated to assess the benefit/ impact of increasing the data block size or distributing

the data file (and accesses) across multiple

devices

.

FIGURE 6 HODELBD 3350 PERFORMANCE BYTES PER SECOND VS DATA BLOCK SIZE

MODELED 3350 PERFORMANCE

DENSITY OF DATA REFERENCE

0 i 2 8 i s i ^ 0 a lb U l2 lb 14 lb 10 0* M lb iFFBCnVB DATA BLOCK SIZE k bytes

Legend

A MAXIICai

FIGURE 7 HODELED 3350 PERFORMANCE DENSITY OF DATA REFERENCE

236
The planning process for the migration

of data from 3330-1 to 3350 DASD could use these values. I/O activity rates on the

existing DASD are either known or measurable

values. For 3330-1 DASD, the I/O rate

measures are density of reference values per

100 megabytes because of 3330-1 is a 100 megabyte device. Comparison of those 3330-1

values with the derived 3350 values indicates

whether the I/O capacity requirements of the

data to be moved exceeds the capacity of the

intended 3350 DASD. Average density of

reference of the volumes to be migrated

should not exceed the projected value for the

receiving device. If the I/O rate to

existing 3330-1 volumes exceeds the projected

values for 3350s, the migration may result in increased I/O contention and degrade I/O

response times.

Systems tuners should compare these

capacity values with their system measurements. Significant deviations, either below

or above these values, warrant further

investigation. Systems not completing work

or providing unsatisfactory response times

should be expecially scrutinized. If

sufficient workload exists, low activity

rates (less than 5 I/Os per second) on the

most active devices may indicate excessive

head movement or I/O pathway contention

problems. Values above the average may

indicate too much data per volume (data base)

or insufficient number of devices (paging and

public work space). Systems with heavily

accessed volumes (10 to 20, or greater, I/Os

per second) and a CPU with a significant

amounts of wait time (20 to 30 percent or greater) need to have the access frequency/

contention reduced by distributing the data

accesses across more devices.

SUMMARY

We believe DASD capacity should mean more than the number of bytes of data stored

on the device. Computer system analysts and

managers need to become sensitive to DASD

capacity to do I/O, the number of I/O operations, and the bytes of data transferred per

unit time.

A discussion was presented indicating

the combined, coordinated interaction of the

CPU and I/O subsystem components required to accomplish DASD I/O. The speed of the CPU

does not contribute to DASD I/O capacity or impairment thereof as long as the combined

instruction execution time of I/Os and application code and any resultant CPU queue delay

is less than the revolution period, of the

DASD (16.7 milliseconds for 3350s). CPUs

with less capacity than a S/370 Model 158,

application functions with a high level of

data manipulation, or a high multiprogramming

level may have 3350 DASD I/O capacities lower

than indicated here.

A 3350 DASD I/O capacity algorithm that

quantifies DASD I/O capacity, I/Os per

second, and bytes transferred per second has

been developed. Maximum and average capacity

predictions were made. We believe this

algorithm can be generalized to all DASD but

have restricted our presentations and

discussion to 3350-type DASD. Units of

measure and predicted values are presented

for DASD density of reference. They may be

helpful in migration of data to higher

density DASD.

The effective data block size and DASD

track size are critical components of DASD

I/O capacity. In general, the maximum number

of I/O operations per second occur with the

smallest block sizes where the CPU and data

transfer times are minimized. For small data

block sizes, the majority of the resource utilization burden is on the CPU. Increased

data block size cause additional CPU costs to process the data as well as increased transfer timesv However, CPU utilization de- creases because I/O operations occur less

frequently, whereas I/O pathway component

utilization increases. The overall time

required to process a given amount of data is

reduced because of the dramatically increased

number of bytes of data transferred per

second

.

The number of blocks of data per track

determines the maximum I/O capacity of a DASD. Missing the next consecutive data

block in a sequential I/O operation following

the last block on the track becomes increasingly frequent with increased block size. For data block sizes greater than half track,

essentially every data block is the last one

on the track.

The I/O capacity measures of DASD I/O

operations per second may be a more meaningful guideline than the 30 to 35 percent

device utilization r ule-of-thumb values.

Average 3350 DASD I/O capacity is predicted

to be between 9 and 18 I/O operations per second, depending on the effective data block

size (for one-hour intervals). Unknown data

block sizes can be approximated (channel

service time multiplied by the device transfer rate) .

237
References

1. K. Ziegler, Jr., "DASD Configuration and

Sharing Considerations," Technical

Bulletin GG22-9052, IBM Corporation

(1978), Available through the local IBM Branch Office.

2. '0S/VS2 MVS Performance Notebook,'

GC28-0886, IBM Corporation (1979).

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office

.

12, C. C. Burns, "Memory Can Increase Your Capacity," Technical Bulletin

GG22-9053, IBM Corporation (1981),

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office.

3. R. M. Schardt, "An MVS Tuning Approach,"

IBM Systems Journal 19, No. 1, 102-119

(1980).

4. S. Holt, "Information Management System

- Virtual Storage - Multiple Virtual

Storage (IMS/VS/MVS) Performance and

Tuning Guide," Technical Bulletin

G320-6004, IBM Corporation (1980),

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office.

5. J. B. Major, "Processor, I/O Path and

DASD Configuration Capacity," IBM Systems Journal 20, No. 1, 63-85 (1981).

6. S. E. Frisenborg, "DASD Path and

Device Contention Considerations,"

Technical Bulletin G22-9217 (1981) IBM Corporation, Available through the local

IBM Branch Office.

7. L. Bronner, "Capacity Planning: An Introduction," Technical Bulletin

GG22-9001, IBM Corporation (1977),

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office

.

8. L. Bronner, "Capacity Planning:

Implementation," Technical Bulletin

GG22-9015, IBM Corporation (1979),

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office.

9. 'Capacity Planning Extended (CPX),'

SB21-2392, IBM Corporation (1981),

Available through the local IBM Branch

Office.

10. 'Reference Manual for IBM 3350 Direct

Access Storage,' GA26-1638, IBM

Corporation (1977), Available through

the local IBM Branch Office.

11. D. T. Brown, R. L. Eibsen, and C. A. Thorn, "Channel and Direct Access Device

Architecture," IBM Systems Journal 11, No. 3. 186-199 (1972).

238
AN ANALYSIS OF A CDC844-41 DISK SUBSYSTEM

J. William Atwood Keh-Chiang Yu

Department of Computer Sciences

University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX 78712

In contrast with IBM control programs, input/output supervisor

software for CDC systems frequently issues transfer requests for entire program images (e.g., when loading or rolling out a program). These program image transfers have substantially larger service times than regular input/output accesses. A detailed simulation model has been

used to show that, for CDC systems, significant performance advantages

normally accrue when the access path to the rollout files is disjoint

from the path(s) used for regular input/output accesses. The system modelled has a 12-spindle CDC 844-41 disk subsystem, which is shared between two CDC Cyber 170/750 central processors. Projections for a 20-spindle subsystem are also reported.

Keywords: CDC 844-41; computer system evaluation; disk subsystem con- figurations; input/output; modeling; rollin/rollout files; simulation.

1 . Introduction

After an upgrade in central processor capacity at the Computation Center of the University of Texas at Austin (UTA), a careful measurement study was instituted to evaluate the performance of the new configuration. Event-trace data were recorded from the system, and a simulation

model was validated. The model was used to project the performance of the system if the file allocation algorithms were altered in order to minimize the expected seek time for the disk subsystem. The observed data and the model results have been reported in [1].^

While making the measurements it was observed that typical service times for most input/output accesses to the disk subsystem

were in the range of 35-45 ms. However, rollout accesses had typical service times

in the range of 150-250 ms. Input/output

software for CDC processors normally

processes these two kinds of access

identically, i.e., a new file is allocated

space in the next (or most) available

spindle, regardless of the type of the file. Thus the disk subsystem appears as a number

Present address: Department of Computer Science Concordia University

2 Montreal, Quebec, Canada Figures in brackets indicate the literature

references at the end of this paper.

of identical servers, with a service time distribution containing two distinct

components with widely differing means.

When the two new CDC Cyber 170/750 processors were installed at UTA, the disk subsystem consisted of 12 spindles and three controllers. After examining the preliminary measurement results, it was conjectured that the merging of rollout file accesses with regular file accesses was operating to the detriment of the overall performance of the disk subsystem. When the rollout files were confined to a single disk

spindle, connected to the processors through

a fourth controller, a spectacular

improvement was observed, in that the interactive response time for short requests

dropped by a factor of four.

As it was not clear whether the improvement was due to the separation of the

two file types, or to the additional

capacity provided by the new controller, a study was instituted to examine various disk

subsystem configurations, and recommend a best configuration for maximizing the performance of the overall system. It has been found that separation of rollout files

from regular files results in improved

performance, except in certain cases of

severe overload of the disk subsystem.

In section 2 , the important

characteristics of the disk subsystem are discussed. Section 3 contains a discussion

of the experimental environment in which the disk parameters were measured. Section 4

239
introduces the simulation model. Section 5 gives some data concerning the observed performance of the various parts of the disk

subsystem. In section 6, the model projections for various 12-spindle

configurations are presented, and the observed effects are explained. In sections

7 and 8, configurations with altered file management algorithms and increased numbers

of spindles are evaluated, and the desirability of separating rollout and regular file accesses is shown to be even greater than for the cases reported in section 6. Section 9 concludes the paper with discussion of the results and indications of directions for further research.

2. Disk Subsystem Parameters

2.1 Disk Subsystem Configurations

In the CDC Cyber 170 system measured,

each 844-41 (IBM 3330-equivalent) disk spindle is connected to two 7154 controllers, which are each connected, via a channel and a peripheral processor (PP), to both central processors.

2.2 Data Arrangement

CDC 844-41 disks are sectored; there

are 24 sectors per recording surface, and 19 data recording surfaces per cylinder, making

a total of 456 sectors per cylinder. Because the 7154 controller can buffer only

one sector at a time, a PP cannot transfer a received sector to central memory and issue

the read function for the next sector before

it has passed the read heads. Therefore

files are allocated to alternating sectors:

a logical track consists entirely of even-numbered sectors on a cylinder, or odd-numbered sectors. This is called half-tracking by CDC. For the UT-2D control

program [2] used on the system measured, a logical track contains 228 sectors. For CDC's Network Operating System (NOS) [3],

running on CDC 6000 Series or Cyber processors, the disk is divided into top and bottom (9-surface) halves, and a logical track contains 107 sectors.

2.3 File Types

For UT-2D and NOS, files are of four types: system files, rollout files,

permanent files, and local files. In UT-2D,

permanent files are allocated using a ring counter, to spread them evenly across all spindles. Local files are allocated to the "least full" spindle. Space for all file types is allocated in units of one logical

track. For UT-2D, when a logical track is requested to create or extend a file, the first (lowest numbered) track on the selected spindle is chosen. This tends to pack the disk towards the lower-numbered

cylinders, and to spread all file types

evenly across all in-use cylinders. When

the last sector of a logical track is read

or written, the PP program must follow a track chain (in a table in central mem.ory) to determine the location (on disk) of the logical track containing the next sequential

sector of the file.

I/O software within NOS and UT-2D requests transfers in units of a sector, which makes it convenient to specify any

unit of transfer from one sector up to several logical tracks in one I/O request.

Requests originating from user programs normally involve the transfer of small quantities of information. Requests

originating directly from control program activity normally involve the transfer of much larger blocks of information (e.g., a whole compiler) , and are also much less frequent

.

2.4 Disk Spindle Parameters

The elapsed time (service time), T . , at

a disk spindle required to complete a request for data transfer to/from a moveable-head disk consists of three components (see Figure 2-1):

1 . the time required to move the reading head to the cylinder

containing the data (seek time, T^)

;

2. the time required to rotate the spindle so that the data to be transferred is under the read/write

head (rotational latency time, T^^);

3. the time required to actually

transfer (read/write) the data between central memory and the disk

spindle (data transfer time, T. ).

T : seek time

sT^ : rotational latency time

T^ : data transfer time

Figure 2-1: Disk Subsystem Service Times

The time required to complete an I/O request consists of the disk service time,

plus waiting times for the disk, the controller, the channel, and a peripherial processor

.

3. Experimental Environment

3.1 System Configuration

The main computational resource at the University of Texas at Austin Computation

Center (at the time of the study) consisted

of two Cyber 170/750 central processors,

each with 262,144 60-bit words of central

240
memory, 20 peripheral processors, and 24 channels. The two Cyber processors share access to a 505,204 word extended core storage (ECS) facility, and to a mass

storage (disk) subsystem. The disk

subsystem consists of four CDC 7154 disk controllers and twelve spindles of CDC 844-41 disk storage.

The two processors run under control of

the UT-2D operating system [2]. The normal mode of operation is that interactive jobs

are run on CPU A, and batch jobs are run on

CPU B. When interactive jobs request input from their terminal, they are rolled out to ECS. If ECS gets too full, jobs with long residence times are swapped to a disk

spindle with its own controller. Batch jobs

are rolled out directly to the same swapping

spindle from central memory, without going

through ECS. System, local, and permanent

files are kept on the remaining eleven spindles, and accessed through three dual-access controllers.

UT-2D has two primary components in each processor: MTR (MoniToR), which

executes in PP zero, and which is in overall

control of the system (on that processor);

and CMR (Central Memory Resident), which

runs on the central processor, and performs

functions which are difficult or inconvenient for MTR to do itself (usually because they require substantial computational resources) . One other PP on each processor is dedicated to managing the system console display; the remaining 18 PPs form a pool to be used for input/output

operations and for other operating system

functions

.

3.2 Data Recording

Data concerning the operation of UT-2D were recorded by an event-trace probe embedded in MTR and CMR [4], using a buffer

managed by CMR. This buffer is periodically

written to tape by a transient PP routine.

For the models and data reported later in this paper, two tapes were running (one for each machine), over the same time period,

but the event recording was not synchronized

between the two machines.

Data concerning the disks were recorded

at the conclusion of each data transfer, by

the disk driver which is resident in all PP routines. All waiting times that occur from

the time that the channel is requested to the time that the channel is released are recorded. If the data transfer involves multiple logical tracks, the data for each

logical track are recorded separately, but

it is possible to distinguish these cases.

The data are reduced by an event delogging program called EVENTD [5], which produces statistics and histograms for events of interest, as well as a summary

page of overall statistics.

4. A Queueing Network Simulation Model

The results described in section 5 have

been used in a simulation model of the configuration described in section 3.1. The model is written in a queueing network

simulation language called QSIM [6]. The QSIM preprocessor converts the model description into a Fortran program. A simulation model was used because of the desire to accurately model the details of

the seek, latency, and data transfer activity, and because of the two-path switches in front of both the disk spindles

(access via two controllers), and the controllers (access from two CPUs).

The model has two levels, which represent the general job flow and the I/O subsystem, respectively. The first level consists of two closed chains which model

the processors, the tape drives, the rollin/rollout servers, and the user think

time. The second level model is patterned

after the physical interconnections (among

channels, controllers, and spindles) which occur in the actual system. Because of the fact that these resources are held simultaneously by a job, passive resources

[?] are used heavily in the model. The complete model is described in Yu [8].

This model was validated by comparing

its performance statistics to the observations reported in section 5. The essential feature required for model validation was the introduction of the multi-part model for the data transfer characteristic, as described in section 7.

5. Measured Values

5 . 1 Interactive Response Time

When an interactive transaction is completed, the program image is rolled out

to ECS. If the program image resides too long in ECS, it is copied to disk. When the interactive user hits carriage return, those images which have spilled over to disk must

first be copied back to ECS, prior to being

rolled into central memory. The interactive

response time thus consists of the time between the initiation of a request for rollin and the initiation of a request for rollout, for all transactions, plus the time required to copy from disk to ECS (the disk

subsystem response time for a rollin

request) , for those transactions which have spilled over, averaged over all transactions

.

5.2 Disk Subsystem Performance

Two trace tapes representing quite

different load situations are presented in the two following subsections.

5.2.1 Trace Tapes 72/73

Trace tapes 72 and 73 were taken on a busy day, at about 11.30 a.m. The number of interactive users on line was 109, but the demands that were placed on the two processors were relatively light. Therefore

these tapes represent a situation where no component of the disk subsystem is a bottleneck (i.e., has a substantial queue),

so that the disk subsystem is, in some

sense, operating in a "linear" range. Note, however, that the disk and controller utilizations are substantially in excess of

241
those recommended by CDC for this disk

subsystem.

Table 5-1: Disk Subsystem Times—Tapes 72/73

Interactive Batch

Pop* Time % Pop* Time

Regular Accesses

Chan wait 0 204 9 6 14 0 107 7 .0 10 Cont wait 0 240 1

1

3 17 0 294 19 .2 28 Spin wait 0 089 4 2 6 0 053 3 .5 5 Spin serv 0 911 42 8 63 0 586 38 .3 56

Total 1 444 67 9 100 1 040 68 .0 100

Rollout Accesses

Total 979.0 1064.0

* Average number of jobs waiting or being

served at each point.

Table 5-1 presents the components that make up the disk subsystem response time.

For regular file accesses, actual disk

service time accounts for two thirds of the disk subsystem response time, with the remaining one third resulting from queueing

for a channel or a controller. Thus queueing is present at the channel and at the controller, but it is not severe. The last line of Table 5-1 gives the disk sub- system response time for interactive spillover rollout and batch rollout requests.

5.2.2 Trace Tapes 74/75

Trace tapes 74 and 75 were taken on the same day as trace tapes 72 and 73. but at 3.30 p.m. The number of interactive users increased only slightly to 112, but the demands that they placed on the processors

were much heavier. Therefore the total controller capacity tends to limit the overall system performance, and the disk

subsystem is operating at well in excess of maximum reoomended utilization.

Table 5-2: Disk Subsystem Times—Tapes 74/75

Interactive Batch

Pop* Time % Pop* Time %

Chan wait 2 880 111 5 55 3 270 118 3 58 Cont wait 0 924 35 8 18 1 020 36 9 18 Spin wait 0 144 5 6 3 0 143 5 2 3 Spin serv 1 260 48 8 24 1 200 43 4 21

Total 5 208 201 7 100 5 633 203 8 100

Rollout Accesses

Total 904 .0 849.0

* Average number of jobs waiting or being

served at each point.

Table 5-2 presents the components that make up the disk subsystem response time.

For regular file accesses, the controller

wait is almost as large as the disk service

time, and the channel waiting time is larger

that the sum of all other wait times. Thus severe queueing is present at the channel

and the controller, and the disk subsystem

is overloaded. The last line of Table 5-2 gives the disk subsystem response time for interactive spillover rollout and batch

rollout requests. These are actually

slightly smaller than those for trace tapes

72/73.

6. Projections for Alternate Configurations

Several experiments have been performed

to examine the question: what is the effect

of merging rollout file accesses with regular (user) accesses to the disk

subsystem? Since rollout transfers tend to be much longer than regular transfers,

variance will be introduced into the service

time for the disk spindles, which will have

the effect of lengthening the response time

of the disk subsystem for regular accesses.

On the other hand, if the fourth controller

(used for rollout files) is less utilized

than the first three (used for regular

files) , then the average channel utilization

for regular files may be lowered, resulting

in a shortened disk subsystem response time. The disk subsystem response time for rollout

file accesses should be shortened in all cases, because more paths will be available.

Three configurations of the disk subsystem are presented:

1 . Three controllers and 1 1 spindles

for regular file accesses, arranged

in a triangle with (4, 4, 3) spindles on each leg, one controller

and one spindle dedicated to rollout

file transfers (configuration A). This is the actual hardware configuration measured.

2. Four controllers and 12 spindles,

arranged in a square with three spindles on each leg. All 12 spindles are used indiscriminately

for both kinds of transfers (configuration B)

.

3. Four controllers and 12 spindles,

arranged as for configuration B, but with rollout files confined to a single spindle, and regular files on the remaining eleven (configuration

C)

.

The motivation for configuration C is that

it is "similar" to configuration A in the sense that only one spindle contains rollout

files.

6.1 Trace Tapes 72/73

Table 6-1 reports the results for trace tapes 72 and 73. As can be seen, the rollout channel (channel 4, configuration A) has a utilization approximately equal to the utilization of the regular channels. Therefore, effects due to increased channel availability should be negligible, and the changes in system performance should be due entirely to the variance introduced by

merging the two classes of files.

242
Examining the data for configuration B, it may be seen that the disk subsystem

response time increases for regular

accesses, and decreases for rollout accesses, as expected. The overall controller utilizations, channel utilizations, and logical channel queue lengths increase, for both the interactive

and batch processors. As a result, the interactive response time increases by 13J, and the batch throughput drops by 2.4J.

rise, while the others fall, resulting in an unbalanced situation, and a further decrease

in system performance: interactive response

time rises by 25% compared with configuration A, and batch throughput falls

by 5.51. Note that when the system becomes

saturated, the two channels used for rollout

files will bottleneck first because of the unbalance. This suggests that confining the rollout activity to a single spindle is undesirable, when regular and rollout files

share controllers.

Table 6-1: Utilizations and response

times for tapes 72/73

Logical Channel Queue Length

Interactive

Table 6-2: Utilizations and response

times for tapes 74/75

Logical Channel Queue Length

1 2 3 4 Total Conf ig Interactive

1 2 3 4 Total Config

.076 . 080 .047 .430 0.633 A .123 . 156 .132 .117 0.528 B 1 .07 1 .06 .757 .436 3.323 A .119 . 059 .084 .822 1.084 C .661 .537 .484 .581 2.263 B .422 .285 .476 1 .42 2.603 C Batch

1 2 3 4 Total Config Batch

1 2 3 4 Total Config

.035 . 041 .028 .233 0.633 A

.101 . 074 .083 .080 0.338 B 1.26 1 .21 .800 .210 3.480 A .081 . 020 .041 .315 0.487 C 1 .00 1.03 .951 .955 3.936 B

1 .02 .627 .948 1 .45 4.045 C Channel Utilization

Interactive Channel Utilization

1 2 3 4 Total Config Interactive

1 2 3 4 Total Config

.415 . 440 .384 .459 1.698 A .468 474 .467 .459 1.868 B .771 .796 .762 .477 2.806 A .598 414 .361 .653 2.026 C .733 .753 .742 .720 2.948 B .806 .659 .638 .822 2.925 C Batch

1 2 3 4 Total Config Batch

1 2 3 4 Total Config

.312 , 332 .289 .415 1.348 A .379 376 .357 .361 1.473 B .775 .823 .768 .413 2.779 A .490 287 .235 .560 1.572 C .715 .723 .712 .693 2.843 B .792 .623 .584 .795 2.794 C Controller Utilization (interactive + batch)

1 2 3 4 Total Config Controller Utilization (interactive

1 2 3 4 Total Config

.551 575 .512 .607 2.245 A .592 599 .579 .579 2.349 B .914 .930 .908 .629 3.381 A .699 531 .470 .756 2,456 C .879 .890 .883 .866 3.518 B .915 .826 .794 .920 3.455 C Interactive Statistics

Configuration A

Response time 554 Disk subsystem response time (regular) 67.6

(rollout) 979

Batch Statistics

Configuration A

Throughput 25.4 Disk subsystem response time

(regular) 67.9

(rollout) 1064

626

92.6

417

695

103 897

Interactive Statistics

Configuration ABC

Response time 1664 1505 1534 Disk subsystem

response time

(regular) 202 179 (rollout) 904 577

172 1033

24.8 24.0

96.6

669

104 939

Batch Statistics

Configuration A

Throughput 42.3 Disk subsystem

response time (regular) 204 (rollout) 849

38.8 38.8

244 740242

947

With configuration C, the controller

and channel utilizations for those controllers connected to the rollout disk

243
6.2 Trace Tapes 7H/75

Table 6-2 presents the results of the analysis of configurations A, B, and C for trace tapes 74 and 75. As the utilization

of the rollout channel in configuration A is considerably smaller than the average utilization of the regular channels,

spreading the files evenly over four controllers lowers the average channel utilization for those channels which were

used for regular files in configuration A.

On the interactive processor, the decrease in response time due to more

channel availability is sufficient to overcome the increase caused by the introduction of variance, resulting in a modest improvement in the response time

(9.0% for configuration B, 7.8% for configuration C) , and in the disk subsystem

response time for regular file accesses. However, due to the larger variance on the batch processor (rollout file accesses are longer and regular file accesses are shorter), the net result is an 8.3% decrease

in batch throughput, accompanied by an increase in the disk subsystem response time

for regular file accesses. Note also that, because of controller saturation, the disk

subsystem response time for batch rollout

files accesses is worse in configuration C than it is in configuration A.

6.3 Discussion

These three experiments at two load levels appear to support our contention that

for normal to heavy loads, the variance

introduced by merging long and short accesses results in a reduced system

capacity, while for extremely heavy loads

the lowered channel utilizations compensate

for the variance effects, making the separate controller configuration less desirable

.

7 . Projections for Altered File Management

The distribution of data transfer times

for regular file accesses in UT-2D can be divided into four distinct components [1]:

1. An exponentially distributed component, with a mean of approximately 10 ms., representing normal user I/O;

2. An uniformly distributed component,

with a mean of 158 ms., representing

searches for end-of-information when updating random access files;

3. A component representing accesses requiring two seeks (i.e., the total data to be transferred in one access

is split between two physical

cylinders)

;

4. A component representing loading or checkpointing operations (typically

requiring three or more seeks)

.

The second component is an artifact of the organization of UT-2D file accesses, and is necessitated by the fact that the position

of the end-of-information sector within a logical track can only be determined by

reading sectors from the logical track until end-of-information is discovered. This

necessitates a search of, on average, one half of a cylinder, requiring one half of 19 rotations of the spindle, or 158.333 ras. In this section a series of experiments are reported in which this component is deleted

(i.e., the required information is assumed

to be stored in central memory)

.

Table 7-1 shows the change in disk subsystem response time for regular file accesses, for trace tapes 72/73 and 74/75.

Comparing case I with case II, it may be

seen that a substantial improvement in the disk spindle service time, T^ , has occurred.

This drop in T, is reflected in an even greater drop in the overall disk subsystem

response time, T , due to reduction of queueing caused by high channel and controller utilizations. (For example, for trace tape 74, a drop of 7.0 ms. in T, results in a drop of 90.0 ms. in the disk subsystem response time T .)

Table 7-1: Disk subsystem response times (regular file accesses).

Trace Tapes 72/73

Configuration A B C

System case T-r

T—

r

chg"^ T—

r

chg"^

Inter. I* 42.8 67 6 96 2 +42% 104. +53%

II 33.4 45 1 82 0 +82% 84.3 +87%

Batch I 38.3 67 9 96 6 +42% 104. +53%

II 31 .8 44 6 78 4 +76% 81 .8 +83%

Trace Tapes 74/75

Configuration A B C

System case T—

r

T—

r

chg"^ T—

r

chg"^

Inter

.

I* 48 9 202. 179. -11% 172. -15%

II 41 9 1 12. 131 . + 17% 138. +23%

Batch I 43 4 204. 244. +20% 262. +28%

II 39 4 123. 177. +44% 191. +55%

*I : before deletion

II: after deletion

"""percent change compared with config A

An additional result of interest is that, because the rollout file accesses and the regular file accesses now have mean service times that are even more disparate,

the variance introduced by merging the two file types together causes a greater

(percentage) degradation in the performance

of the disk subsystem in case II than is observed for case I.

Given that the uniform component in case I is an artifact of the organization of

file accesses in UT-2D, which may be easily corrected by reprogramming (in fact, this change has already been made) , it follows

that case II is the preferred mode of operation. This implies that separation of

244
rollout files from regular files is likely

to be desirable, even if the rollout controller is underutilized. This result

should therefore be applicable to other CDC operating systems, as the end-of-inforraation position is stored in central memory (in the File Status Table entry) for systems such as CDC's NOS [3]

.

8. A 20-3pindle Configuration

As the interactive processor utilization is less than 0.5 for a 12-spindle disk subsystem, and as other studies had indicated that interactive activity would saturate the disk subsystem

at about 150 users [1], various 20-spindle

configurations were investigated, with an interactive load of 200 users.

Various configurations were investigated: Configuration D is identical

to configuration A, except that two controllers are added, with eight spindles

between thera. Configurations E and F arrange the 20 spindles into two triangles,

with one rollout disk for each class of rollout file (batch and spillover

interactive) . Configurations G and H are similar to configuration C, except that eight spindles are added between two controllers, and two spindles are dedicated

to rollout files, as for configurations E and F.

Table 8-1: Statistics for 20-spindle

configuration

.

Configuration D E F G H D

Response time 1854 1836 1744 1795 1813 1424 Throughput 46.6 43.2 45.1 43.1 44.1 47.2

Disk Subsystem

response time Interactive

(regular) 133 199 189 197 202 146 (rollout) 5280 955 792 792 829 387 Batch

(regular) 113 185 159 185 179 122 (rollout) 1561 908 771 855 855 405

The first five columns of Table 8-1 give various statistics for the different

subsystem configurations. There is little

to choose among them: the largest and smallest response times differ by only six percent. However, the disk subsystem response time for interactive rollout file accesses is over five seconds for configuration D. This implies that this configuration is limited by the capacity of

the rollout channel. (Configurations E, F, G, and H have two rollout spindles;

configuration D has only one.) To compensate for this, the model was run using

a rollout transfer time that was approximately 40% smaller. (This

corresponds to the use of a full-tracking

disk with a controller capable of buffering

more than one physical record at a time.) The last column of Table 8-1 gives the result for this run. The interactive

response time and the batch throughput are

clearly superior to all other configurations

studied

.

This again reinforces our previous

conclusion that rollout file activity should

be separated from regular input/output

activity, especially if it can be given

adequate transfer capacity.

9. Discussion

9.1 Applicability of the Data

The data observed are for a unique

operating system, executing a computational

workload which is almost entirely researchand student-oriented, i.e., which has little business data processing component.

However, except for the way in which direct

access updating is done, UT-2D is essentially identical to NOS as far as organization of the I/O subsystem is concerned. Therefore we feel that the data

and the models presented here are also applicable to CDC 6000 Series and Cyber

systems operating under NOS. Valid models

for NOS systems could be obtained either by

deleting the direct access component (see section 7) in the present models, or by

running the models with data gathered

directly from a NOS system [9].

9.2 Comparison vilth IBH Systems

The transfer time characteristic has several components, and the details of its shape were essential to achieving validation

of the system model. The characteristic is radically different from published

characteristics for IBM 3330 systems [10,

11], in spite of the fact that the physical

equipment (disk spindle) is identical. This difference may be due to the fact that the I/O software of UT-2D (and NOS) organizes

data accesses to the disk subsystem in quite

different ways from the ways in which System/370 I/O Supervisors organize data accesses. This difference is so strong that Zahorjan [11] found no differences in his results when he varied the shape or the mean

value of the transfer time distribution, whereas our results depend critically on these parameters.

The major point of difference comes

from the decision to optimize locally [i.e.,

to reduce the total time for an individual

transfer (especially a long transfer such as

a rollout access)]. This makes CDC systems

fundamentally different from IBM systems

(even though the disk spindles are electrically identical). For CDC systems,

the possibility of extremely long transfers

will lead to a very large variance in the service time for data transfers, which will interfere severely with the ability of CDC disk subsystems to provide good service, because the waiting time for the controller

is very strongly influenced by the variance

of the service time for the disk spindles.

9.3 Study Results

In section 6.3 we have shown that,

except for extremely heavy loads, the measured system appears to operate more

245
efficiently if the rollout activity is separated from the regular activity. We note that the load represented by trace

tapes 74 and 75 is unusually high (it was created by reducing the number of disk

spindles from 20 to 12 for one day without

informing the users) , and as such would not normally occur in practice.

In section 7 we reinforce our conclusion, as the simulation model results

project that operation conditions closer to those in CDC's NOS show a clear preference

for separation.

In section 8 we note that the gains to

be made can also be invalidated if the rollout path is not allocated sufficient

transfer capacity. We therefore feel that

it is necessary to separate the rollout activity from regular I/O, in order to maximize the performance of the disk

subsystem, except when the whole disk

subsystem is sufficiently overloaded that increased channel availability can overcome

the effects of the variance introduced.

9.4 Future Work

A considerable amount of data is available in the trace tapes, which has not

been used in the present study. Since the original study was done, a simulation model

has been developed which was used to evaluate the utility of seek/read-write

overlap in this system. The results are reported in [ 1 ] . Further refinement of the rollin/rollout model elements is planned.

One solution to the long holding times is to apply preemption to the disk transfers,

i.e., to break them up into multiple

transfers with release of the channel periodically [12]. This will lower the variance of the disk spindle service time, but increase the elapsed time required to complete long operations, as interfering

disk arm movement may take place. A study

is currently planned to determine whether

the benefits which can be obtained outweigh

the disadvantages accruing from the preemption

.

In addition, the continuous holding of resources on the path between the central processor and the disk spindle is a major

factor contributing to the results presented

in this paper. Another study will examine

the performance improvement which results

when the disk subsystem requests are centrally scheduled, i.e., when the required resources (PP, channel, controller, spindle)

are not allocated until all are available.

The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the Computation

Center at the University of Texas at Austin,

expecially N. Person, W. Jones,

Dr. T. Keller, G. Smith, and Dr. C. Warlick,

and the encouragement of Dr. J.C. Browne,

who invited the first author to visit the University of Texas during 1979-80. This study was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada,

grant number A-8634, and in part by the

Computation Center and the Department of

Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

.

References

[1] Atwood, J.W., Yu, K.-C, and Mc Leod

,

A., An Emperical Study of a CDC 844-41 Disk Subsystem, Performance Evaluation

(accepted for puplication)

.

[2] Howard, J.H.. A Large Scale Dual Operating System, in Proceedings ACM Annual Conference 1973, pp. 242-248.

[3] NOS Version ^_ Reference Manual , Control

Data Corporation, St. Paul, Minn.,

1978. Publication numbers: 60435400

(Volume 1), 60445300 (Volume 2).

[4] Howard, J.H., and Wedel, W.M., The UT-2D operating system event recorder , Technical Report TSN-37 , University of

Texas at Austin Computation Center, February, 1974.

[5] Howard, J.H., and Wedel, W.M., EVENTD-UT-2D event tape summary/ dump , CCSN-38 (Revised), Texas at Austin

[6]

Technical Report

University of Computation Center, August, 1977. McGehearty, P.F., QSIM, an implementation of a language for the analysis of queueing network models,

M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, Dept. of Computer Sciences,

1974. See also Foster, D.V., McGehearty, P.F., Sauer, C.H., and Waggoner, C.N., A Language for Analysis

of Queueing Models, Fifth Annual Pittsburg Modeling and Simulation

Conference, April 1974. Sauer, C.H. and MacNair, E.A., Simultaneous Resource Possession in Queueing Models of Computers, Performance Evaluation Review , vol. 7, no. 1, 1978, pp. 41-52.

Yu, K.-C, The effect of system

configuration and file placement on the performance of a CDC 844-41 disk subsystem, M.A. Thesis, University of

Texas at Austin, Department of Computer

Sciences, 1980. Lo Cicero, C. , An event-trace study of

the performance of the I/O subsystem

for a CDC Cyber 172 computer,

M.Comp.Sci Thesis, Concordia

University, Dept. of Computer Science,

1980.

[10] Bard, Y. , A Model of Multipathing , Comm . No. 10, October 1980, [11] Zahorjan, J., Hume, J. K.C., A Queueing Model of a Rotational Position Sensing Disk System, INFOR , Vol.

[7]

[8]

[9]

Shared DASD and

ACM, Vol. 23,

pp. 564-572.

.N.P., and Sevcik,

16, No. 3. pp. 199-216.

[12] Browne, J.C Operating

Engineering

,

No. 9, September 1980,

October 1978,

Interaction Of

and Software

IEEE, Vol. 68,

pp. 1045-1049.

246
Performance Prediction and Optimization - Methods and Experiences

247

SESSION OVERVIEW

PERFORMANCE PREDICTION & OPTIMIZATION

- METHODS & EXPERIENCES

Thomas P. Giammo

Federal Computer Performance

Evaluation & Simulation Center

The two papers of this session entitled, "Tuning The

Facilities Complex of UNIVAC 1100 OS" and "Approximate

Evaluation of a Bubble Memory in a Transaction Driven System"

are about as far apart in their basic nature as can be imagined

while remaining within the context of the subject of this

session. One is a highly pragmatic "how to" approach to obtaining specific operation system parameters in a particular

operating system while the other is a highly abstract approach

to predicting the general characteristics of a model of a computer system. In one sense, this diversity in content is a measure of a broad scope of our field. Each paper represents

an important facet of the work that we need to perform in order

to achieve results that are practical and capable of implementation as well as soundly-based from a theoretical viewpoint. I believe that each of the papers will be found to be very

helpful to the audience which it addresses.

In another sense, however, the diversity in content is

indicative of a continuing problem in our field — the apparent

difficulty of the theoretical and practical elements of the

performance evaluation community in finding common ground.

249

TUNING THE FACILITIES COMPLEX OF UNIVAC 1100 OS

John C. Kelly

Datametrics Systems Corporation

Burke, VA 22015

Jerome W. Blaylock

System Development Corporation

Slidell , LA 70458

Performance of UNIVAC 1100 computer systems is largely determined

by the way the operating system, 1100 OS, manages the hardware resources. Since workload and performance requirements are unique to a particular

site, UNIVAC supplies an extensive set of performance parameters for

tailoring the system. One set of parameters, those associated with

the Facilities Complex are examined in detail. The Facilities Complex

is responsible for managing mass storage (disks and drums). The parameters associated with the Facilities Complex are defined, performance

hypotheses are stated, and sources of data for testing the hypotheses

are discussed. This paper extends and updates work reported by Kelly

and Route [1^]

.

1 . I ntroduct ion

The 1100 OS, commonly referred to as the EXEC, is divided into six major components: Symbiont Complex, Coarse Scheduler,

Activity Control, Dynamic Allocator, Facilities Complex, and I/O Complex. The Symbiont Complex buffers data between I/O devices and main memory. The Coarse Scheduler selects which runs should be opened

next. Activity Control manages CPU dispatching and allocates CPU quanta. The

Dynamic Allocator manages main memory. The

Facilities Complex manages peripheral storage devices and allocates file space. The

I/O Complex controls all I/O operations

performed on the system.

The Facilities Complex consists of a set of non-resident EXEC segments that must

be loaded when their services are required.

Services performed by the Facilities Com- plex include such things as file assignment,

space allocation, and file cataloguing. A

list of the frequently used segments is

presented in Table 1. To keep track of what

devices are on the system and how much space

is allocated to which files, the Facilities

Complex makes use of an extensive set of

control tables. They are summarized in Table 2. The relationship among the DLT,

DAD, search item, and lead item is presented

i n Fi gure 1

.

Upon receiving a new request for mass

storage, the Facilities Complex first checks

the EST to determine if sufficient space

exists on the device type requested. If sufficient space is not available on the

requested device type, it selects another

device type according to the selection rules

defined at system generation time. The

Facilities Complex then accesses the LDUST

and MBT to allocate the mass storage requested.

The Facilities Complex processes facilities requests in three passes. The first

pass checks for the availability of the

facilities being requested. If the requested

251
Table 1. Main Segments Associated with

Fac i 1 i t i es Comp 1 ex Table 2. Control Tables Used by FacilitiesComp 1 ex

Segment Name Deecrlptlon

FIMAIN The entry point for the FacllltieB Cooiplcx. All

Tcc|U66CB lnlCl.AHy go Co FSiAIN which scCivACes ubordlnate segmentB to do the work. FIA5G Process 9ASG and 9CAT requests. FIFREE Process @FR£E requests. FIUKQ Process ^MODE. and ^QUAL requests. FALL Allocate mass storage in track (TRK) or position

(POS) granularity. FASEC Allocate mass storage sectors to EXEC. FIBRKI Break facility request into a standard format

for processing. FICKAC Check availability of cooinunleations line. FICKAF Check availability of mass stprage apace. FICKAT Check availability of tape drives. FICRIT Create PCT item for file being assigned. FIHOU) Place a run In a facilities hold state (put on

BOLDQ) due to unavailability of facilities. FREL Release mass storage. FRSEC Release mass storage sectors assigned to EXEC. ROLBAK Initialize a canned run to reload a file. ROLOOT Initialize a canned run to unload a set of files. DRC Manage the master file directory.

Control Table Description

MCT Master Configuration Table. Describes the attri- butes for all devices conflgrzred on the system. HFD Master File Directory. Describes the attributes

of all catalogued files in the system MBT Master Bit Table. Defines how space is allocated

on each mass storage device. DAD Device Area Descriptor. Describes each contigu- ous block of mass storage allocated to a file. DLT Directory Lookup Table. Part of the MFD that contains a pointer for each catalogued file to either a search item or lead item. EST Equipment Summary Table (also called EQPSUM)

.

Defines the number of 'positions and tracks avail- able on all mass storage devices of the same type, ^ere is one entry for each device type Buch as 8450 's. LDDST Logical Device Unit Status Table. Defines the status of each mass storage device configured on

the system.

LEAD

ITEM HI

MAIN

ITEM DAD TABLE*

DAD

TABLE NEXT DAD TABLE~»

PREVIOUS DAD TABLE

ERA F lltST WORD

FRA LAST WORD I

OAO

TABLE

DAT 8

DIRECIOIIY LOOKUP TABLE

'1 -» jn

SEARCH

ITEM

FILE NAME«

FILE NAME*

FILE NAME*

'2 —If

»4^lo d<i

SEARCH

ITEM

loa not exist.

PILE NAME '

LEAD

ITEM MAIN

ITEM DAD TABLE*

DAD

TABLE

HASH (QUAUFIEU'I'ILE NAME) • I

LEAD

ITEM MAIN

ITEM

F-CYCLE •

Figure 1. Master File Directory

252
facilities are not available, the run is placed on the facilities hold queue (HOLDQ)

until they become available. When it is determined that all system resources re- quested by the run are available, pass one

is completed. The second pass builds the

required control tables and creates the MFD entries. The third pass performs the actual

allocations. Only mass storage requests

with initial reserves require allocation;

if no initial reserves are specified, the

allocation is handled dynamically by the

I/O Complex.

The Facilities Complex has been studied

in depth by [1,3,6] and as parts of larger

studies by [2,4,5].

2. Virtual Mass Storage

Mass storage (peripheral storage on drums and disks) is managed as a virtual resource on UN I VAC 1100 systems. That is,

from a user's viewpoint, the system contains

an infinite amount of mass storage space. When more space is allocated than is physically available, the system creates space

by rolling out infrequently used files to tape. When the ratio of allocated space to configured space becomes large, there is a great potential for the system to begin

thrashing by moving files bacl< and forth

between real mass storage (disks) and virtual mass storage (tapes). The most severe problem occurs when a terminal user requests

a catalogued file which has previously been

rolled out to tape. The user must wait for

the appropriate tape to be mounted and the

file rolled back to disk -- a process which

in extreme cases may require up to two hours [3,5,6].

The amount of mass storage available is monitored by the element FALL. When mass storage available drops below a specified

limit, FALL calls ROLOUT to initiate the

rollout process. ROLOUT starts a critical

deadline batch run which calls the SECURE

processor to perform the actual rollout.

The SECURE processor is a utility program

supplied by UNIVAC to maintain backup copies

of all catalogued files. When started by

ROLOUT, SECURE will unload enough files to bring mass storage availability up to a pre- defined level

.

2.1 Mass Storage Thresholds

A set of user definable thresholds determine when the system should consider mass storage to be approaching saturation. When

the available mass storage drops below

threshold MSW1 , mass storage is said to be

"tight." This condition is detected by FALL which in turn calls ROLOUT to initiate the

rollout operation. The critical ity of mass storage is tracked by four other thresholds,

MSW2 through MSW5. These thresholds trigger

different throttling mechanisms to prevent

available mass storage from being totally

exhausted before rollout can be completed.

The thresholds are defined in Table 3.

Table 3. Mass Storage Thresholds

Definition Default Value2

MSUl MSW2 + HSW4 3120 If BuisB itorage available

la leee than HSWl , FALL

calls ROLOUT. Also Che

mininnjni number of cracks

to be unloaded. MSW2 MSW3 + MSW4 2340 Print warning message on console

.

MSW3 0150 1560 Stop run scheduling with

"CS H."

ttSVi MSW3 / 2 780 Print warning oiessage on console

.

MSW5 0200 128 Stop all requests except

chose J>y EXEC.

^ MAXOPN is the maxiiEuni ninnher of batch Jobs allowed open ac Che same cime.

^ Default values are baaed on a MAXOPN value of 15.

Arguments can be made for setting MSW1

high or low. A low setting minimizes the

average amount of unused (available) mass

storage, while running the risk of reaching

the critical thresholds where throughput wil

be curtailed. High settings reduce the risk

of reaching the critical thresholds, but in- crease the amount of mass storage that re- mains unused. The proper setting really depends on the rate at which mass storage is consumed compared to the rate at which it can be made available with a rollout. The

settings are also dependent upon the number

of files with current backups when a rollout

takes place.

2.2 Number of Tracks to Unload

The element ROLOUT calculates the number

of tracks to unload from the formula:

NTRKS = TOTRKS

PERCNT

AVAIL (1)

where

TOTRKS = Total number of mass storage

tracks configured on the system

PERCNT = Fraction of configured tracks

to be unloaded. (Current default is 10.)

AVAIL = Number of tracks currently

aval lable.

253
The number of tracks to be unloaded during

a rollout varies depending upon the number

of tracks available at the time the rollout

is initiated. The objective is to maintain

the number of available tracks approximately

equal to PERCNT percent of the total tracks

aval lable.

The number of tracks to be unloaded is further constrained by the equation

MSW1 < NTRKS < TFAST (2)

F(X) = Function for computing point

values for TSLR and MTBR.

G(X) = Function for computing point

values for SIZE. EQBIAS = Equipment bias (default = 2).

PVBIAS = Private file bias

(default = 1).

FCBIAS = F-cycle bias (default = 1).

UEFBIAS = User defined bias.

The functions F(X) and G(X) use Tables h and

5 respectively to compute point values that

lie in the range 0-32.

That is, at least MSW1 tracks will always be

unloaded, but never more than TFAST. TFAST

is currently coded at 30,000 octal or 12,288

decimal and is historically based on the

number of tracks on one FASTRAND. The number

of tracks to be unloaded has important per- formance implications since it affects how

frequently rollouts will have to be performed.

2.3 Selecting Which Files to Unload

The Unload Eligibility Factor (UEF) determines which files to unload during a roll- out operation. if the UEF is improperly set,

the wrong files may be rolled out resulting

in an unnecessarily high number of rollbacks.

Ideally, only infrequently used files should

be rolled out. When a rollout is initiated,

the SECURE processor is started via a canned

run stream. SECURE computes the UEF for

each catalogued file and selects those files

with the highest UEF for unloading.

The UEF is computed from the formula:

UEF = (CRNCY-'-F(TSLR) + FREQCY-'^F (MTBR) + SIZEWT^'-G(SIZE))/2^^TM^ + EQBIAS + PVBIAS + FCBIAS + UEFBIAS (3)

where

CRNCY = Currency weighting factor

(default = kO).

TSLR Time since last reference in hours

.

FREQCY = Frequency weighting factor

(default = 20).

MTBR Mean time between references

in hours.

SIZEWT = Size weighting factor

(default = 10).

SIZE Size in tracks. UEFWT = Shift factor to reduce UEF magnitude (default = 5).

Table ^t. Point Values for TSLR and MTBR

POIHTS HOURS DAYS POINTS HOURS CAYS

1 1 .04 17 98 4.08

2 2 .08 18 116 4.83

3 3 .13 19 134 5.58

4 4 .17 20 152 6.33

5 7 .29 21 194 8.08

6 10 .42 22 236 9.83

7 13 .54 23 272 11.33

B 16 .67 24 320 13.33

9 22 .92 25 530 22.08

10 28 1.17 26 740 30.83

11 34 1.42 27 950 39.58

12 40 1.67 28 1160 48.33

13 50 2.08 29 1370 57.08

14 60 2.50 30 1580 65.83

IS 70 2.92 31 •1790 74.58

16 80 3.33 32 2000 83.33

Table 5. Point Values for SIZE

POINTS TRACKS POINTS TRACKS

1 8 17 152

2 16 18 176

3 24 19 200

4 32 20 224

5 40 21 248

6 48 22 272

7 56 23 296

8 64 24 320

9 72 25 376

10 80 26 432

11 88 27 488

12 96 28 544

13 104 29 664

14 112 30 784

15 120 31 904

16 128 32 1024

Four types of files have predefined UEF's. They are:

UEF = 0, Tape files or files unloaded

UEF = 1, Removable disk files

UEF = 2, Unload-inhibit files (G and V) UEF = 3, Empty files (0 tracks)

The computation of the UEF is illustrated by

the following example.

254
Time since last reference = h days

Time since last catalogued = 1 04 days

Number of times assigned = ^6 Mean time between references = IO't/46

- 2.3 days

Size of f i le = 200 tracks

Stored on drum (EQBIAS) = 2 Private file (PVBIAS) = 1 Current F-cycle (FCBIAS) = 1 UEFBIAS = 0

UEF = (40--'-17 + 20^'Mi, + lo^vis) / 32 + 2 + 1+1+0

= 39.9

The information required to compute the UEF

is maintained in the MFD.

3. Master File Directory (MFD)

The Master File Directory (MFD) is illustrated in Figure 1. The MFD describes

each catalogued file in the system. Entries

into the MFD are made by computing a hash

code index from the file name:

HASH(QUALIFIER'-FILENAME) = i {k)

The hash code is used as an index into the

Directory Lookup Table (DLT) . The DLT then

contains a pointer to a lead item which contains pointers, for each F-cycle of the

file, to main items. The main item contains

the descriptive information for the file.

If two file names generate the same hash

code index, a DLT conflict occurs. The con- flict is resolved by replacing the lead item

pointer with a pointer to a search item.

The search item then contains the pointers

to the lead items for the files with the

duplicate hash codes.

3.1 Duplicate Hash Codes

Duplicate hash codes in the DLT result

from (1) a DLT too small for the number of

catalogued files, or (2) an inefficient hashing algorithm. The size of the DLT is specified by the system generation parameter

DCLUTS. Besides defining the size of the

DLT, DCLUTS is used in the computation of

the hash code as follows:

HASH(QUALIFiER--'^FILENAME MOD (DCLUTS) (5)

Analysis by UNIVAC and user sites [5] has

shown that DCLUTS should be at least twice

as large as the number of catalogued files.

Since DCLUTS is also used in the computation

of the hash code, it should also be a prime

number. The use of a prime number improves

the likelihood of generating hash codes

that are uniformly distributed over the

range of the DLT.

The actual hashing algorithm has been

found to be effective when the above guidelines are followed. Analysis has shown

that the algorithm is relatively insensitive to the use of similar file names. That

is, similar file names do not usually hash

into the same index. This is contrary to what was previously reported in [k]

.

Persing [5] analyzed the hashing algorithm using 7,357 file names. His findings

are summarized in Table 6. Unfortunately,

he did not give the actual values used for

DCLUTS. His data are rounded to the nearest

thousand. Two items from his study stand

out. First, low values for DCLUTS result in nearly every file requiring a search item.

Second, even when the size of DCLUTS is large, kO% of the files still required a search item. Even for a perfect hashing algorithm, there will always be some chance of

filenames hashing into the same index. Du- plicate entries in the DLT are undesirable

for two reasons. First, an extra I/O is required to read the search Item. Second, mass storage space is wasted storing search

items. On release Level 36 of the EXEC,

DCLUTS is set to a default value of 12,0^7.

Table 6. Results of Hashing 7,357 File Names

RATIO TO FILES REQ' I NG % Of

DCLUTS NO. FILES SEARCH ITEMS TOT FILES

2,049 0.3 7,128 97^

17,000" 2.3 2,926 kO%

Approximate value rounded to nearest 1000

3.2 MFD Lock Cel Is

Access to the MFD is controlled by a set of lock words. Multiple lock words are

used so that two users can access different

parts of the MFD at the same time. The number of lock words and equivalently the num- ber of parts of the MFD that can be accessed

simultaneously is computed from the system

255
generation parameter DLOKSF. The number of

lockwords is equal to

2DLOKSF

can result in wasted mass storage space. It can also result in rollouts if no full positions are available.

k.2 DAD Table Storage in EXPOOL

where DLOKSF is a positive integer between

zero and four. As it turns out, the EXEC

does not take full advantage of the multiple

lock words. The dominate user of the MFD is the Facilities Complex, and the first thing

that FIMAIN does is to set all MFD lock

words. Since the Facilities Complex is designed to service only one request at a time,

DLOKSF may as well be set to zero. When the

Facilities Complex is rewritten to process

multiple requests at the same time, it will

be advantageous to increase DLOKSF to three

or four.

4. File Granu 1 ar i ty

Mass storage is allocated in either

track or position granularity. A track is 64 sectors (1 sector = 28 words); a position

is 64 tracks. The number and location of

the granules assigned to a file are defined

in the Device Area Descriptor (DAD) table.

The DAD table defines every contiguous block

of mass storage assigned to a file. The DAD table also maps a file relative address to a device relative address.

4.1 Mass Storage Fragmentation

Mass storage can become fragmented much

the same as memory. When mass storage space

is allocated to a file, the EXEC attempts to assign a contiguous block of space; however,

if none is available, it will assign discontiguous areas to the file. Since each separate area of mass storage is defined by a separate DAD table, extra overhead is re- quired to access that file. The overhead

shows up as extra mass storage space required

to store the DAD tables, extra memory space

to hold the tables while the file is active,

and extra CPU time to search the DAD tables.

A common cause of too many DAD tables

for a single file is requesting no initial reserve for the file. When no initial re- serve is requested, the system will allocate

space in four track increments when it is needed. This relults in many discontiguous

areas and multiple DAD tables. Some sites

have minimized the likelihood of fragmentation by changing incremental allocations to sixteen tracks. Fragmentation can also be

reduced by requesting position granularity

rather than track granularity. Care must be

taken, however, since position granularity

EXPOOL is the EXEC's main memory stor- age pool. It is an area of main memory re- served for the exclusive use of the EXEC to hold such items as DAD tables. The parameter NGTB specifies the maximum number of

DAD tables than can be in EXPOOL per catalogued file when EXPOOL is "tight." When

EXPOOL reaches a critical threshold of utilization, access to EXPOOL is limited and one of those things limited is DAD tables.

By keeping the number of DAD tables per file

below NGTB (default value = 5), that is,

minimizing mass storage fragmentation, this

will not be a problem. When the value goes

above five and EXPOOL is tight, extra overhead will result from moving DAD tables back

and forth between main memory and mass storage.

4.3 Mass Storage Sectors

Each DAD table is one sector (28 words)

in length. The parameter MAXSEC specifies

the maximum number of DAD tables that the EXEC can read into memory at one time. If the number of DAD tables per file is low,

MAXSEC may be low. A guideline in [4] sug- gests setting MAXSEC to the 80th percentile

of the number of DAD tables per file. The

default value is 124.

4.4 Maximum File Size

An option of the file assignment state- ments allows the user to specify the maximum

file length in granules. When this value is unspecified, the parameter MAXGRN is used as

a default value. If MAXGRN is set too high, mass storage may accidently be wasted by un- debugged or inefficient programs. The current default value for MAXGRN is 128. As a guideline, Kelly [4] suggests that MAXGRN be set equal to the 80th percentile of all file

s i zes.

5. Performance Problems and Hypotheses

Potential performance problems associated with the Facilities Complex are summarized below. They are denoted as PI, P2, etc. for ease of reference. Associated with

each potential problem are a set of perfor- mance hypotheses denoted HI, H2 , etc. that might be the cause of the problem.

Each hypothesis also has a brief statement

of how to test the hypothesis.

256
PI . Too many rollouts are occurring .

HI . Not enough tracks are being unloaded . Monitor the frequency that rollouts are occurring. Verify that MSWl is properly set. Monitor the frequency of the

threshold messages on the console.

H2. Users are allowed to allocate mass stor - age files with no concern for the physi - cal resources available . Monitor the

number of files assigned to each user, their space requirements, and their frequency of use. Archive all files older

than a specified number of days.

H3. File requests arrive in a burst pattern . Prepare a histogram of the interarrival

time of rollouts to determine if time

dependent conditions are causing a prob1 em.

H'*. Several very large files dominate mass storage . Sort files by size. Examine

the usage pattern of large files. Con- sider removeable paclcs as an alternative.

H5. Insufficient mass storage is configured . Quantify the frequency of rollbacks and

the time to complete a rollback. Com- pare to other sites. Compare to internal standards and past performance.

Track the growth of the overcommitment

ratio -- the ratio of mass storage

space assigned to the mass storage

space configured.

H6. Too many files have unload inhibited . Examine all G and V option files to determine if they are necessary. Track

the growth of G and V option files as a percent of total files.

P2. Too many rollbacks are occurring .

HI . The wrong files are being rolled out . Check the UEF's of the files being rolled out. Verify that the weighting factors and points are set properly for

your site. Establish guidelines to aid

in setting weighting factors. Check

all hypotheses for PI.

P3. The time to complete a rollback is too

1 ong .

HI. Heavy workload on the system . Since

rollbacks run as critical deadline runs, this is unlikely; however, to verify the

hypothesis, correlate the elapsed time

of rollbacks with runs open and other

workload measures.

H2. Many rollbacks queued up . Monitor the

number of rollback requests waiting

when a rollback run completes. Monitor

the number of files rolled back per

run. If more than one file is rolled

back at a time, a queue must have

ex i sted

.

H3. Long time to mount SECURE tape . Check

operator console log or observe operators in action.

H'*. Long tape search time . Observe rollback process in operation. Little can

be done about this except limiting the

number of files on a tape.

Ph. The time to complete a rollout is too

long .

HI . SECURE is doing physical rather than

1 og i ca 1 ro 1 1 outs . When files have current copies on tape, they can be rolled out by simply making the space available. That constitutes a logical rollout. Physical rollouts occur only when

no current backup exists. Physical

rollouts should be avoided. Monitor

rollouts to determine if physical roll- outs are happening. Evaluate file save procedures to determine the need for

backing up files more frequently.

H2. Too many files are being unloaded at once . Evaluate size weight in the UEF. Evaluate the mass storage thresholds.

Monitor mass storage available.

H3. Heavy workload on the system . See HI under P3.

P5 . Mass storage availability remains high

even though many rollouts are occurring .

HI . Too many tracks are being unloaded . See

HI under PI

.

H2. The thresholds are set too high . Monitor mass storage available over time.

Monitor frequency of threshold messages

on operator's console. Determine rate

at which mass storage is being used and

adjust thresholds accordingly.

P6. System throughput is being held back by

rollouts and rollbacks .

HI . Rollouts and rollbacks are happening

too often . All of the analyses sug- gusted for PI through P5 will be helpful in this area. Monitor the percent

of runs that require rollbacks as well

as the percent of time spent waiting

for a rollback to complete.

H2. Excessive system resources are being

used to manage mass storage . Compute

the percent of system resources used by

SECURE and other mass storage utilities.

257
Compare to resources used by user programs.

P7. A large amount of I/O is directed at the MFD .

HI . DCLUTS is set too low for the number of

catalogued f i les . Compute the ratio of

DCLUTS to the number of catalogued

files. The ratio should be 2.0 or greater. Compute the percent of files

requiring search items. Monitor percentage of search items on a regular

bas i s

.

H2. DCLUTS is not a prime number . DCLUTS

should be a prime number at least twice

as large as the number of catalogued

f i les.

P8. Mass storage space is being inefficient - ly ut i 1 i zed .

HI . A large number of DAD tables are requir - ed per file . Prepare a histogram of the

number of DAD tables per file. Compute

average number of DAD tables per file.

Check NGTB and MAXSEC for proper setting.

H2. Disk areas are being assigned but not used . Prepare a histogram of time since

last reference for all files on the system. Pay special attention to all large

f i les.

6. Data Analysis

Data on mass storage usage are available from several sources: LA, LASSO, DIRVER,

and SECURE. The LA processor reads the Master Log File and produces both a ROLBAK and

a ROLOUT summary report. The ROLBAK report

lists the termination time of each ROLBAK

run, as well as the number of files loaded,

the average number of seconds per file loaded, the average number of tracks loaded per second, the number of tapes accessed, and

the average number of files per tape. An identical report exists for ROLOUT's.

LASSO also summarizes data from the

Master Log File; however, it does not provide a special report for rollouts/rollbacks.

The information must be extracted from other

reports under the ROLOUT/ROLBAK run ids. It

is not nearly as comprehensive as LA.

DIRVER analyzes the MFD and produces a series of reports describing each catalogued

file on the system. It provides excellent

statistics on DAD tables, search items, lead

items, and other attributes of the MFD. It also reports on the amount of mass storage

space configured and available as well as many other mass storage usage statistics.

SECURE maintains a summary file from

which several reports are available. These

reports are useful in evaluating the variables used to compute UEF's. The SECURE

Summary Report lists all the files unloaded,

the time they were unloaded, the track size,

and the UEF. The SECURE ROLOUT Report specifies the individual point values used to compute the UEF for rolled out files. Un- fortunately, the UEF's for the rolled back

files are unavailable. Since the time of

the original roll out is not recorded, it is impossible to recalculate the UEF when the

rollback takes place. This information is available by searching the SECURE Summary

Report for the day when the file was rolled out

.

7. Conclusion

Mass storage management, as performed

by the Facilities Complex, has a significant

impact on system performance. The article

has emphasized tuning parameters; however,

the performance analyst must not overlook the

benefits to be gained by instituting a set of mass storage management guidelines. Many

of the problems resulting from the virtual mass storage concept can be controlled or eliminated by exercising more stringent con- trols on how the users are allowed to assign

mass storage. The approach used in this

article has also been used to analyze other

areas of the EXEC as described in [k]

.

References

[1] Bryant, R. , A Performance Study of the

Facilities Complex, Technical Papers:

Spring USE Conference , March 5-9, 1979,

pp. 29-38.

[2] Caldarale, C.R., State of Georgia Local

Code, Technical Papers: Fall USE Con - ference , September 10-lA, 1979, pp- 255-262.

[3] Gray, G. , Mass Storage Files Management,

Technical Papers: Spring USE Conference , March 5-9, 1979, PP. 381-398.

[4] Kelly, J.C. and Route, G.P., UN I VAC 1108

EXEC Level 32R2 Performance Handbook , NBS Special Publication 500-3^, National Bureau of Standards, June 1978.

[5] Persing, T.D., Computer Performance

Evaluation at USAF/AFSC/FTD , Technical

Papers: Spring USE Conference , April

17-21 , 1978, pp. 1-16.

[6] Richards, J. et al., A More Reliable

File Maintenance System, Techn ical Papers: Spring USE Conference , April

17-21, 1978, pp. 55-198.

258
APPROXIMATE EVALUATION OF A BUBBLE MEMORY

IN A TRANSACTION DRIVEN SYSTEM

Wen-Te K. Lin

Computer Corporation of America

and

Albert B. Tonik

Sperry Univac

An approximate queueing model is built to evaluate the performance

of a transaction-driven computer system with three levels of memory

hierarchy, one of which is the bubble memory. The criterion of perfor- mance is the average transaction response time excluding the time spent

waiting for transaction initiation because it does not measure the sys- tem performance, but the amount of transactions entering the system.

The results are presented in a form which can be used by the system users to decide how much memory to include in the system configuration

to achieve desired transaction throughput rate and average response

time.

1. Introduction

In a previous paper [1]\ we attempted

to evaluate the effect of a virtual memory

computer system with three levels of storage

hierarchy by using a bubble memory rather

than a head-per-track device (also referred

to as a drum) . From that evaluation we derived a mathematical model based on data

collected from a virtual memory multiprogramming system which was frequently used by stu- dents to write their own programs rather thar

to run standard transactions. Therefore,

they shared programs such as compilers and

text editors. In such an application the

limiting device was the intermediate storage

level or paging device. Therefore, replacing

the head-per-track device with a bubble

memory increased system performance by almost

the ratio of speed between those devices.

Such an application reflects neither the

sequential processing of large files, as in

commercial applications, nor the terminals

all accessing a large database, as in tran- saction oriented systems (real-time).

(1) Figures in brackets indicate the literature references at the end of this paper.

In this present evaluation, we are building a mathematical model for a transaction driven system. In such a system, the

people at the terminals are entering trans- actions and waiting for replies. These

transactions are processed against a common

database. We obtained the specification for

a standard transaction from data collected

from Sperry Univac Transaction Interface Process installations.

The mathematical model attempts to evaluate the time to process a transaction,

while processing "n" transactions simultaneously. This multiprogramming leads to queues

at the various devices. The time spent waiting in each queue has to be added to the

response time for each transaction. In addition, on some devices, as the queue gets

longer, the throughput of the control units

goes up, because of the ability to overlap

latency periods. All of these interactions

are built into the mathematical model.

2. The Standard Transaction

The transaction driven system we want to model is characterized as one with trans- actions entered from terminals. The trans259
actions are handled by standard programs and

processed against a common database. The

operating system occupies lOOK words of core. The programs to process each transaction

occupy about 5K words of core each. The processing of each transaction requires executing about 80K instructions. In addition,

during the processing there are about 12 accesses to I/O devices. Of the 12 I/O com- mands, 8 would be for the secondary storage,

and 4 for the mass storage. The CPU processing and I/O operations for a single transaction are performed in a sequential manner (no

overlap between I/O and computing). Of course there is overlapping of I/O operations

and computing during the processing of many

transactions simultaneously.

The I/O is characterized as follows: on

the average, an I/O operation will transfer

about 250 words. About half of the I/O

operations are reads and the other half are writes. However, of the writes about 10% are straight writes. The other 90% are writes

where only part of the block is written.

This operation entails a read followed by a write on the next revolution of the device.

the drum is 16.7 ms. The revolution time and

average seek time of the disks are 16.7 ms and 30 ms respectively. The channel data

transfer rate is 90Qk bytes/sec. The latency

time for the bubble memory is 0.8 ms, and the

data transfer rate is 3M bytes/sec.

In summary

,

t^ = 16.7 or 0.8

= revolution or latency time for drum or bubble memory

t^ = 1000/(9 X 10^ or 3 X lo'') = channel time per drum or bubble I/O

t^ = 30 ms + 8.35 ms

= average seek plus search time of the

disk

^ t^ = 1000/(9 X 10^)

= channel time per disk I/O

t = 80K/3 MIPS

= cpu time per transaction

4. Mathematical Model

We can model the system as shown in Figure 1. Transactions come into the system

In summary,

Mq = lOOK words

= resident software

M = the rest of the memory excluding M^ m = 5K words

= program size for each transaction

I = 80K instructions

= cpu processing of each transaction

a^ = 8 = no . of secondary I/O per transaction

^2

=

= no. of mass storage I/O per transaction

a^ + a^ = 12 I/O

= no. of I/O per transaction

d = 250 words = 1 k bytes

= amount of data transferred per I/O

50% = percentage of read I/O per transaction

5% = percentage of straight write I/O

per transaction

W = 45% = percentage of partial write I/O

per transaction

3. The Hardware Configuration

The transaction system is assumed to run

on a computer system with three levels of

storage hierarchy. The second level memory

are either drums or bubble memory (examples

used will be Univac 8405E) , the third level

memory are movable-arm disks (examples will

be Univac 8433E) . We assumed the cpu is capable of at least 3 MIPs (million instructions per second). The revolution time of

Figure 1. Hlgh-Level System Structure

from terminals and queue up at Q. The processor S then processes them. Let us assume transactions are generated by a Poisson process with an average rate of X. transactions

per second. We also assume that system S can process up to N transactions simultaneously

at the average rate of ^ (n) transactions per

second where /c (n) depends on the number n of

total transactions in the system (being processed or in the queue). Therefore we have a birth and death process such that the birth

rate X is independent of the population size

n, while the death rate is/t for n <N and ^ for n>N. Therefore we can calculate the

stationary probability distribution Z. that j transactions are in the system (including the ones being served) [2]. Let R represent the

response time of a transaction which is measured from the time the transaction enters queue Q until the transaction exists from S, then

260
oo R - I /Z . k -M

k=iVl ^ ;

N-1

= I Z k=l k k = N

k

k

(1)

In order to calculate R, we have to calculate and A j^. Let us assume:

p

=2

tTq = 1, n. = ' ii±

i u u . . . u

(2)

Then from birth and death process we know

Z. =

1 (3)

k=0

Q. = Queue length at station S. (including the one being served)

(per control unit at

S. = Storage levels

l^r. = Average service time at S. X. = Throughput of S. (no. of operations

per second)

P. = Probability of a transaction going to

S. after being served by Sq

U. = utilization of S. (fraction of time

it is busy)

C = No. of control units at S„

That means to compute R, all we have to

do is to compute jU ^ (k<N) . In order to compute A we have to look into the structure

of the system S in more detail. The structure of S is shown in Figure 2. It is a closed queueing network with three stations.

Sq consists of the cpu and main memory,

consists of secondary memory which can be

either bubble memory or fixed-head disks, and

is movable-arm disks. The size of the

icain memory excluding the part used by the

operating system and any reentrant code is M. Since each transaction requires m bytes of

main memory, the system can run at most M/m

transactions simultaneously. Let us denote

M/m by N. Each transaction, after being processed for an average of l/rQ=t/ (aj^+a„)

seconds by the cpu, has the probability

P, =aj^/ (aj^+a„) of needing service from S^, and

the probability P„=a2/ (a^^+a^) of needing service from S2. After being served by either

S^ or ^ transaction goes back to Sq waiting for service by S^ again.

We assume the service time in all three

stations are exponentially distributed with

average of l/r^, 1/r^, l/r2 respectively.

Admittedly this is a rough approximation but

it has been used by other people with good

Figure 2. More Detailed System Structure

results. As outlined in a paper by Gecsei

and Lukes [3j, the following equations can be

derived

:

^1 = ^^0 (4)

^2 = ^2^0 (5)

(6)

(7)

h = ^1/^1 (8)

= X2/Cr2 (9)

% = V^'-V (10)

= U^/(l-U^) (11)

Q2 = CU2/(C-U2) (12)

Here we have nine equations with nine

variables: Q., X., U. (i = 0, 1, 2), and 5 system parameters r^, r^^ , r2. In order to solve the equations these five

261
parameters must be known. We have already

shown that

^1 ~ ^j/^^i

= t/(a^ + a^)

(13)

(14)

(15)

In the following, equations (13) through (17)

will be combined with equations (4) through

(12) to derive Q^^ and Q^. By eliminating Q-,

Uq, X , U_, r„ from equations (6), (10;,

(7), (5), C9),^(12f, and (17) we obtain

(18)

Here equations for r^^ and r^ will be

derived. r^^ is the average number of operations system can process per second. It can be dependent on the queue length Qj^ if the queue is sorted according to sector positions. However, the definition of standard

transaction states that about w of I/O are partial-write operation (a read is required

before a write), this makes calculation of r^^ even more complicated. A formula for l/^j^ is formulated as follows, which has been validated by simulations (for detail of the

derivation, see [4]).

[3(l+w)t2Q^+2(wt^+t2)+t^]

(16;

""l [2Q^(l+w)]

where w = ratio of I/O request that are partial write

= revolution or latency time for

drum or bubble memory

= channel time without the extra

revolution

r is the average service rate of system S2

which consists of a number of movable-arm

disks and possibly more than one control

unit. If there is no overlapping of seek

operations among these disk drives, then

is simply 1 divided by the average access

time of the drive. But because of overlapping.

Q„ . A formula for r„ is derived as follows

which has been validated by simulations (for

detail derivation of the formula and its

simulation validation results, see [5]).

This assumes that all devices are on one con- trol unit.

i=i J

and Q =

By eliminating Q , U , X , X , U, , r, , from

equations (6), (I0),"(7)V (4), it), (ll), and

(16) we obtain

(19)

(l+w)2Q^'=

[3(l+w)t2Q^=2{rt^+t2)+t^](l+Q^)rQP^-(l+w)2Qf

Solving equations (18) and (19) for and Q2

to obtain closed form solution is very difficult. Therefore, we plotted curves for Qj^ = f(Q2) and Q- = g(Qj^) in the Q, , Q2 plane

for different values of n. Where the curves intersect is a solution for each value of n.

is dependent upon the queue length 17

From the solutions for Q^^ and Q2, we can obtain values for the other quantities. We can evaluate r^^ from Q^^ by using equation 16. We can find the r2 from Q2 by use of equation

Qq is obtained from equation 6.

We now want to obtain the response time

to process a transaction once it has entered

the memory.

+ t. i=l(IT) R(n) = (a^ + a2) RQ(n) + a^Rj(n) + a2R2(n) (26)

where t^ = average seek plus search time

t^ = channel time

D = no. of devices per control unit

Q' = queue length per control unit

= Q2/C

Where Rj^(n) is the response time for each

request "to the ith facility when the multiprogramming level is n. The numbers a^^ and

a2 are obtained from standard transaction

definition as defined in Section 3. The

R^(n)'s are given by Karlin, page 433 [2] as:

262
R.(n) =

X. r

.

1-

r

.

1

(21)

From equation (7) through (12),

R, (n) = (Q. + 1)

1 1 r

.

How A. ^

of equations (1), (2), (3), can be

calculated as follows:

K

R(K)

_S

Lr(n)

if K<N

OTHERWISE (22)

2.2

2.0

1.8 i 1.6 o

1.1

1,2

;

PONSE 1.0

.8

.6

.t

.2

0.0

BV ONE CONTROL UNIT. INTERNAL RESPONSE TIME DOES NOT INCLUDE HAITINO AT THE OUTSIDE QUEUE.

a3 5 79 U1315 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 53 35 57 39

3.78 1.50 5.22 5.9M 6.66 7.58 8.10 8.82 9.51 10.26

Multiprogramming Level-M

Memory Size (E6 Bits)

Figure 3. Average Internal Response Time

R(M) vs. Multiprogramming Level M

(Configuration One)

By using >tt j^'s, we can compute the response

time by using equation (1).

5. Results From Using Math Model

The results in Section 4 are applied to the transaction model and the system defined

in Sections 2 and 3. Equation (20) is used

to plot the internal response time for different multi-programming levels (which are related to the main memory size) . This

internal response time is the time required

for a transaction to loop through the mass

storage. It does not include the waiting

time for the main memory, and it is directly

related to the throughput of the system

(through Equation 22). Equation (1) is used

to plot average response time including time

spent waiting for main memory, for various

values of transaction input rate ^ . The

distribution of the response time can be

obtained by using Equation (3) . Three system

configurations will be used. The first con- figuration consists of the cpu, one drum and

six movable-arm disks controlled by a single

control unit. The second configuration has

two control units for the six disks.

The third configuration replaces the

drum by bubble memory and has two control

units for the six disks. The response times

for these three configurations are plotted in

Figure 3 and 4, Figure 5 and 6, and Figure 7 and 8 respectively. We can see the response

time improves substantially from configuration 1 to configuration 2. By checking the

5.7-

5 11 , Abscissa is in units of maximum number of transactions that can be processed

simultaneouslv hnich is related to size of hehoflir in units of millions of bits

5.1.

0.0- , 13 5 7 911131517 19 Z123 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39

3.78 1.50 5.22 5.* 6.66 7.38 8.10 8.82 9.51 10.26 Multiprogramming Level-H

flEMORY Size (E6 Bits)

Figure 4. Average Response Time R vs. Multiprogramming Level M for

Different Transaction Arrival Rate'X (Configuration One)

values for Qq, Q^^ , and Q^, we find out it is because the control unit for the disks is the

bottleneck. Therefore, doubling the number

of disk control units improves the response

time. But replacing the drum by bubble

memory improves the response time only a little bit, not as much as the ratio of access

time between drum and bubble memory, as shown

in Figure 7 and 8. But if we increase the

size of bubble memory, therefore reducing the

number of I/O to the disks, the response time

improves substantially.

263
Figure 5. Average Internal Response Time

R(M) vs. Multiprogramming Level M

(Configuration Two)

Figure 7. Average Internal Response Time

R(M) vs. Multiprogramming Level M

(Configuration Three)

Figure 6. Average Response Time R vs. Figure 8. Average Response Time R vs. Multiprogramming Level M for Multiprogramming Level M for

Different Transaction Arrival RateX Different Transaction Arrival Rate X

(Configuration Two) (Configuration Three)

264
6. Conclusion

A mathematical model for transaction

processing system is built, which incorporates some elaborate algorithms for handling I/O at drum and disk memory. This

model is then used to evaluate the effect of

the bubble memory in a transaction system.

The model is helpful when a user needs to decide a system configuration which can meet

certain transaction rates with certain

response times. It provides equations for

plotting response time against both transaction rate and system configuration.

7. References

[1] Lin, W.T.K., and Tonik, A.B., Approximate Evaluation of the Effect of a Bubble Memory in a Virtual Memory System,

Proceedings 13th Meeting of Computer

Performance Evaluation — Users Group . October 1977.

[2] Karlin, S., A First Course in Stochastic

Processes . Academic Press, New York,

1969.

[3] Gecsei, J. and Lukes, J. A., A Model for

the Evaluation of Storage Hierarchies,

IBM Systems Journal , No. 2, 1974.

[4] Tonik, A.B., and Lin, W.T.K., Approximate Evaluation of the Effect of a Bubble Memory in a Transaction Driven System, Sperry UNIVAC Research Report, Blue

Bell, Pa., 19406.

[6] Jewell, W.S., A Simple Proof of : L = w. Operation Research, 15, 1109-1119, 1967.

265

Communications Networks

-Technological Developments and Applications

267
I
SESSION OVERVIEW

COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

—TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS & APPLICATIONS

Jeffey Gee

Network Analysis Corporation

301 Tower Building

Vienna, VA 22180

Communications network is a critcal component in providing effective

information services. Practically every business or industry today is

involved in using some form of communication networks as a bridge between

the people and the information resource. The recent echnology

development in the area of long-haul and local area communication

networks will greatly facilitate the information system user to pursue

various organizational objectives such as resource sharing, increasing

productivity and reducing cost. In order to effectively realize these

objectives, a comprehensive network planning and design process must be

achieved. The efforts should include communication requirements

analysis, performance evaluation and network architecture modeling.

The objective of the session is to illustrate a broader prospective

of communication networks. Consequently, the session is organized with

an introduction of local network technology, a performance modeling of

network node, and a network modeling case study.

The local area network has been and will continue to be one of the most important network tehnology developments. The first paper titled

"Local Integrated Communications Systems: The Key to Future

Productivity" presents an overview of a local communications network

concept and describes its potential impact to organizational

productivity. In communication networks, flow control traffic congestion

avoidance is an important design consideration to meet performance

requirements. An analytical model for evaluating the performance for a flow controlled network node is presented in the second paper. Finally,

a case study presentation is given to illustrate the practical experience

of modeling a long-haul star network.

269

LOCAL INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS:

THE KEY TO FUTURE PRODUCTIVITY

Andrew P. Snow

NETWORK ANALYSIS CORPORATION

301 Tower Building

Vienna, VA 22180

An overview of the types of local communication services required

in typical large organizations is given. Such services as voice communication, data communications in support of Information Systems, Closed

Circuit Television, Security Management, and Energy Management are discussed.

Desirable characteristics of an integrated communications system that

must provide a highway for these services are presented, with particular

emphasis given to organizational productivity. Transmission media that

are capable of forming the building blocks for an integrated communications

system such as CATV, coaxial cable, microwave, fiber optics, and infrared/

laser communication media are discussed in terms of the desired characteristics. Finally, an illustrative example of an integrated communication

system is presented.

Keywords: CATV systems; coaxial cable; data communications; fiber optics

information systems; integrated communications; local area networks,

microwave; video teleconferencing.

1. Introduction

Distributed data processing (DDP)

is adding great impetus to local area network developments. As computing and

storage capabilities decentralize, the

demand for intercommunication among more

and more sophisticated users increases.

DDP, in conjunction with integrated local

communications systems, offers users a potential to improve individual productivity.

This productivity enhancement is due not only to the new services that can be offered

but also to the nature of the local network

itself. This article will deal with local area networks as opposed to long haul

networks. Long haul networks are intercity

type networks where great emphasis is placed on bandwidth utilization and minimum

distance layouts (as one pays for capacity

by the airline mile). Local area networks

are loosely characterized as being more

intra and interbuilding oriented. For this reason they are typically on the

order of a few kilometers. [1] In addition

they are usually privately owned by the

organization as opposed to leased facilities

from a TELCO. Also they typically support

data rates that far exceed the tariffed

services or capacity of the TELCO facilities.

2. Services To Be Supported

In the intra and interbuilding environment, the local network should be able

to support the wide variety of services

that users are demanding. Typical data

communications applications in buildings

today are many terminals accessing one

or more computer hosts for say database

updating, query/response, and programmers

engaged in systems development. In addition

to data communications associated with

some of the classical information systems,

271
the local network should also support

the communications needs of security,

fire, and energy management systems.

These systems consist partly of many microprocessor based sensor devices that will

typically report back to a computing/data

base machine. In addition many security

systems also have video monitoring requirements. Also, with the advent of video

teleconferencing, modern corporate facilities

will require video distribution systems.

It is the video requirement that makes

traditional twisted pair wire cable plant

particularly unattractive in the future.

Another service area is being created

by components of the "office of the future"

Communicating word processing and document

distribution machines are greatly impacting

approaches to information flow in large

organizations. Electronic mail services

have already encouraged many executives

to have terminals on their desks. In the near future, a terminal on every desk

is not an inconceivable development in some organizations. The prolific increase

of intelligent devices on the corporate

scene is placing demands on classical

building transmission plants that cannot

be met in a cost effective manner.

3. Desirable Local Integrated

Communication Media Attributes

In order to meet the diverse demands

that organizations are and will be placing

on building physical plants, consolidation

is necessary in order to be cost effective.

The principal attributes that must be

considered in the selection of an integrated

communications media are:

• flexibility

• connectivity

• capacity.

Each of these three attributes directly

affect the ultimate productivity of the

user organization. Productivity will

be discussed in qualitative terms for

each of these attributes.

3.1 Flexibility

Flexibility pertains to the ability

of the integrated media to adapt to both

tactical and strategic change. Tactical

changes deal with the day to day exigencies

of a viable organization while strategic

changes deal with the evolutionary character

of user demands. [2] Examples of tactical

change might be the migratory nature of

people/organizational units within a building

or building complex, and concomitantly

equipment migration. Typically, productivity

during migratory periods is very poor

for the organizational units involved.

When people move many events are triggered.

Terminals and phones move. Support personnel

take word processing equipment with them.

If the magnitude of the move is significant,

simple adjustment of the building wire

plant may not be technically feasible.

The plant may not be able to support the

proposed move. In the cases for which

the plant can adjust, significant wire

installation efforts are often necessary

to get people within "reach" of the plant.

Flexibility in this context means the

provision of reasonable access of the

media to the user's changes.

Strategic flexibility pertains more towards the ability to adapt to long term

change without expensive architectural

renovation to upgrade the media. In this

context flexibility means inherent or expandable capacity to handle new requirements. An example of strategic flexibility

would be the planned movement of a data

center within an organization's building

or building complex. With traditional

wire plant, the data center is the hub

of thousands of wire pairs that are distributed throughout a building. Movement

of a data center within the same building

might well cause organizational upheaval

or expensive retrofit. In this case it

is either extremely expensive or very

unproductive as users are subjected to possible interruptions, degradations,

or limitations on service during the move.

A different example of strategic flexibility

would be a planned information system

which will require significant capacity

in comparison to existing services. A media which could readily adapt to these

two strategic migration examples would

be desirable. Flexibility also means

that the media should be prepared to accom- modate very dissimilar types of communications

(e.g. , video and data)

.

3.2 Connectivity

Connectivity relates to the ability

of the media to provide all required physical

connections within the building or building

complex. Traditional wire cable plants

are point-to-point in nature. If a particular

device requires connectivity to just a modest number of physically separated

devices, the point-to-point approach can

272
become quite untenable. If wire is used,

the central switching approach architectures

with their significant reliability implications are required. Because of bandwidth

limitations, wire can force the separation

of media as opposed to integration. The

any-to-any communications connectivity

requirement within buildings is becoming

more of a reality as time progresses.

The trend is definitely towards the heterogeneous as opposed to homogeneous environment.

The IEEE 802 comnittee efforts [3] on the standardization of both contention

and token local area networks is encouraging

the heterogeneous environment. This environment will in turn encourage the growth

of multiple connectivity requirements

on the corporate premises. Diverse services

such as electronic mail, electronic document

distribution systems, and communicating

word processing systems will demand diverse

connectivity within buildings. A strong

case can be made for a broadcast type

capability to insure any-to-any physical

connectivity. The implementation of the

any-to-any heterogeneous connectivity

must await acceptance and pursuit of such

standards as the International Standards

Organization (ISO) open systems interconnection architecture. [4] Organizational

productivity is closely related to this

connectivity endeavor.

3.3 Capacity

Capacity means bandwidth necessary

to support the tactical and strategic

requirements of the user organization.

Tactical capacity relates to the ability

to provide the bandwidth necessary to support existing and short term requirements.

Some of these bandwidth requirements might

be of the point-to-point single destination

type, while others might be of the multiple

connectivity type. Besides data communications in support of information systems,

video requirements may exist that require

large amounts of bandwidth. Typical analog

video requires approximately 6 mhz of

bandwidth. Heavily utilized point-topoint requirements might be supported

at the bandwidth required for the specific

application. Others may be multiple connectivity or more bursty traffic types that

might share high bandwidth channels of

the contention or token nature. These

channels typically will range from 1 to

10 mbps. Proper modulation techniques

or bandlimiting techniques can limit a 10 mbps signal to 6 mhz on an RF type

system or 20 mhz on a baseband system,

respectively. The local integrated communication media should be able to accommodate

all intra-bui Iding communications requirements.

For this reason a large capacity is required,

especially in comparison with twisted

pair cable. If the system is not able

to support these requirements, productivity

can potentially suffer either because

of disruptive expansions or because of

the forced requirement of managing separate

communications media.

4. Transmission Media Elements

The transmission media building blocks

available in the construction of the integrated communications media are:

• twisted pair wire,

• microwave,

• fiber optics,

• coaxial cable,

0 CATV cable systems,

t Infrared/laser.

Each of these media will be discussed

and compared in terms of the flexibility,

connectivity, and capacity attributes.

The summary of this comparison is shown

on Table 1.

FLEXIBILITY CONNECTIVITY CAPACITY

Twisted Pair Poor Point-to-Point Poor

Microwave Fair Point-to-Point Good

Fiber Optics

(Current Technology) Fair Point-to-Point; Limited Broadcast

Excel lent

Coaxial Cable Fair to Good Point-to-Point; Broadcast

Excellent

CATV Excellent - Point-to-Point; Broadcast

Excellent

Infrared/Laser Fair Point-to-Point Good

TABLE 1: INTEGRATED MEDIA BUILDING BLOCK

4.1 Twisted Pair

The characteristics of twisted pair

have been alluded to in the previous discussion

of each attribute. Wire is a point-topoint media with little broadcast potential.

Moderate data rates must be supported

by limited distance modems over distances

that are beyond the capability of line

drivers interfaces such as RS-232 or RS449. Video capability is extremely limited

273
and specially conditioned pairs are necessary

to pass video over very short distances.

Wire is not a good candidate for an integrated

media but it will continue to exist in buildings because

• it is there,

• it currently provides the best

support for distribution of

voice.

In the future, if CATV systems can support

voice distribution in a cost effective

manner, new buildings may potentially

be void of twisted pair. Wire cable plant

will most likely exist in parallel with

whatever integrated media is suggested

for existing buildings . It will become

increasingly less attractive in the future.

4.2 Microwave

Microwave systems are point-to-point

in nature. They would typically be used

to link buildings together that are moderate

distances apart or to bridge gaps for

which the organization does not have easement

rights. Microwave is also line of sight

and is nominally limited to a 25 mile

range. Of course the maximum range of

this media cannot be used for extension

of Carrier Sense Multiple Access Collision

Detect (CSMA/CD) contention channels to other buildings because of propataion

delay. Flexibility of microwave is closely

related to capacity. Digital microwave

links in the 90 mbps ranges are commercially

available. For analog microwave systems

6 mhz passbands are typical. Use of microwave

links requires FCC approval of frequency

plans. The approval process sometimes

requires frequency interference studies.

Towers, line of sight requirements, and FCC approval make microwave inflexible

at times as a media. Path reliability

is a function of terrain, frequency of

operation, path length, and atmospheric

conditions, however extremely reliable

paths are common.

4.3 Fiber Optics

Fiber optic systems, although principally

point-to-point in nature, can be configured

into a distribution system. This is done

by splitters that subdivide the light

energy into equal parts. The limitation

of this continual splitting technique

is that the power threshold required at receivers for acceptable bit error probability

is rapidly achieved. Lightwave amplifiers

are still R&D devices. No analog to the

high impedance tap yet exists in the light

world. Fiber optic broadcast distribution

systems are probably five years away from

common commercial application. The capacity

of fiber optics is dramatic. Capacities

in the range of several hundreds of mbps

are possible. Flexibility of optics is only fair as Frequency Division Multiplex

(FDM) techniques are still in the R&D

stage. This means that very high data

rates must be allocated in a Time Division

Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme to effectively

use this baseband datastream in other

than a point-to-point fashion. Once the

allocation scheme is fixed, changes are difficult. Also video support requires

T2 (6.3 mbps) data rates for high quality

video.

4.4 Coaxial Cable

Coaxial cable is distinguished from

CATV in that CATV uses FDM techniques

to create separate wideband channels while

coaxial cable operates on a baseband basis.

The coaxial cable system can be repeatered

however and therefore its range is extendable.

It suffers from the same flexibility problems

mentioned in fiber optics distribution

systems in that composite data rates are required to serve many distinct services.

Some time slots may be dedicated while

others might be used as a contention resource. Xerox's Ethernet (Trademark of Xerox Corporation) is a baseband coaxial cable system.

Its capability to provide a user an integrated

coimiuni cat ions media is limited because

of its baseband nature and inability to easily accommodate video. An advantage , of this type of media is its inherent

broadcast capability.

4.5 Community Antenna Television

(CATV) Systems

CATV systems offer perhaps the best

media for integrated communications within

and among buildings in close proximity.

Up to forty-one 6 mhz channels can easily

be supported as shown on Figure 1. Channels

can be used for contention systems, video

distribution, and even point-to-point

communications. As indicated in both

[5] and [6], the service, architectural,

and protocol local area network development

issues are complex. CATV is the best

suited all around local area network media.

This media far surpasses the others in the flexibility attribute. This flexibility

combined with the any-to-any physical

connectivity and large bandwidth capability

will make it the most commonly used integrated

media type.

274
MHz

i

5.75

11.75

17.75 23.75 29.75

35.75

41.75 47.75 5460

66

72

Channels

T-7 T-8

T-9

T-10

T-11 T-12 T-13

MHz

I

768288

108

120

126

132 138

144

Channels

FM

MHz

i

150

156

162 168

174 180

186

192 198 204

210

216

Channels

10

111213

MHz

i

222

228

234 240

246

252 258

264

270

276 282 294 300

Channels

M

O

Q

W

FIGURE 1; CATV FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS

CATV

-i

nin- —

'

MICROWAVE

LINK

BUILDING A

CATV

-A

CATV

BUILDING B

CATV

BUILDING C

A I MICROWAVE RADIO

CATV HEAD END

FIGURE 2: EXAMPLE OF A LOCAL INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

275
4.6 Infrared/Laser

Infrared/Laser communications links

are strictly point-to-point media. They

are greatly limited in range due to fog

or rain attenuation and any phenomenon

that might diffract, disperse, or reflect

the unguided but directed light energy.

The flexibility of inf ared/laser links

is about the same as microwave with the

exception that desk top links through

window glass are possible to establish

short i nterbui Iding links (as opposed

to large tower or roof top mounted MW antennas)

.

5. Example of a Local Integrated

Communication System

An example of a local integrated

communications system is shown in Figure

2. In this example an organization spans

three buildings. Each building has its own CATV distribution system for its own communities of interest. For common services,

basic connectivity is provided by derivation

of point-to-point circuits between buildings.

In the first case connectivity between

buildings A and B is obtained by extension

of the CATV system. In the second case connectivity between buildings A and C is obtained by a point-to-point microwave

system. This may have been required by

lack of easement between the buildings.

It would be possible to establish a common broadcast channel between buildings for

use as a contention channel. This could

operate on different frequencies in each

building CATV system and not interfere

with a wide assortment of other services

on other CATV channels peculiar to each

building. These services could include

the entire suite of those mentioned in Section 3.

6. Conclusion

CATV systems offer the best media

for local integrated communications systems.

For organizational needs spanning several

buildings these integrated systems will

consist of such elements as fiber optics,

microwave, and infrared/ laser links.

Wire plant will continue to exist in buildings

but the appearance of buildings void of

wire in the next five years is a real

possibility. Baseband coaxial systems

will also appear on the scene but are not good candidates for a flexible integrated

system. CATV systems are the best all around system in terms of capacity, flexibility, and connectivity. These integrated

local systems will profoundly affect productivity in the future.

References

[1] Tanenbaum, Andrew S, Computer Networks , Prentice Hall, 1981.

[2] Kaczmarek, R and McGregor P, "The

Synthesis of Formal User Requirements:

Defining the Networking Problem To

Be Solved", IEEE 1978.

[3] IEEE 802 Local Network Standard,

Draft 1, July 4, 1981, IEEE Computer

Standards Committee.

[5] Maglaris, B and Lissack, T., "An Integrated Broadband Local Network

Architecture", 5th Conference on Local Computer Networks , IEEE, October

6-7, 1980.

[6] Stack, T. and Dillencourt, K., "Protocols

For Local Networks", Proceedings,

Trends & Applications: 1980 Computer

Network Protocols ; May 29, 1980.

[4] IS0/TC97, N537, Architectural Model

of Open Systems Interconnection,

December 1980.

276
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A FLOW CONTROLLED

COMMUNICATION NETWORK NODE

P.G. Harrison

Department of Computing

Imperial College

London SW7 2BZ

England

A Markov model is presented for a message processing node with batch

arrivals, window size constraints and an additional flow control based on a

credit allocation scheme to limit congestion effects. The model is sufficiently

general for use in modelling many nodes which represent servers or sub-systems

in any queueing network with congestion controls. Its principal application lies in the study of communication networks, in particular representing the networkindependent flow control of messages between networks, which may have quite

different message sizes and protocols, via a "gateway". No closed form analytic solution exists for the direct representation of the congestion control scheme,

and die approach taken is to exploit its properties, approximately in some

cases, to simplify the model, reducing the size of the state space sufficiently

to permit direct, numerical solution of the balance equations. The credit allocation scheme is shown to be equivalent to the node's operation in different

n^odes^ each with its own buffer capacity. Great simplification is achieved in

this way; credit control need no longer be modelled explicitly. The

approximations made are suitably realistic to retain adequate representation of parameters, resulting in a good physical interpretation and accurate

predictions. Accuracy is assessed by comparison with the results of explicit

simulations of a selection of nodes of this type with various parameterizations.

Finally, we suggest applications for the model in the assessment and comparison

of performance under various congestion control schemes.

Key words: Communication networks; flow control; performance prediction;

analytic models; queueing models; Markov processes; simulation; validation.

1. Introduction

In communication networks, flow control schemes are necessary to ease congestion which

would otherwise cause any of a variety of problems. These include speed mis-matching

(different processing rates at the sending and

receiving nodes), deterioration in efficiency

(e.g. throughput degradation), loss of security or

reliability (e.g. due to buffer overflow at some

node), unfairness (in the sense that certain

classes of message may be allowed to dominate).

Various strategies have been proposed and sub-sets

of these implemented in some actual networks; e.g.

pacing control, [6], >vipd9W sizs. CPPStiaint as in SNA, DECNET and ARPANET, [6], buffer size limitation at individual nodes, [8,9], and

isarithmic control, [2]. Performance prediction of flow controlled networks is important in the comparison of such schemes, with the aim of choosing the most efficient (always subject to adequate attainment of the original objective of

the flow control).

We address this via an analytic model,

constructed initially to represent a node, the message processor, connecting separate

communication networks with possibly quite

277
different characteristics, such as message size or protocol; a gateway. Flow control in the gateway

is independent of the characteristics of each network and uses:

(i) Window size restriction;

(ii) Buffer size limitation via assignment

of a threshold value for the number of messages therein;

(iii) Message acceptance protocol based on

the availability and issue of credits,

accumulated on completion of processing of a message unit by the message processor. This

is a pacing control.

The analytic model was developed within a Markovian framework and results in balance equations widi many global dependencies in the sense that certain state transition probabilities

depend on several state vector component values; in particular, blocking is present. The credit- based control scheme is shown, in 2.1, to be

equivalent to operation by the node in modes,

representing congestion levels, each with its own

buffer capacity. In this way, the problem

specification is greatly simplified, and the state

> space much reduced, since credit handling need no

longer be modelled explicitly. The approach taken

is to make r<^^ 1,j yti<; approximations to further reduce the size of the state space, the number of dimensions in particular. The global state dependence, e.g. blocking, is still present, but

the resulting small size of the state space permits direct numerical solution of its balance equations for the state space probabilities. From

these, important performance measures follow

immediately. The physical realism of the approximations made retains the original

parameters of the model in an intuitively

significant way, preserving an accurate

representation. Thus the precision of predictions

is expected to be good. Validation is performed by

comparison with the results of simulation tests, although ultimately validation is only relevant when based on data measured on actual networks.

Nevertheless, the consistency shown with the simulated results does increase confidence in the model; its approximations in particular.

The model has great generality in that it is the solution of raw balance equations, so that all

its parameters can have any (global) state dependencies; in particular state dependent

service rates. Thus it can be applied to a variety of queueing network nodes in the contexts of communications and computer systems. For example,

whole sub-systems of physical nodes may be

represented by one with state dependent service

rate and/or customer acceptance protocol; indeed any system with a congestion control scheme which

can somehow be represented realistically by a single (possibly very complex) processor is a

suitable application.

In the following section, the gateway node

modelled is defined and the analysis resulting in the reduced state space discussed. The balance equations for the underlying Markov Process then follow directly, from which the state transition probability matrix may be obtained. The validation

exercise is described in section 3, and finally we

suggest applications of the model and extensions

which could be made to increase its generality,

allowing representation of more sophisticated,

stabilized congestion control schemes.

2. The Node Model

2.1 Node Description

The node, shown in Figure 1, accepts batches

of messages from a number of classes, each of which has its own batch size and input stream. Incoming message batches from each stream enter a common hold queue (according to a Poisson arrival process) from where batches are released into the server queue of the message processor, whence they

are served on a first-come-first-served (FCFS)

basis. Messages are processed one message at a time and the following flow control schemes are operative:

(i) Window control. Each message class is assigned a maximum number of batches allowed

in the server and hold queues, its window

size;

(ii) Isarithmic control or buffer size

limitation. The server queue has an

associated threshold value such that no

messages are accepted when the queue size reaches this level and a congested mode is entered whereby message acceptance is restricted according to credit availability

as discussed next in (iii);

(iii) Pacing control. Once the threshold has been reached messages are accepted only if sufficient credits have been accumulated,

until the queue again becomes empty. The

number of available credits is set to zero

for queue sizes greater dian or equal to the threshold value. One credit is issued whenever a message's processing is completed

with a resulting queue length less than the threshold value. Batches of messages are accepted from the hold queue, on a FCFS

basis, when the number of accvmiulated

credits is greater than or equal to the batch

size of the class at the front of the hold

queue. On such a message acceptance a number

of credits equal to the batch size is consumed, reducing the number of accimiulated

credits correspondingly. If the server queue

size becomes zero, non-congested mode of operation is restored until the threshold is again crossed.

This is basically the node described in [5]

widi variable message sizes and no time-out

278
mechanism. The time delay involved in the issue of

credits, arising from their own transmission on a network in the physical system, is not

represented.

Notation:

Number of message classes: R

Message processor service rate: y messages/unit

time

Queueing discipline: FCFS (both queues)

Class arrival rates: \^ batches/unit

time (llrlR)

Class batch sizes: b^ messages

Class window sizes: w^ batches (llrlR)

Threshold of server queue: T messages

These parameters may be state dependent in any Markov model, in particular queue length

dependent. The direct representation of this system in terms of a Markov process involves a

state space with dimensions corresponding to

(i) ordering of batches in the hold and

server queues in terms of their classes;

(ii) number of messages in the server queue;

(iii) number of credits accumulated.

The balance equations have no closed form

solution because of the global state dependencies

of state transition matrix entries on more than one state vector components, c.f. [1], [7]; for example due to blocking. Furthermore, direct solution of the balance equations is infeasible due to the size of the state space. We therefore simplify the formulation of the specification for

a model to represent the system so as to reduce

the state space size to such an extent that explicit solution of the new balance equations

becomes a practicable proposition. The global

state dependencies do not vanish so that a closed form solution still cannot be derived.

The following observations may be made:

(i) The system operates in either of two

modes:

* congested, when the server queue has not been empty since the last time the threshold was reached;

* uncongested, otherwise.

(ii) Uncongested mode may be represented by some maximum server queue size, C say, where

C^T. Of course it would be meaningless to have C>T-l+max(bj) since queue lengths

greater than the r.h.s. of this inequality

could only occur after an arrival to a queue

of length greater than T-1, when no batches

are accepted.

(iii) Congested mode may be represented by

* no arrivals for server queue lengths

greater than or equal to T.

* arrivals subject to maximum queue

length T for server queue length less than T. This is because on a service completion resulting in a queue length

below the threshold, a single credit is issued corresponding to a single message

completed. Also, when a batch is accepted, the number of credits consumed

is equal to the number of messages in the batch. Thus the sum of the number of accimiulated credits and the server queue

length is constant, equal to T since at the threshold there are zero credits available by definition. This is equivalent to (ii), uncongested mode,

with C set to T.

The state space, slightly generalised from

this description, is now defined in terms of mode

and server queue length; the credit-based control becomes implicit and the model specification

greatly simplified.

2.2 The State Space

The state space, S, is the set of ordered

pairs defined by

S = { (n,m) : UnlCm; l^m^M]

where

M is the number of different modes (2 in the previous section); m is the mode corresponding to state vector (n,m), with m=l representing congested mode;

Cjj) is the maximum queue length permitted in mode m, the mode's capacity , so that Ci=T;

n is the queue length corresponding to state vector (n,m).

This state space permits a more general flow

control scheme than that described in the previous

section:

(a) Any number of modes is possible, i.e. M22;

(b) Mode changes may occur when the queue becomes empty (n=0). Initially, n=0 and m>l;

Cn,>T for a realistic system, otherwise

congestion will never occur in the mode m.

Subsequently, on entry to a state with n=0

from a state (l,m'), a mode transition to mode m occurs with probability T^mm'' Thus,

in the scheme defined in the previous

section,

^mm' = r 1 if TM=2

0 if m=l

Additional modes may be used to provide

stability in the system by introducing

intermediate capacities, preventing the immediate onset of repeated congestion. In

fact the scheme can be generalised further,

providing more stability, via multiple thresholds as discussed in 4.3

(c) A batch from message class r at the front of the hold queue is accepted into the

279
Credits ih

Class 1

Class 2

Class S.

Bacefa arrivals

Hold, queue

Siaala

aes sages

Figure 1. The Flow Controlled Node

server queue in state (n,m) iff the queue

capacity wovild not be exceeded, i.e. iff n+bj^Cjj^. Hence a form of blocking is present even in our approximate model,

(d) On crossing the threshold, congested

mode is entered, i.e. a transition to a state (n,m) with n^T causes m to be set to 1.

2.3 Implicit Representation of the Congestion

Control Mechanisms

The window flow control scheme of the node is represented implicitly in the parameterization of the following two quantities for each class k,

llklR:

Pk» probability that any given

message in the hold or server queues belongs

to class k. This is chosen to be proportional

to the window size as well as the arrival

rate of class k. Thus, p^ °^ -"^k^k* value of pjj will also be influenced by the window control through A j^, as described

next.

(b) ujj, the constraining factor on the

arrival rate, Aj^, of class k batches,

0<u1j^1. These constraints result from the

rejection of class k message batches when

their number in the hold and server queues is equal to their window size; the effective reducing of Aj^ to 0. The constrained

arrival rate for class k is then ujjAk^

The value of uj^ depends critically on

transmission protocol. It is unity if re- transmission is attempted immediately after rejection, or equivalently if rejected batches are stored until they do become acceptable after further processing of sufficiently many class k

messages. However, more commonly and inevitably if the total unconstrained message arrival rate (from

all classes) exceeds the message processing rate,

uj( depends on the distribution of batch classes in the hold and server queues. We denote the

constraining factor for class k in state (n,m) by

uj^Cn): independent of m since the window control

is mode-independent.

The approximation given below for ujj(n) is based on the mean value of the length of the combined hold and server queues. We assume that the total number of messages in these queues has

the same probability distribution, Z, as the length of die steady state M/M/1 single server queue with R

arrival rate E ujj(n)A]jbjj , k=l

processing rate y , R

and capacity i wj^bj^ , k=l

henceforth denoted by Q. Thus {ujj(n)} ' are defined recursively (and non-linearly) and may be determined iteratively, each being set to 1 initially and successively updated to the required

precision. Convergnce is not considered formally

here. Our approximation for uj^(n) is derived as follows.

Let q(n) be the mean combined length of the hold and server queues in state (n,m). Thus,

Q

/ j z(j)

q(n) = (1)

^ Z(j)

j=n

Then the corresponding mean number of batches

in the hold and server queues is

m(n) = ^ + 1/2 (2) R

Z Pi(n)bi

i=l where Pi(n) ^ uj(n) A jwj and we use the

280
value of uj(n) given by the previous iteration

to compute pi(n). The addition of 1/2 allows for

the batch currently being processed.

The probability or the queues containing w

class k batches, given total length m(n), is therefore ('"H{Pk(n)}^ {1-Pk(n)}^(n)-W

for m(n)2w, and we define uj^Cn) to be 1

if m(n)iwij and

unconstrained by window control, Le. if uij(n)=l

for each message class k and queue length n, '^nm may be inaccurate since, for example, one arrival stream may dominate through its high arrival rate and yet have a small, highly constraining window

size.

2.4 The Balance Equations

2.4.1 Further Definitions

^'k ~ / \ ^ ( w ] {Pk(n)}^ {1-Pk(n)}'°(">-^

w=0

if m(n)2wij (3)

Notes :

(i) In general, m(n) is not an integer, and

die generalized factorial function is used in the combinatorials to provide an interpolated

estimate for U]^(n) as a function of mean

queue length.

(ii) This approximation assumes primarily

that the hold queue length is always the same

for any given server queue length. A more

precise analysis which does not require this assumption is given in [3].

The credit allocation control scheme is reflected implicitly in the effective batch

arrival rate in state (n,m),

R

I ui(n)>^ibi i=l

R

I pi(n)bi

i=l

(4)

so that I uj(n)A£bi

n+bilCm

= overall message arrival rate in state (n,m)

= (effective batch arrival rate) * (mean accepted batch size)

as required. Note that for degenerate bj's or

I v4(n)X£

n+bjlCni

1 Pi(n)

n+b^C^

(5)

again as required.

Note too that if batch arrival rates are

Before the balance equations can be derived, some more definitions are required:

^nm^^) ~ probability that the system is blocked in state (n,m) waiting to accept a batch of class k from the front of the hold

queue, l^k^R

B

state (n,m)

^ = probability of any blocking in

= Z Bnm(k)

k=l

(6)

We make the following (intuitively sound)

approximation:

Bnm(k) = ,^AninPk(n)

^0

if bk>Cin-n

otherwise.

(7)

where is the probability that there is at least one arrival of any class outstanding in the hold queue in state (n,m). The parameter A^^^ is important in that its choice of value allows various different message batch acceptance

protocols to be represented. Some examples of relevant value assignments are:

(i) For a re-transmit batch acceptance

protocol in which a message batch is discarded if it cannot be accepted into the server queue immediately, no blocking occurs and Ajun - 0 for all (n,m) e S.

Such a protocol is good as regards

buffer protection and no hold queue is required. Throughput is not reduced

significantly and it is the easiest case to model; the credit control scheme is redundant. However, the protocol is unfair to large batches which do not have bounded

waiting time for service and suffer severely

if there is heavy small batch traffic.

(ii) Hold queue widi FCFS discipline and unbounded buffer size (unlimited queue

lengdi). For state (n,m)eS, R

let A(n) = E bkXkiqj(n) (8) k=l

the total, window -constrained, external

281
message arrival rate in state (n,m).

If ^ (n)2)J| the system is overloaded and

there will always be a blocked arrival; A^m

= 1.

If A(n)<y,

Ajim ~ Prob(total no. of messages in hold 8c server queues > n : server queue

length = n)

Considering the whole system as an M/M/1

single server queue, this yields

Anm - P rob (queue length > n

: queue length ^ n)

=1- (9) Q

E Z(j)

j=n

in the notation of 2.3. This is the parameterization we choose for our model.

Clearly, further i^proximation has been

introduced, but note that the result is exact for A (n)=0 and as A(n)->«' with mazimiun

allowed queue size approaching infinity.

Furthermore, one would expect the inaccuracy

introduced to be considerably less than that arising from the other approximations in the model.

With the problem now fully defined it is a

relatively simple matter to write down the balance equations for the scheme. These may be found in [3], together with a discussion of some numerical

aspects of their solution. We note here that the

size of the state space is 1+(M-1)T+ max Cm, and the number of elements in l<jn<M

the transition matrix is the square of this value. Typically, M will be small, e.g. 2 in our original

specification, and T and {CnjJl^ni^M} not large

with respect to computational feasibility; in any

case, the state space size is only linear in T. No storage optimization techniques have been

found necessary, but the transition matrix is clearly suitable for sparse matrix processing

techniques. These could be enhanced further using

certain properties of the model. For example by

considering separately die mode changes which can occur only in very few states; the intervening

states enterable may then be considered to have

only one component, the queue length. In

particular, the state (n,l) with n>T can transit only to the state (n-1,1) and thence, eventually,

to (T,l). Thus all super -threshold states could be

lumped together into a single composite state. This would produce a more efficient implementation

with respect to both execution time and storage, but results in loss of potentially important

detail, viz. the queue length distribution above

the threshold.

3. Validation

3.1 The Simulation Model

The analytic model defined in the previous

sections was validated by comparing its predictions with those of a simulation model which

represents the node's operating characteristics

explicitly (although very much less efficiendy).

Whilst it is conceded that ultimate validation must be based on data monitored on at least one

existing physical node, agreement with simulated

results certainly supports confidence in our model; its implementation, but most importandy

its s^proximations.

The simulation model is an algorithmic

representation of the node defined in 2.1. It models explicidy the flow of messages in each

class and the window flow control mechanism as well as the credit allocation/threshold congestion

control scheme which is equivalent to two modes of congestion. All interarrival times and the message

processor service times are drawn from negative

exponential probability distributions (consistent

with our Markov model), and messages rejected due

to window flow constraints are discarded: a stream's arrival rate is effectively shut down to zero when it attempts to violate its window size

limit.

The durations of the time periods simulated were chosen to be long enough to yield

sufficiendy small standard error estimates on the derived performance measures: of the order of 5%,

see 3.3. Both the analytic formulae and simulation

are simply programmed in APL, and run on an IBM

5100, the efficiency of which is conducive to performance evaluation by wrist watchi The

analytic results for each test case required

around 5 minutes of CPU time, whereas the corresponding simulation runs lasted some 10 hours.

3.2 Node Test Cases

In any test, the total message arrival rate from all classes must be at least close to the message processor's service rate in order that any

congestion control become operative. Relatively

low arrival rates were used to validate the implementations of the models - giving results close to those of corresponding M/M/1 queues, as required.

Similarly, for a node with all batches consisting of only a single message, the maximum

queue length in jH. modes is the threshold value, since congested mode will be entered as soon as the queue reaches this size: the modes are degenerate. Here, the node is precisely a regular

single server queue (M/M/1 under our Markovian

282
assumptions) with the super-threshold states aggregated into one. Thus, for a single arrival stream o£ unit-sized batches with window size Q,

in the notation of 2.3, ive should have

Pi = Z(i) for 01i<T

Q (10)

Pt = ^ Z(j)

j=T

where we drop the redundant mode subscript. Now,

batches can be blocked in the hold queue only in

state (T,l) and so the balance equations for our

analytic model reduce (via the conventional method

for the M/M/1 analysis) to

Pi+1 = p (i)Pi for 01i<T-l

Pt = (l-AT)-lp(T-l)Px_i (11)

where p(i) = A(i)/ij(i+l) for message arrival rate A(i) and processing rate y(i) in state (i,l), and

At is the probability of there being a batch

waiting in the hold queue in state (T,l), see 2.4. Now, Z(i+1)= p(i)Z(i) for Oj^KQ, so we require

Q

{1-At}"1z(T) = E Z(j) (12)

j=T

which is satisfied by our definition of A in 2.4.

Ntmierical results are in agreement, but this merely provides some validation of the implementations of the analytic and simulation

models. Note that although the modes are degenerate, for finite window sizes the arrival streams are not; they result in a multi-class

single server queue.

The following selection of nodes defined for our validation was chosen to demonstrate the most

significant characteristics of the flow controls:

(1) A node with 2 arrival streams and the threshold value sufficiently high for both

the credit allocation and window flow control schemes to have significant effects. Note

that a threshold above the sum of the products of the window size and batch size for each class would never be reached.

(2) The same node with the threshold reduced

so that the credit allocation control scheme

becomes dominant.

(3) The node with total (unconstrained) message arrival rate much higher than the message processor's service rate - a saturated node.

(4) A node with a third arrival stream of single message batches with relatively high

arrival rate and window size. Such a stream allows the server queue length to remain at

its threshold value after a service completion (in congested mode, of course),

due to acceptance from the hold queue of a message batch of unit size.

The numerical parameterizations of these

specifications are given in Tables 1-4, along with

their performance predictions. These test cases

are a sub-set of a much more comprehensive set, revealing our most significant results as discussed in later sections.

3.3 Estimation of Performance Measures

The primary performance measure, computed by

both the analytic and simulation models for each

test case (3.2), is the probability distribution of the server queue length. Secondary quantities then follow immediately, for example throughput, mean and standard deviation of queue lengdi,

expected message waiting time (through Litde's Law). In some simulation runs, we also estimated

the proportion of time that:

(a) Each arrival stream is inactive due to the window contol. In this way the validity of our approximation for {uif(n)}, 2.3, could be judged directly.

(b) The hold queue is non-empty, with a

class k batch at the front, l^k^R. Hence the accuracy of our assignment of values to {Ajimlt 2.4, can be assessed for cases more

complex than that discussed in 3.2.

(c) The node is in each mode. This can provide further validation by comparison with

the appropriate marginal state space

probabilities of the analytic model.

In each simulation run, initially both the hold and server queues are empty and the node is in non-congested mode. No data is collected until

a period of 5 time constants has el<^sed. The

value used for the time constant is the reciprocal of the mean state transition rate, averaged over

all states in the sxialytic model. We used

primarily the sampling or "snapshot" method of data collection, described below, for our

statistical analysis. Cumulative techniques were

also used to provide an alternative approach, but

the resulting estimates are not significantly different from, in fact are almost identical to, those based on the snapshot data. The cumulative

variant is described in [4].

Snapshots of the node's state were sampled at a set of time points uniformly spaced at intervals of 2 time constants, the first at time equal to 5 time constants. If server queue length i is observed nj times in a sample of N snapshots,

the estimate for the equilibrium probability of queue length i is pi=n£/N, O^i^I, where I is the maximum possible queue length. Assuming that the sample is independently identically distributed according to true queue length

probabilities {pi:Oii^I}, the random variable

n^ has binomial distribution with mean Np^ and

variance Npj(l-pj).

Thus, p£ has expected value p^ (as

283
Probability

0.3 Test case 1 Probability

0.3

X — — n

Test case 2

H _

0 1 234 56 789 10 11 Server queue length

3C .Tr 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Server queue length

Test case 3

X -EX i —

Test case 4

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 01 23 45678

Legend: 0 analytic prediction

X simulation estimate — 2 X standard error limit

Figure 2. Predicted Server Queue Length Probability Distributions

required) and variance pj(l-pi)/N. Hence, pj has standard error estimate

o[pi] = {pi(l-Pi)/N}0-5 (13)

Since N is proportional to the (simulated)

duration of the run, D say, the standard errors

are proportional to D"^*^. Thus to reduce the standard error estimates by a factor of f, the simulation run time must increase by a factor of

f2.

The mean queue length is estimated as

II ipi i=l and so has standard errror

I

{ I

(i a[pi])2}0.5 (14)

i=l

A numerical comparison of these performance

measures as computed by the analytic and

simulation models is presented in Tables 1-4, with

the goodness-of-fit assessed by the chi-squared

test. Histograms derived for the server queue

length probability distributions are shown in Figure 2,

3.4 Analysis and Interpretation of the Numerical Results

3.4.1 Overview and General Observations

From tables 1-4 and the plots in Figure 2 it can be seen that the analytic and simulation

results exhibit the same general characteristics: in terms of mean queue length, the distribution

itself and their standard errors. The distribution

is essentially bimodal (with the exception of the case with high arrival rate discussed below),

decreasing from the idle probability (queue length

284
zero) to a trough before the threshold queue

length, increasing to a maximum at or immediately

below the threshold and falling away sharply for queue lengths above the threshold. The

corresponding single server queue results, with

window flow controlled arrival rate and all superthreshold states lumped into one, bear little resemblance.

Apart from the general bimodal shape, there

are other more local variations in the

distributions. Denoting the probability of queue

length n by P(n), for test cases 1-3,

P(0)>P(1)<P(2)>P(3)<P(4), whereas in case 4 the

probabilities are monotonicallv decreasing for sub-threshold queue lengths. This is simply

explained by the absence of a single message batch stream in all cases other than the fourth. The

(queue length) transition 0->l is then invalid and queue length 1 can only result from a transition 2->l, on a message completion. Thus P(1)<P(2) and

the effect propagates to P(3) for precisely the same reason. Similarly in cases 1-3, P(T-1)>P(T)

for threshold value T. This follows since the

transition T->T is invalid (acceptance of a blocked single message batch on service completion) and so all super -threshold states must

transit monotonely to state (T-1,1). Propagation

analogous to that discussed above results in P(T-3)>P(T-2)<P(T-1) in cases 1 and 2, the effect being less pronounced in case 3 because of the counteracting high arrival rate.

In contrast, note that in case 4, the presence of the unit sized batches allows the transition T->T, yielding very emphatically

P(T)>P(T-1). Further, P(T-l)<P(T-2), explained by

the existence of (T-1)->T (blocked arrival) transitions: no similar transition is possible

from queue length T-2 and the effect is outweighed

by the others in cases 1-3.

3.4.2 Goodness-of-fit

It is clear from our tables and graphs that there is very variable agreement between the

analytic and simulation results: from very good

(test case 1) to poor (case 3). The mean queue

lengths for cases 1,2,4 certainly do not differ

significantly (in terms of their standard error

estimates); even case 3 is not outrageous here. However, more rigorous quantitative testing must

be based on whole distributions. The proportion of

analytically computed probability points lying

outside the 2 x standard error confidence bands on

the simulation results (Figure 2) are 0, 37, 100

and 12 per cent for cases 1-4 respectively.

Excluding case 3, only one point differs by more

than 3 standard errors (queue length 0 in case 2). Case 3 is the saturated node and is discussed in some detail in the next section. Note here that although quantitatively poor, its analytic

predictions still exhibit general characteristics

not inconsistent with the simulation.

Our primary statistical test for goodness-offit is the chi-squared test. This again reflects the variability of agreement, with values of the

test statistic in the range 12-200 on 8-11 degrees

of freedom (Tables 1-4). The corresponding

percentage points indicate a fit which is good for case 1 (about 75%), reasonable for case 4 (96%)

and poor for case 2 (99.9%); effectively 100% for case 3. These results are not too impressive in themselves, indeed rather surprising in case 2. But the chi-squared test is well known for its extreme and unforgiving sensitivity: just one or two points differing significantly yield a large

contribution in the test statistic which

consequently shows a poor fit regardless of the

sizes of the contributions from the other points.

This is precisely the situation in test cases 2 and 4, as well as many others not reported here,

with particularly large contributions from small queue lengths (see the last columns in the

tables). If such points are corrected or omitted,

a good fit is indicated. Thus, although the chi- squared test may suggest a model worthless, it may

be that for a (majority) sub-set of queue lengths

the model provides a good representation

actually supported by this self-same test which

may reject a whole theory on the basis of one

point.

Our model, then, appears to provide a good,

statistically supported representation of queue

length behaviour if underload situations are excluded. This is especially true near the threshold, precisely where the control schemes

modelled are most crucial and prediction is most

important. Some possible causes for the inadequacies identified in the model are revealed

next.

3.4.3 Interpretations

(1) For many of the node specifications examined,

cases 1-3 here, the simulation predicted a sharper

peak in the queue length distribution at (or just

below) the threshold. This is quite consistent with its lower predictions for the probability of zero queue length in that non congested mode would

be entered less frequently. Thus the queue

capacity would be greater than the threshold value

less often, and hence the threshold will provide a more dominating constraint. In more general terms

also, some smoothing of the peak in the analytic

model is consistent with the aggregate type of representation of window control: discussed

further below.

(2) As expected, the credit allocation control (CAC) dominated cases give the best agreement,

e.g. case 1: CAC is modelled explicitly and in

greater detail than the window flow control (WFC),

represented only in terms of aggregate effects on

285
arrival rates. Moreover the WFC has representation

independent of the CAC and so of the threshold

value. Thus, if it is inadequate, the analytic

model cannot be expected to be accurate since its own input (arrival rate) parameters would be

incorrect. This applies regardless of the threshold value, so that by a "CAC dominated" test case we really mean one in which WFC has little effect on arrival rates and not necessarily merely one with low threshold.

The good agreement obtained in case 1 is consistent with this argument, but greater positive support is provided by the poor results of test case 3 in which batch arrival rates were

high and consequendy adjusted by the WFC to a considerable extent. Certainly the significant

probabilities predicted for queue lengths 0 and 1 are counter -intuitive, and we postulate that the inaccuracy arises from our representation of WFC.

Exploring this possibility further, we tested a case with two arrival streams, one with much

greater arrival rate but small window size. The

resulting adjustments to the batch arrival rates were therefore substantial, even though the node was not overloaded. This test gave a chi-squared

statistic of around 500 on 9 degrees of freedom,

strongly suggesting that our arrival rate adjustment formula (2.3) is inadequate.

On re-computing the analytic results for this node specification and test case 3, using the WFCconstrained arrival rates estimated by monitoring

the corresponding simulations (3.3 (b)) in place

of the adjustment formula, much better agreement was obtained. A need for improvement in our

representation of WFC is clearly identified, and

may be provided to some extent through a refinement of our aggregate approach, [3]. A more

detailed representation would be preferable, but

recall that it is impractical for this to be fully

explicit (2.1). Note that another similar possible source of inaccuracy is the formulation of the batch class selection probabilities, {pk(n)} of

2.3.

(3) Finally, and in the same vein as (2), the parameterisation of the blocking probabilities

through {Amnl lead to imprecision. Again the WFC representation is also significant through

{plj(n)}, as well as {Ajiml to a lesser extent. However, tests using values for the blocking

probabilities estimated in corresponding

simulation runs (compare (2)) were inconclusive.

4. Applications and Enhancements of the Model

4.1 Performance Metrics

Most of the required performance measures can be derived from the state space probabilities, £. These are as follows:

(i) Server queue length probability

distribution, marginal probabilities of the

joint probability distribution, £;

(ii) Server utilization, following directly

from (i)

;

(iii) Server throughput;

(iv) Mean and standard deviation of the server queue length;

(v) Distribution of the time delay for a message batch to pass through the message

processor, a simple weighted convolution;

(vi) The power of the node, defined as Througlq)ut of node

Mean message time delay in both queues

2 _ (Throughput)

Sum of mean queue lengths

by Little's Law. Now the throughput may be

derived from the node's state space

probabilities and the sum of the mean queue

lengths obtained by considering the whole

system as an M/M/1 single server queue with

window flow constrained arrival rate (2.3).

4.2 Experimentation

Having derived expressions or algorithms for the performance measures listed in the previous

section, one can attempt to optimize the node's performance in various ways, by selection of appropriate parameter values. For example,

(i) In the graphs of throughput and power

vs. mean time delay or mean queue length

(related by Litde's Law) for messages in the system, one can identify a knee and a peak

respectively. Optimization would involve

choosing model parameters to achieve positioning of these points which is best according to some objective; e.g. maximum

throughput subject to some upper bound on mean time delay (reflecting provision of some

pre-determined minimal service quality).

(ii) The distribution of the server queue

length is important, particularly if service

rate depends on queue size. Clearly a low

probability of zero queue length is required

(minimal idle time). In addition, the "spread" of the distribution should not be

too great, otherwise the variance of the number of messages in the queue will be high,

reflecting a highly variable message delay

time and possible instability; a most

undesirable effect, psychologically at least. Thus the ideal shape for the queue length

distribution is that of a sharp peak at a length greater than zero. Furthermore, for a queue length dependent service rate, one would like to be able to choose parameter

values such that the peak was located near

the queue length yielding maximum service

rate (the queue is finite, recall); in this way, throughput should be optimized also.

286
Considerable experimentation with parameter

values, such as the threshold, mode capacities, batch and window sizes, is possible, since the significant characteristics of the flow control scheme are parameterized explicitly. Particular examples are suggested in [3].

4.3 Extensions to the Model

An immediate extension is to incorporate

state-dependent parameters into the model; arrival and service rates in particular. Much more

sophisticated optimization may then be undertaken,

as in 4.2. Dynamic flow control schemes are being

used increasingly, particularly in networks with

distributed control functions. The parameters of such schemes are adjustable according to the current state of the network. For example, as congestion increases at any particular node, the node can reduce, or even shut down to zero in severe cases, the window sizes of some or all message classes. Of course the physical mechanism

would involve transmission of control information on the network, requiring much more complex

modelling which would be impracticable in our

case. However it is a simple matter to incorporate

queue length or mode dependent window sizes, Wj,

represented by pj and Uj in the balance

equations. In this way, the distribution of messages with respect to class, entering the message processor queue may be controlled according to the current state.

State dependent mode capacities may be used

to model stabilizing mechanisms which may operate

physically by issuing variable (fractional or multiple) credits. Indeed in general, mode

capacity is equivalent to the size of credits issued on sub-threshold message completion.

Although a less trivial change, the balance equations are easily modified to accomodate such

dynamic mode capacities. A form of dynamic message

acceptance protocol is represented in this way. A novel stability mechanism may be provided

by the use of multiple thresholds. In our model,

there is only one threshold, the only significance of which is that the mode, or queue capacity, may

change when it is reached from below. The mode

always becomes 1, congested, but there is no

analytical reason for this restriction or why a mode transition probability matrix similar to ^ could not be used. Furthermore, such transitions are quite realistic and feasible, and capable of representation in the balance equations, on

approaching the threshold from above as well as below; one could view the existing model as having

unit mode transition matrix on reaching the threshold from above.

Using the possibility of a mode change at a queue length of n as the defining criterion for a threshold, the empty queue is also a threshold.

Extending this argument, any number of thresholds may be defined, the mode being subject to change

at any; approaching from above or below. In this way, stabilizing mechanisms may be represented via entry to intermediate modes or use of a threshold band to delay revertion to the old mode on

returning through a threshold. The threshold band

operates as follows:

(i) The band consists of two values for the queue length, T;^ and Tg with Ty^ < Tg

for thresholds A and B respectively.

(ii) On reaching threshold B from below, the mode may change; to a "more congested" mode.

For example, m may change from 2 to 1 in our

test case with M=2 at the threshold with

value T. On approach from above, no mode

change occurs.

(iii) Similarly, on reaching A from above,

the mode may change; to a "less congested"

mode. In the same example, m may change from

1 to 2 when the queue becomes empty. On

approach from below, no mode change occurs.

It can be seen that this mechanism will prevent instability caused by oscillation of the queue length about a single threshold value having

inverse mode transitions for approach from

opposite directions. In fact in out example we

have precisely a threshold band, with T^ = 0 and

Tg = T, but fat greater generality is possible.

5. Conclusion

An analytic model has been developed which

can represent a wide range of nodes or sub-systems

in queueing networks with congestion control schemes. The equivalence of the credit- and modebased control schemes, together with certain approximations yield a state space sufficiently small to permit feasible, direct, numerical

solution of its balance equations; even for complex nodes with large buffer sizes. At the same

time, enough detail of a modelled system, in terms

of its parameters, is retained to achieve great

generality; mainly through the acceptability of unrestricted state dependence of the parameter

values.

The type of control modelled is node-to-node

rather than end-to-end, based on single buffer

capacity constraints and restrictions on the

arrival processes to one processor. The control is localized^ reflecting message pacing and single

node protection, and is eminently suitable for explication to networks with distributed flow

control. End-to-end flow control is modelled via

the window size parameters, although its explicit

implementation is not.

Validation to date is encouraging, suggesting

that our model provides a good analytic

representation of nodes' behaviour, for server queue lengths near the threshold in particular.

287
The choices of threshold value and mode edacities

ate crucial for optunizing performance, and diis domain is the most important for prediction purposes. We therefore expect that the model can be a suitable tool for performance prediction in

the next stage of our research - experimentation

with multiple modes and thresholds in the development of dynamic stability mechanisms, see

4,3.

Perhaps of less obvious importance, it should

be pointed out that in addition to providing a rich class of models, this modelling process has

increased insight into and understanding of the corresponding physical processors; resulting in the proposals for new or extended congestion

control schemes. A network consisting of nodes all of which possess flow control mechanisms of these types could provide dynamically well paced,

efficient, fair and secure communication between

end users.

The research reported in this paper

originated during my recent visit to IBM Watson

Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. I would like to extend my thanks to Frank Moss,

Mischa Schwartz, Paul Green, but above all to Parviz Kermani, for all their help and advice.

References

tl] Chandy, K.M., Howard, J.H., Towsley, D.F.,

"Product Form and Local Balance in Queueing

Networks", J.ACM Z±,2.

[2] Davies, D., "The Control of Congestion in Packet Switching Networks", IEEE Transactions

on Communications, Vol. COM-20, No. 3, June

1972.

[3] Harrison, P.G., "Analytic model of a Communication Network Node with Flow

Controls", IBM Research Report RC8832,

Research report DoC81/9, May 1981, Dept.of

Computing, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ,

England. Also submitted to Computer Networks.

[4] Harrison, P.G., "Performance Prediction of a Flow Control System using an Analytic Model",

Research report D0C8I/IO, June 1981,

Department of Computing, Imperial College,

London SW7 2BZ, England.

[5] Kermani, P., Bharath-Kumar, K., "A Congestion

Control Scheme for Window Flow Controlled

Computer Networks", IBM Research Report No. RC8401.

[6] Kleinrock, L., Gerla, M., "Flow Control: A

Comparative Survey", IEEE Transactions on

Communications, Vol. COM-28, No. 4, April 1980.

I7] Lam, S.S., "Queueing Networks with Population

Size Constraints", IBM J. Res. Develop., July 1977.

[8] Lam, S.S., Reiser, M., "Congestion Control in Store and Forward Networks by Buffer Input

Limits", IEEE Transactions on Communications,

Vol. COM-27, No. 1, January 1979.

[9] Wecker, S., "DNA: The Digital Network

Architecture", IEEE Transactions on

Communications, Vol. COM-28, No. 4, April 1980.

288
Table 1. First Node Test Case

HESSAGE CLASSES; 1 2 ARRIVAL PATES 5.000 3,000 BATCH SIZES 2 ^ UINIiQW SIZES 3 2 MESSAGE PROCESSING RATE - 20.000

THRFSHLILM VALUE = H NON-CONGESTED MODE CAPACITY = 11

QUEUE PROBABILITY; PROHABILITY; STANtiARU PROBABILITY CHI S«lJAREii" LENGTH ANALYTIC SIMULATION ERROR M/M/1 (lUELIE CONTRIBUTION

0 . 142 . 137

1 . 060 . 048

2 . 086 , 082

3 . 078 .075

If . 092 ,101

5 ,106 . 12U

6 . 099 ,110

7 . 178 . 165

8 . Iif7 . 1^6

9 .008 .010

10 .003 , 003

11 .001 .000 SAMPLE SIZE = 1250 LENGTH OF TIME PERIOB SIMULATED = 112.095 MEAN O.UEUE LENGTH ANALYTIC ; " " 5

. '497 SIMULATED; 4,562

STD ERROR ; . 140 CHI-SQUARED STATISTIC

MESSAGE CLASSES

ARRIVAL RATES 5,000 3.000 BATCH SIZES 2 4 UINDOU SIZES 3 2 MESSAGE PROCESSING RATE = 20.000 THRESHOLD VALUE = 5 NON-CONGESTED MODE CAPACITY = 8

QUEUE PROBABILITY: PROBABILITY; LENGTH ANALYTIC SIMULATION

0 . 184 . 136

1 . 078 . 059

. 129 . 148

3 .110 . 138

4 .257 . 260

5' .211 .228

6 . 0 22 . 021

7 , 007 .006

8 . UU3 . 004 SAMPLE SIZE = 1250 LENGTH OF TIME PERIOD SIMULATED = 126.505

MEAN QUEUE LENGTH

ANALYTIC; 27954 SIMULATED: 3.144

STD ERROR: ,091

010 .0 68 ,224 006 . 074 3.287

008 . 080 .239 007 .086 . 152

009 .090 1 . 092 009 . 092 4 . 147

009 . 091 1 . 535

010 , 087 1 , 174

010 .331 . 009 003 .000 ,332

001 , 000 , 098

000 ,000

STANDARD PROBABILITY; CHI SQUARED

ERROR M/M/1 QUEUE CONTRIBUTION

.010 . 068 15. 122

. 007 . 074 5.592

.010 , 080 3.516

.010 , 086 9. 025

. 012 . 090 . 054

.012 .602 1 . 790

. U04 .000 . 076

. 0 0 2 .000 .281

. 0 02 .000 . 022

= 13.510 WITH 11 DEGREES OF FREEDOM

Table 2. Second Node Test Case

1 2

CHI-SQUARED STATISTIC = 35,477 WITH 8 DEGREES OF FREEDOM

289
Table 3. Third Node Test Case

MESSAGE CLASSES ARRIVAL RATES BATCH SIZES uiNrmu SIZES

10 . 000

3

6,000

4

MESSAGE PROCESSING RATE = 20,000 THRESHOLD VALUE = 8 NON-CONGESTED MODE CAPACITY - 11

aiJEUE LENGTH

PROBABILITY

:

ANALYTIC

PROBABILITY SIMULATIONSTANDARD

ERROR PROBABILITY

;

M/M/1 OUeUE

CHI SQUARED CONTRIBUTION

0 . 046 .006 , 002 .001 42.705

1 . 026 ,008 , 003 .002 15 . 091

-y

. 041 .013 , 003 .003 24 . 282

3 . 047 . 021 . 004 .005 17.867

, 064 .023 .004 .007 33.280

5 .110 . 159 .010 .010 27.326

6 .113 .153 . 010 . 016 17.901

7 .287 .320 .013 . 024 4.589

8 , 256 .294 ,013 .932 7.401

9 , 006 .002 , 001 . 000 4.576

10 .003 .001 ,001 .000 1 .680

11 . 001 .000 .000 .000 1 . 068 SAMPLE SIZE = 1250 LENGTH OF TIME PERIOD SIMULATED = 104.202

MEAN QUEUE LENGTH

ANALYTIC; ""5.881

SIMULATED: 6.516

STD ERROR ; ,162

CHI-SQUARED STATISTIC = 197.765 WITH 11 DEGREES OF FREEDOM

Table 4. Fourth Node Test Case

MESSAGE CLASSES: ARRIVAL KATES BATCH SIZES

WINIiOU SIZES

. (1 1) !) 3

1 MESSAGE PROCESSING RATE = 20.000 THRESHOLD VALUE = 6 NON-CONGESTED MODE CAPACITY = 8

QUEUE LENGTH PROBABILITY

:

ANALYTIC

PROBABILITY

:

SIMULATION

STANDARD

ERROR PROBABILITY

:

M/M/1 QUEUE

CHI SQUARED CONTRIBUTION

0 . 204 .237 .012 . 163 6 . 567

1 . 160 . 139 .010 . 146 3.500

. 143 . 142 .010 .131 .013

3 . 131 . 113 . 009 .117 1 .782

4 . 121 .109 .009 . 105 1 .628

5 . 093 .112 .009 . 094 2.319

6 . 138 , 141 .010 .244 . 098

7 .0 03 , 003 . 002 .000 . 024

8 .001 ,000 . 000 . 000 .868 SAMPLE SIZE = 1250 LENGTH OF TIME PERIOD SIMULATED = aa . 029 MEAN QUEUE LENGTH

ANALi'TIC : 2V672 SIMULATED: 2.637

STD ERROR : . 090 CHI-SQUARED STATISTIC = 16.798 WITH 8 DEGREES OF FREEDOM

290
CP

I

j

Case Studies

291

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

IN A DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT

—COMPUTER RESOURCE SELECTION GUIDELINES

Eva T. Jun

Resource Planning and Measurement Branch

Division of Operations

Office of Computer Services and

Telecommunications Management

Office of the Assistant Secretary for

Management and Administration

U.S. Department of Energy

Germantown, MD 20874

In an installation where computer resources of various types and

sizes are either available or feasible, resource management and planning

personnel have the responsibility for ensuring that user requirements

are met in the most cost-effective manner. This paper is a tutorial on what considerations should be a part of the computer resource selection

process for any given application.

Key words: Computer resource selection; cost; long range plan; system

requirements; user requirements.

1. Introduction

The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that the selection method used for

automatic data processing (ADP) equipment

and services will lead to the acquisition

of an appropriate and cost-effective ADP resource for a given ADP application

system.

These guidelines outline the process

for selecting the resource upon which an application is to be run once user requirements have been defined.

With the emergence of distributed processing technology, resource management and

planning personnel have a wider choice of

equipment selection. In an installation

where computer resources of various types

and sizes are either available or feasible,

planners have the task of matching a resource to each application.

2. ADP Resource Selection Process

2.1 Timing

The timing of ADP resource selection

is critical to both the user and to the

data processing department. For new applications, ADP resource selection should take

place during the initiation phase of system

development. As illustrated in Figure 1, resource requirements should be identified

and quantified after user requirements are known and either before or concurrently

with preliminary design. For existing systems undergoing expansion (running on dedicated processors), ADP resource selection

should take place at least 5 months before

projected saturation (much longer in cer- tain Federal sectors). However, for existing systems undergoing major modifications,

the appropriateness of the original resource selected should also be

re-evaluated

.

293
Security/ privacy

Preliminary

Analysis

User Requirements

Study

ADP Resource

Selection

Preliminary

Design

Figure 1. Application System

Initiation Phase

2.2 Understanding User Requirements

A distinction must be made between

user requirements and system requirements.

User requirements should accurately reflect

the functional needs of the user stated in terms that the user understands, whereas

system requirements should define the com- puting environment. Quantities in user requirements should be stated in the units

the user utilizes to measure his tasks, not

in terms of computer system terminology.

Figure 2 illustrates the kinds of critical

user requirements that must be fully

understood.

• Nature of interface with other

systems

:

- One-way or two-way data exchange

- Frequency of interfacing

- Data volume

- Response time requirement

• Nature of processing:

- Computation or data management

extensive

- Accuracy requirement

• Online storage requirements in terms of:

- Number of files per system

- Average number of records per

file

- Average record length

• Geographical distribution of users

• Peak load conditions:

- Maximum number of simultaneous

users or processes

- Peak frequency of transaction

- Turnaround time requirement

• Input/output requirement:

- Input - screen formatting, data

editing, and validation

- Output - format and volume

• Frequency of usage : - Average number of interactive and

batch sessions per day

- Average length of connect time

per session

Figure 2. User Requirements

2.3 Long Range Plan

Although the processing requirements

of most applications can be satisfied by

most general purpose computers, conformity

to the data processing department's long

range plans is an important factor in the

selection of a computing resource. The

following paragraphs detail the major

points of one such plan, that used at the

Department of Energy (DOE) Headquarters

Administrative Computer Center in

Germantown, Maryland.

294
1. The Headquarters large scale host com- puter will be used for systems that

require

:

• Online integration of multiple data

bases—with current technology,

this can best be accomplished on

the host computer because of

response time constraints;

• A large volume of data, because of

the economy of scale offered in mass storage configurations on

large scale processors;

• A large amount of "number crunching," where the turnaround time

would be intolerable on smaller

scale processors.

2. Classified material will be processed

on dedicated classified processors.

3. Satellite processors are small to medium scale processors used to offload work from the host processors.

They are appropriate for systems that

do not have the specific requirements

outlined above for a host computer.

Satellite processors can be installed

in field offices as well as Headquarters for the convenience of users. Factors to be considered in the

assignment of users to any satellite

processor will be based on functional

requirements; geographic location; user organization; and the need for access to data, local control, and the

relative capacity of the processors.

Evaluation of these factors must be

made on a case-by-case basis.

4. Office system processors may be purchased and used by specific organizations within user departments where

proven to be cost-effective. Mini/

micro systems are appropriate for

office automation systems because they

offer user control, fast turnaround

for printer output, and (potential)

economy.

Data processing may be performed on user-owned processors when the sus- tained processing load of parochial

data justifies the acquisition of a computer for data processing and when

capacity of other suitable processors

is not available.

5. The use of computing resources through

interagency resource sharing ( for

Federal Government agencies) or com- mercial timesharing services must be

considered when the following conditions are present:

• When needed as back up for in-house

facilities when in-house computing

facilities are temporarily incapacitated or when there is a need for

a temporary means of providing

service due to the saturation of

in-house computing facilities and

urgency of user needs;

• When it is not feasible to provide

proprietary software packages on

the in-house computers;

• When the use of special hardware

capability is necessary;

• When there is a need to access proprietary data bases.

Interagency resource sharing is available from several Federal data pro- cessing centers that serve Federal

agencies throughout the country. The

General Services Administration (GSA)

assists agencies in screening available Government ADP resources. Federal Property Management Regulations (FPMR) require that interagency

ADP resource sharing be considered

prior to acquiring ADP resources from

commercial sources.

2.4 System Requirements

User requirements must be translated

into system requirements in order to determine the computing environment necessary to accomplish the user's tasks. The size of

the application system plays a major role

in establishing system requirements. Once

application size has been determined, the

physical resources needed to support it can

also be determined, thereby allowing selection of a processor with sufficient capacity (provided other requirement areas can

be satisfied).

Determining the size of an application

system before it has been developed is a difficult process. Accuracy depends on a complete understanding of how functions in

the system being developed are met. Workload characteristics (frequency, volume,

etc.) should be gathered in the current environment. Adjustments can then be made

to estimate projected workload for the

295
future environment. Another means of estimating the size of a system to be developed

is to examine the performance statistics of

current systems of similar volume and

architecture

.

There are often various ways of sup- porting a user-required function; thus, the

system configuration derived need not be

unique. For instance, screen formatting as

a user requirement can be translated into

either high-speed transmission from the

host or the satellite processor, or the use

of intelligent terminals or local processors for screen formatting where less than

high-speed transmission of data to the host

computer will suffice. Each alternative

should be evaluated according to how well

it satisfies the highest priority

requirements.

System requirements can be grouped

into five categories: software, hardware,

telecommunications, operating environment,

and performance. A single user requirement

can generate system requirements in more

than one category as illustrated in the

sample derivation of system requirements

from user requirements shown in Figure 3.

Security considerations impose

requirements on all of the above mentioned

areas of the system. A risk analysis

should be performed to determine the extent

of the security provisions necessary to satisfy user requirements.

The following paragraphs outline some

of the various areas of system requirements

that must be considered in the computer

selection process.

2.4.1 Software

Software support for the application

being considered must be made in terms of

the following considerations.

2.4.1.1 Operating System

The operating system must provide sup- port in the following areas, where

required

:

2. Software products and utilities

• Software control utilities,

• Application support packages, such

as debugging aids, screen formatting software, etc.,

• File system maintenance utilities,

such as disk reorganization, data

migration, and recall;

3. Interprocessors communications ability

(where necessary)

• Online interface,

• Job networking,

• File transfer;

4. Appropriate file structures, including

compatibility with interfacing

systems

;

5. Number of simultaneous users the soft- ware is capable of supporting.

2.4.1.2 Data Base Management System

(DBMS)

If the need for a data base management

system is warranted, its architecture must

be evaluated to determine its suitability

to the user's processing requirements for

functional capabilities and efficiency.

2.4.1.3 Language

Systems that are designed using existing systems as a base have specific language support requirements. In addition,

any system of this type also has a limited

number of processors on which it can be

used without a major conversion effort. ,

2.4.1.4 Automated Office System

Requirements

These functions should be supported in

office information systems: word processing, electronic mail, document storage,

calendar planning, and typewriter-quality

output

.

2.4.2 Hardware

Hardware support must be made in terms

of the following considerations.

1. Security and integrity

• Control of access,

• Protection against simultaneous

update when data is shared by many

users

;

2.4.2.1 Memory

Memory requirements are related to maximum execution program size (including

code, tables, arrays, etc.) and operating

system support (e.g., whether or not the

system uses virtual memory)

.

296
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In virtual memory systems, the size of

buffers and system tables that need to be

resident in real memory or shared virtual

memory is a consideration.

2.4.2.2 Accuracy

Number of digits of accuracy representable (most often governed by word size)

is a deciding factor for applications with

stringent accuracy requirements. Applications with numerical processing requirements should examine the arithmetic

error-interrupt capability (e.g., overflow,

division by zero, etc.) of potential

computers.

2.4.2.3 Data Storage

Online storage required by an application consists of the components required by

production and development work.

Storage for production work consists

of the following components:

1. Production data bases—transaction

files, audit files, master files,

etc .

;

2. Production program and procedure

libraries.

Storage for development work consists

of the following components:

1. Test data bases;

2. Test program and procedure libraries;

3. Storage taken up by programmer's private files, an estimate of which can

be derived by taking the numerical

product of the maximum number of programmers who have access to the system, the average number of files owned

per user, and the average file size.

The total online disk storage requirement should be padded by a life-cycle

growth factor.

The minimum number of tape drives

required equals the maximum number of tapes

used simultaneously by the application. If the application uses tapes that are imported from or exported to other systems,

tape density is constrained by this factor.

2.4.2.4 Input/Output

Input/output requirements should be

examined in terms of the following factors:

1. Input/output frequency and schedule;

2. Input/output volume;

3. Input/output media (form) —terminals,

punched cards, graphics, microfiche,

page printer, etc. (quality of output

is sometimes a consideration, especially for office information

systems)

;

4. Output distribution and utilization;

5. Input/output data protection.

2.4.3 Operating Environment

The operating environment must be

considered with regard to the following

factors

:

1. Physical security and safety of

hardware;

2. Geographic location of equipment,

which impacts the serviceability and

maintainability of parts, since some vendors do not have offices

nationwide

;

3. The operating environment, which must

be understood when selecting terminals

for an application. In some installations, many users have access to more

than one type of terminal. The number

and types of terminals to which the users already have access must be

considered.

2.4.4 Telecommunications

Telecommunications applications should

consider the following factors:

1. The number and type of terminals,

their communications speed, and

communications protocol must be

specified

;

2. The distance of transmission and the

proximity of terminals, in order to determine whether or not the use of a cluster controller is cost-effective.

298
Applications that need to exchange

data should be processed either on the same computer or on computers that have the

appropriate interprocessor communications

support facility.

Volume and speed of communications and

their impact on total system performance

must be evaluated by the system designer.

2.4.5 Workload and Performance

Workload should be specified in:

1. Number of runs processed per day;

2. Number of interactive sessions per

day;

3. Hours of required operation;

4. Average and peak number of concurrent

interactive sessions.

Performance specification should be

stated in terms of peak load conditions.

Peak workload should be specified in terms

of the following considerations:

1. Maximum number of users;

2. Peak frequency of transactions;

3. Amount of processing for the average

transaction in terms of lines of code

(translated into number of machine

instructions) , number of operating

system service calls (such as OPEN,

CLOSE, etc.) amount of input/output

(l/O) in terms of records read/written

(translated into actual hardware I/O

requests)

;

4. Growth in terms of number of users, number of transactions, and number of

records processed per month.

2.5 Criteria for Evaluating Alternative

Resources

2.5.1 Support of Existing Resources

Once the size of the application sys- tem has been determined, the current capacity of existing feasible equipment should

be reviewed and an impact analysis made to see how the additional requirements will

impact the overall performance of the

equipment. This is most often achieved by

modeling techniques.

2.5.2 Cost

Cost is often the bottom line in the

selection of a computer resource for an ADP

application. Cost estimates must be made

on the system life-cycle basis.

The cost for computer system support

consists of:

1. Hardware—processor, online storage,

and peripherals;

2. Software;

3. Site preparation and space rental;

4. Maintenance—hardware and software;

5. Operator;

6. Environmental control;

7. System programmer where needed;

8. Materials and supplies;

9. Telecommunications service and

equipment

;

10. Equipment backup/redundancy;

11. Planning and procurement;

12. Application system support;

13. Training;

14. Management.

Cost factors vary from one computer

resource to another. Besides the difference in purchase prices for a microcomputer, minicomputer, and large mainframe

computer, the distribution of expenses

varies with different types of equipment.

Thus, cost-determining factors have been

divided into three cost categories: mini/

micro costs, in-house large mainframe and

satellite processor costs, and teleprocessing service program (TSP) costs.

2.5.2.1 Cost of Mini/Micro Computer

Support

When managed by the end user, the

training and management costs for a system

that uses mini/micro computers can be

greater proportionately than those for the

large computer environment because of lack

of expertise in DP management. When users choose to operate their own computers, they

must be aware of extra costs incurred due

299
to operation of the equipment and coordination required by the staff to accomplish

the desired functions. They cannot rely on

the data processing department to provide

immediate assistance when support is needed

in the total system operation (e.g., computefr operators, data entry support, etc.).

Users must spend more of their human

resources to make effective use of the

mini/micro computer.

The alternative to users providing

their own support is for the data processing department to control the procurement,

operation, and maintenance (or a subset of

these functions) of the mini/micro installations along with the host and satellite

processors. This alternative may prove to be most beneficial to all parties in the

long run. Procurement and planning can be

done by DP experts. When distributed processing is planned centrally, a more

coherent growth can be achieved through

standardization of hardware and software.

(Even in a multivendor environment, there

should be a standard interface with host

and among satellite processors.) The DP department can absorb the cost of management of the processor better because of the

economy of scale in the volume of work

handled.

The feasibility of having the DP department responsible for the daily operations of the satellite processors depends

on the complexity of the system and its

geographical location. In view of the high

cost of training, one consideration that

should be made is the career growth path of

persons working on satellite computers.

It is important to evaluate the security provisions of candidate systems. If a system does not offer sufficient support in

this area, provisions added by the user can often be very costly.

The cost of hardware is normally low

when compared to the total life-cycle support cost of the system. Users who assume

that the cost of hardware represents the

total cost of the system will find that

they have severely underestimated the total cost

.

2.5.2.2 Cost of Supporting a Production

Application on a Large Processor

Most installations have a charge-back

system whether or not real dollars are exchanged. Accounting algorithms vary

greatly according to the values placed upon

various services. When using the chargeback figures to compare the cost of alternative resources, one should make sure that

the algorithms have as the basis that total

recovered cost reflects the true cost of

operations, including all of the items

listed in the previous section, as well as the cost of auxiliary operations services

such as keypunching, printing, plotting,

etc. (0MB Circular A-121 requires that

charge-back systems of Federal agencies

account for the full cost recovery of ADP expenditures .

)

2.5.2.3 Cost of Teleprocessing Services

Program (TSP)

The full cost of TSP service can be

derived by adding the following charges to the TSP bill:

1. Conversion;

2. Management;

3. Telecommunications service cost, where

needed

;

4. Application system support;

5. Training.

2.5.3 Other Considerations

If an analysis of user and system

requirements indicates that neither existing in-house ADP resources nor resources available through TSP are appropriate, the

acquisition of ADP equipment will be

required. The need for a dedicated pro- , cessor for an application must be justified

on a cost-effective basis.

The selection of ADP equipment will be

based on system requirements as well as the

following considerations.

2.5.3.1 Compatibility with Existing

In-House Hardware and Software

The compatibility of hardware

resources increases the flexibility of con- figuration. The compatibility of software

reduces the personnel cost of supporting

multiple systems. Compatibility with

existing in-house ADP resources protects

the previous investments in software/

hardware and personnel training. Availability of common user facilities such as terminals and remote job entry (RJE) should

also be taken into consideration.

300
2.5.3.2 Ease of System Expansion to Meet

Future Requirements

Since the personnel cost involved in a major procurement is high, and the process

of a conversion is resource consuming, the

ability to upgrade ADP equipment should be

weighted heavily in the selection process.

2.5.3.3 Vendor Support

The cost of system unavailability in terms of management cost and degradation of

prograimner/user productivity should be

taken into consideration in comparing

vendor-quoted or published mean-timebetween-failure (MTBF) and mean-time-torepair (MTTR) statistics.

2.5.3.4 Hardware and Software

Maintainability

Geographical location and level of

personnel (in-house or vendor) expertise

contribute to hardware and software

maintainability.

2.5.3.5 Time Constraints

Procurement, installation, and training time must be considered relative to the

urgency of users' needs.

2.6 Summary of the Computer Resource

Selection Process

Figure 4 summarizes the resource

selection process. This process consists

of the following steps:

1. Collection of user requirements;

2. Analysis of user requirements. The

suitable class of equipment can be

identified in most cases by using the

principles stated in the data processing department' s long range plans

as baseline resource selection criteria. In instances where user requirements do not clearly fit any of

the blocks identified in Figure 4,

subsequent steps of analysis should be

taken for all possible configurations.

There are also applications for which

the" processing can be distributed

across computers (e.g., data entry

performed on a minicomputer and data

base management operations performed

on the host); separate analysis should

be done for both components of the

system;

3. Derivation of system resource requirements. Once the alternate resources

are narrowed down, the size of the

application (in terms of the amount of

physical resources necessary to sup- port it) can be determined for each

alternative class of equipment;

4. If resource identified in second step

is available in-house, assessment of

the total impact of supporting an additional application to determine if there is sufficient capability, appropriate software, sufficient support

personnel, and a requirement to change

current operating procedures. Results

of the impact study may lead to the

procurement actions for TSP service,

hardware/ sof tware , or acquisition of

support personnel;

5. If resource identified in second step

is not available in-house, searching

for a solution based on the Teleprocessing Services Program (TSP) . If no appropriate resource exists there,

procurement actions for equipment of

the class identified must be initiated. In addition to the system

requirements, the factors discussed in

Section 2.5 of this procedure (other

than system requirements) should be cons idered

.

301
302
Panel Overviews

OFFICE AUTOMATION AND PRODUCTIVITY

MARY L. CUNNINGHAM

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE

OFFICE OF RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

WASHINGTON, DC 20408

Productivity is a very real problem in

the Federal Government. Many Federal

agencies are facing increased demands for

services at a time when resources are being reduced. To meet conflicting demands we must find new ways to do our jobs

better. That means, among other things,

that we must improve information

management. Managers of offices are managers of information. Managers are effective in running their various

programs only to the extent that they

manage the information upon which the

programs depend. Needed information must exist in the most convenient place, at the

time when it is needed, and in a form that can be used most efficiently.

The most important development in

recent years in the field of information

management has been the rapid advance

you can even call it a revolution—in

information technology.

"Word processing," basically linking

high speed electric typewriters with

computer capacity, has been part of this

revolution. The impact on the Federal

Government has been dramatic. In 1979 the

General Accounting Office reported that in

fiscal 1977 Federal agencies acquired word

processing equipment that cost about $80

million. This same report estimated that

by this year the annual expenditure for

acquiring new word processing equipment

would be $300 million. A generally

declining price structure for word

processing equipment, combined with

increasing pressure for greater efficiency

and productivity in written communications,

virtually guarantees that by the mid-1980 's word processing will be a major growth

area. But the fast-moving technology keeps

taking new directions. Both Government

agencies and private businesses that

traditionally produced and acquired

information in paper form are turning more

and more to other media. Undoubtedly this

trend will continue, and even accelerate,

as the technologies become more advanced, more effective, and less expensive.

Computer professionals are certainly

aware that computers are becoming

smaller and cheaper and are being used

more widely. They will eventually reach

into virtually every office, and into

every aspect of information creation,

maintenance, and use. With new, simple-to-use minicomputers, ADP support

will be used by more and more non- technical professionals and managers.

Through the use of communications

technologies, access to information will

dramatically increase.

Another important trend that must be

recognized is the merging of information

technologies. Today a single terminal

may be a word processor, a data

processor, a link in an electronic

communications network, or all of these.

According to a recent Washington Post

article by Will Sparks, Vice President of

Citi-Bank Corporation, "All information

traveling in the world's information

stream is becoming an homogenous flow of

digital bits,... and since, in many cases, computation is being performed on these

bits of information while they are in

transit, the distinction between computing

and communicating—or between the computer

and the telephone—is vanishing."

All of these trends are of immediate concern to Federal managers. By and large,

the ordinary Federal manager is ignorant of

the intricacies of computer science and

communications technology. They can banter

the jargon, a little, but must depend on computer professionals to tell them how it

all really works. Still, because it's their

office and their mission, they must ensure

that the technology used is cost effective

and that it achieves its potential for

controlling the information explosion and

increasing worker productivity.

This aspect of management goes beyond the documentation of requirements and

the establishment of performance criteria

before installing a system. Large,

technically complex systems that affect

305
many office processes and procedures may

require considerable expertise to understand

and operate effectively. Even the smaller,

single-function systems—such as micrographic systems for records storage and

retrieval—require the continuing attention

of the office manager if they are to produce the desired improvements in office

performance

.

Effective management today, then,

requires not only effective managers of

information, but also effective management

of the technological tools of information

management. Non-technical program managers

must understand and effectively use office automation. Computer science professionals will have to be patient with

those managers and teach them what they need

to know. They in turn, must be more careful to identify and explain what they are trying to accomplish. This is not an easy task. To date there is not even a widely accepted definition of office

automation, much less a set of valid

standards and guidelines to use in

decision making. Office automation is

sometimes defined in terms of the equipment

used rather than the goals or objectives it

is installed to fulfill. Popular

descriptions of the "office of the future"

represent the tasks of the office as being the same from organization to organization. That view focuses on the

form of the work in an office, not its

substance. In that view, offices exist to produce documents, to communicate, or to store and retrieve information. If that

popular view of office automation prevails,

then office automation will not be cost effective nor achieve the goal of increasing

overall productivity, "improvements," or changes in form alone can rarely justify the

expense of installing these technologies.

To be effective—to make real improvements

in office efficiency and productivity—an office automation system must be carefully

designed to support the real mission of that

office. It must be designed with the goal,

not the process of the office in mind.

It is easy, as historians of the

American experience have recognized, to get

carried away by exciting advances in

technology. We only have to think back to those days in the 1840 's when Samuel Morse's new electric telegraph had stirred

American imaginations and entrepreneurs

quickly began to wire the country.

One historian of the telegraph

Robert Luther Thompson—has labelled the

1846-1850 period as the time of

"methodless enthusiasm." Everybody wanted

to get into the act. Hastily, poorly built

and duplicating systems were strung

throughout the East and into the Midwest as the result of starry-eyed dreams of quick

profits rather than in response to needs

and carefully considered plans to fulfill

them.

This was the period of which

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden : "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic

telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine

and Texas, it may be, have nothing

important to communicate."

The telegraph was one of the great

developments of Nineteenth century

technology, but its commerical beginnings were notable for waste, misapplications,

and failed telegraph companies. One of the

best lessons of that experience of

"methodless enthusiasm" was that you must

think in terms of needs and goals when

employing new technologies, rather than

seize upon them for unsuitable purposes

just because they are "there." Let's hope we remember those lessens as we once again

get "wired".

A good place to start a discussion of new technologies is with definitions.

Analysts at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology have defined office automation

as: "The utilization of technology to improve the realization of office functions,

or, rather, the business objectives of an

office. This definition stresses increased

productivity in the achievement of specific

end results.

Seen in this way, the principal

benefit of office automation is the

increased productivity that results when

employees can perform necessary tasks more

efficiently. The objective of office

automation, then, is not to eliminate

paper—and certainly not to produce more

paper faster—but rather to help us do the

work we need to do, faster and better.

Given the potential for savings, it

is understandable that many agencies are interested in office automation, and many

cooperative, interagency efforts have

been initiated to develop a coordinated

approach to it.

306
Over the past year, for example, GSA,

0MB, and 0PM have cooperated on a project

to assess the use of office automation by

Federal agencies. Most of the systems

studied during the project were designed for

information storage and retrieval, for text editing, or for data analysis, using data

processing, data transmission, and word

processing technologies.

Many were designed to perform several

functions, using more than one technology.

All have as their objective improved

delivery of public services and better

management of Federal programs. For example, in the area of improved delivery

of services, the Social Security Administration now uses a telecommunications system

to perform necessary files review. The

system has significantly reduced the

length of time that needy beneficiaries

must wait for their checks, and is expected

to save the taxpayers about $25 million

between FY 1980 and FY 1984. A new

Veterans Administration system, called

TARGET, is expected to reduce regional

offices' staffing by 1,488 work-years over

the next 3 years. And, of course, the

processing of income tax returns already

benefits from office automation. A new

IRS system rapidly checks the accuracy and

currency of taxpayer identification data,

so watch out.

This survey demonstrated that Federal

managers are designing and installing a wide variety of office automation systems

to perform many different tasks. It demonstrated, further, that there is considerable potential for savings when office

automation technology is used appropriately.

But we must emphasize that those systems

must be installed carefully. Social

Security's system, for example, was

the result of more than 2 years of system

design by a large number of Federal and

contractor personnel.

Unfortunately, managers too quick to opt for technological solutions to systemic

or procedural problems often find that the

results are disppointing. The GAO report

cited earlier said that failure to achieve

expected savings from the use of word

processing equipment was the rule rather

than the exception throughout the Federal

Government. It has been our experience

that a thorough systems analysis is

necessary to give managers a solid basis

for making informed decisions about what

to expect from specific applications of

office automation technology. Office

automation is no magic solution to such

problems as poor clerical skills, backlogs,

or poor turnaround time.

We are now in the process of documenting the characteristics of systems and

operations having high potential for the

cost-effective use of office automation.

The standards we expect to develop, based

on this research, will cover both the

kinds of applications that can benefit

from office automation, and the methods

for studying and evaluating the potential

of individual applications. We plan

to study the experiences of the office

managers, to learn lessons they have

learned, and to share them with others.

Our goal is to help program managers

identify and meet their needs. We intend

to provide the guidance managers will need

to understand what office automation can

and cannot— do for them. Managers must

first of all understand the unique

features and capabilities of different

types of equipment. Secondly, they must

be able to identify good applications for

this equipment in their own organization.

Finally, they, and we, need to be

reminded that office automation can't do

it all. We hope that our cooperative

efforts over the next year will lead to better identification and documentation

of the requirements for designing and

implementing effective automated systems

in the office.

307

COMMAND, CONTROL. AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

CHALLENGES IN THE 80'S

Robert G. Van Houten HQ Army Command & Control Support Agency

The four speakers in this panel will address a few of the

many different aspects to command, control and communications.

Panel Members are:

Mr. Joseph Volpe

Modernization of the ADP and supporting data communications for

the World Wide Military Communications and Control System

(WWMCCS) taking place under the WWMCCS Information Systems

(WIS) Program will be discussed. A description of the historical perspective associated with WWMCCS ADP and its status today

will be presented. The WIS modernization goals and problems

will be covered briefly with the associated WIS architectural

solutions. Some challenges will be presented which reflect the

maintenance automated test (bit/byte) needs which stem from all

levels of modern warfare as projected into the 1990*3.

Col. D. L. Moore

Discussion of Computer Performance Management (CPM) requirements and activities for the NORAD/ADC operations systems

(Program 427M) . This will include a brief description of the

NORAD/ADC operational ADP systems and will cover the CPM

program developments, accomplishments to date, including

problems encounted and lessons learned, current status and

activities of the CPM program and a proposed approached for the

foreseeable future.

309
Col , Joe Newman

Opportunities for performance management of automation and

communications networks for the Worldwide Military Communications and Control System (WWMCCS) at three levels: macro level, intermediate level, and the micro level will be

presented

.

Dr. William Wenker

Co-munications management and capacity planning problems and

goals associated with the WWMCCS system architectures in the

80 's will be presented..

310
ADP COST ACCOUNTING & CHARGEBACK

Chairperson: Dennis M. Conti

National Bureau of Standards

Panelists: Kenneth W. Giese

FEDSIM

Christos N. Kyriazi

Department of Commerce

Ranvir Trehan

MITRE Corp.

ABSTRACT

There is no question that the ADP shop plays a vital role

in the day-to-day operations and survival of most organizations. However, two distinct views still exist on the nature

of the ADP shop within an organization. One view exists that

the ADP shop is an overhead function that should provide free

service to the users. Another view sees the ADP shop as a service center that should run on a profit and loss basis. An extension of this latter view is that the full costs of ADP should be accounted for and charged back to the users. However, whether or not these charges are actually recovered

from the users, the mere reporting to the users of their fair

share of the total ADP costs is believed to have a beneficial

effect by increasing the users' awareness of and accountability

for their use of ADP. Most recently within the Federal

Government, 0MB circular A-121 requires agencies to implement

full cost accounting, and where appropriate, cost recovery.

Examples of some of the costs to be accounted for under A-121 are software depreciation and space occupancy costs, in

addition to the more traditional ADP cost elements.

Although many sites currently have some form of chargeback

system, few account for all of the costs of ADP. For those

organizations that are considering implementing a chargeback

system, reluctance by both the ADP manager and the user community to make their activities more visible makes such an implementation more difficult.

311
The panel will address several specific aspects of cost accounting and chargeback. Questions that the panel members

will be asked to address include the following:

1. Is the expense of implementing a full cost accounting

and recovery system justified by its benefits?

2. Is the actual recovery of costs from the users necessary, or will "information reports" suffice?

What are the advantages to be gained by an actual

transfer of funds?

3. What are the salient features of a good chargeback

system?

4. What are some of the human/ political problems asso- ciated with introducing a chargeback system into an organization?

5. How does the trend toward distributed systems complicate the cost accounting and chargeback process?

The panel contains individuals with experience in both

developing chargeback guidelines, as well as overseeing the

implementation of chargeback strategies in a large

organization.

312
SUPERCOMPUTERS, CPE, AND THE 80'S

PERSPECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

F. Brett Berlin

Cray Research, Inc. 1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20006

The public glamour of minicomputers, microcomputers, and their derivatives (e.g., "distributed systems", "personal computers," "paperless offices,

etc.) tends to support the misconception of supercomputing as a soon-to-pass

anachronism of use to few beyond the specialized worlds of weapons, nuclear

power, or weather prediction and research. Recent events in the supercomputer marketplace, however, indicate that true supercomputing is only in its embryonic stages and that supercomputers will become an even more crucial segment of the CPE practitioner's challenge. While actual numbers

of installed systems are still relatively low ~ less than 40 worldwide,

including all vendors — the breadth of users is rapidly extending far beyond the walls of the national research laboratories such as Los Alamos

and Lawrence Livermore Labs. The Cray-lS supercompiuter, for example, is installed at five scientific service bureaus, several universities, and

a few commercial industrial accounts. Even more significantly, the num- ber of identified supercomputer prospects has grown from less than 80 in 1972 to over 300 today. As IBM, Hitachi, and Fujitsu realize already an- nounced intentions to build supercomputer-class systems by the mid-80' s, the CPE challenges now faced by only a small coterie of supercomputer

users will extend to most sectors of the community. The primary objective

of this seminar is to identify these challenges and to discuss directions

of supercomputer technologies for the mid and late 80' s.

During this session, panelists will discuss their current work in the

supercomputer field and will identify the key current and future issues

which affect supercomputer development. Some of the major issues to be

discussed include:

1. Major CPE Challenges to Current Supercomputer Users : The CPE practitioner is faced with the same "classic" questions common to large system, but the unique architectures and performance characteristics may make common CPE tools of only marginal value, and

previous results from conventional architectures useful as a baseline only.

2. Problem Architectures vs. Supercomputer Architectures : Much of

the speed advantage in a supercomputer results from parallel architectures. These can be based upon pipelines, processor arrays, or parallel processors. However, current designs are seriously con- strained in usefulness by "problem architectures"—or the way the

problem and algorithm is designed to take advantage of certain ar- chitectures. There are significant costs to tailoring problem soft- ware to meet special architectures, both in conversion and future

transportability, but there are some cases in which these costs may be reasonable when compared to potential performance savings.

313
3. Vendor-developed Software Tradeoffs : "Main line" vendors, such

as IBM, DEC, etc., have developed software-rich environments in which

most users rely heavily upon the vendor for the majority of their

system software and utilities needs. Standard packages abound for

almost every application, allowing virtually any user to "computerize"

without sophisticated in-house development. Supercomputer vendors

and users alike are faced with a difficult set of questions which determine the desireabil ity of development and support of software

functions expected by other market sectors. One such function is virtual memory, which has been implemented by one supercomputer ven- dor but rejected by another as detrimental to optimum performance.

4. Directions of Future Architectures : Supercomputer researchers

and manufacturers expect to achieve dramatic performance goals before 1990. In order to accomplish these goals, developers must make

certain assumptions concerning both technology and the future application environment.

SESSION PANELISTS

William Alexander Richard McHugh

Los Alamos National Laboratories

Computer Division

Los Alamos, NM 87545

Cray Laboratories, Inc. 3375 Mitchell Lane Boulder, CO 80301

Art Lazanoff Jack Worlton

Control Data Corporation

8100 34th Avenue South

Minniapolis, MN 55440

Los Alamos National Laboratories

Computer Division

Los Alamos, NM 87545

314
ADP CHALLENGES IN MEDICAL,

PERSONNEL, AND WELFARE SYSTEMS

Chairperson: DINESH KUMAR

Social Security Administration

Panelists

:

Dr . Joe H. Ward , Jr . Air Force Human Resources Laboratory

Mr. Paul R. Croll

Office of Personnel Management

Lieutenant Colonel Joe Ribotto , Jr. TRIM IS Program Office

Colonel George A, McCall

Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center

Mr. Dave England

Texas Department of Human Resources

Mr. Norman Clausen

Internal Revenue Service

This session highlights the needs, constraints and

opportunities associated with automatic data processing

applications in the fields of medical, personnel and welfare

systems. The state-of-the-art approaches that are being

undertaken by senior managers involved in the design,

development and enhancements of the ADP system will be

presented. The difficulties encountered in planning,

consolidation and acquisition of computer and communication

systems will be explored. This session includes several

planned presentations by the panel members followed by

questions and comments from the audience.

The panelist presentation in the area of medical systems

will concentrate on the discussion of ADP systems and

approaches being undertaken in the area of medical management

information systems. The functional capabilities of these

systems will be described along with their status and

difficulties encountered during implementation.

315
In the area of personnel systems, the planned

presentations will cover the latest concepts in planning,

design and research on personnel action systems. The

procedures for the implementation of personnel policy through

computer based systems will be discussed. The policy generated

models result in pay-off (utility) of various person-job

actions. The techniques for generating alternative pay-offs

and their optimization will be discussed. The current and

future plans for enhancements of an existing manpower and

personnel data system will be discussed to illustrate the

phased implementation of research concepts. Reference will be

made to the operational Procurement Management Information

System (PMIS). The other planned presentation will cover the

automation opportunities in conducting tests/ examinations along

with related psychometric considerations.

The difficulties encountered in planning and consolidation

of ADP requirements and future needs, due to several

independently run data processing centers, (as compared to a primarily centralized data processing operation) will be

highlighted.

In the area of welfare systems, emphasis will be on the

difficulties experienced in managing large ADP and

Telecommunications systems along with a discussion of

constraints faced by various installations.

316
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTIVITY

IN STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Ron Cornel i son

Office of Administration

State of Missouri

Persons attending this session will gain an understanding of the problems

and opportunities present in the public sector at the state and local level

relating to applying technology to achieve organizational objectives. The

three branches of government —Executive, Legislative and Judicial —will be

represented on the panel. The panelists are: Mr. Christopher Burpo, Arthur

Young and Company, San Antonio, Texas; Mr. Steven Claggett, Regional Justice

Information Service, St. Louis, Missouri; Mr. Ron Cornelison, Missouri

Division of EDP Coordination, Jefferson City, Missouri; Mr. J. C. Humphrey, Texas Legislative Council, Austin, Texas; and Ms. Carolyn Steidley, Missouri

State Court Administrator's Office, Jefferson City, Missouri.

The panelists will discuss the missions of their respective governmental

agencies and how automation has been applied to increase organizational productivity. Questions and comments from persons attending will be welcome in this

session.

317

THE ADP PROCUREMENT PROCESS - LESSONS LEARNED

Terry D. Miller

Government Sales Consultants, Inc. Annandale, VA 22003

The purpose of this session is to review for listeners the latest

techniques in ADP competition, the mistakes that others have made, the

latest rules, etc., so that we will not reinvent the wheel.

Colonel Donald W. Sawyer or a member of his staff will discuss the

Air Force study on how to improve the procurement process by assisting

field offices on the procurement learning curve.

Steve Lazerowich, Federal Proposal Manager of Digital Equipment

Corporation in Lanham, will discuss how a mini vendor looks at government

procurements

.

I will discuss the latest regulation changes and provide continuity

and a wrap-up.

I am not sure you can say we will advance the state-of-the-art. In the procurement business most people are still learning how to walk. We will provide detailed lessons on how to walk without falling into

snakepits.

319

DATABASE MACHINES

Panel discussion chaired by:

Carol B. Wilson

Fiscal Associates, Inc. Alexandria, VA 22304

Over the past 10 years, the use of data base management systems has

been growing as the need to effectively manage and display data has increased. This use of data base management systems has come about because

they offer several advantages: functional capability, online query capability, and reduced manpower. A DBMS affords the user such things as data

protection, concurrency control, audit trails, and backup /recovery features, which he does not have to program or design himself. Likewise,

manufacturers of DBMS's have developed sophisticated, easy-to-use online

query capabilities which permit the user to peruse his data easily, and

with no programmer intervention. DBMS's help to reduce manpower requirements through the provisions of data independence, already programmed data

management procedures, flexibility in changing data base design, and the

ability to quickly respond to ad hoc inquiries.

Unfortunately, these attractive advantages do not come without a price. Most data base management systems suffer in both the performance

and cost areas. They often place extraordinary requirements on the hard- ware because they are large and complex and because they operate on general purpose operating systems and on general purpose architectures. Cost

is also a factor in the DBMS environment as more hardware is purchased to accommodate the increased resource demands. Hidden costs may also arise

from service and performance problems affecting other, non-DBMS users of

the ADP installation. The performance problems brought about by the extra- ordinary requirements on the hardware and operating system can, and do,

lead to decreases in ADP installation productivity. Another problem in the

Federal sector comes about because many DBMS's are dependent upon the hard- ware and operating system. The lack of machine independence leads to either less competition in future procurements, or in expensive conversions.

The advent of data base machines could possibly be a solution to the

problems mentioned above: decreased ADP installation productivity and

hardware independence. The data base machine is a backend system with both

software and hardware specifically designed for efficient data base operations. The resource demands normally placed on the ADP system for data

manipulation are off-loaded to the data base machine. Changes in mainframes

may be accommodated by the development of interfaces from the main system

to the data base machine which would afford some hardware independence to the data base system.

The panelists will discuss why and how the productivity of an ADP installation could improve through the use of data base machines. They will

describe the communications interface and the unique architectural features.

321

Tutorial Overviews

323

MEASUREMENT, MODELING, AND CAPACITY PLANNING

THE SECONDARY STORAGE OCCUPANCY ISSUE

H. Pat Artis

Morino Associates

Vienna. VA 22180

During the past decade, the economics of

computer performance have undergone a profound transition. Although hardware

costs were dominated by the central

processor in the early 1970s, today the

relative costs of the central processor and

secondary storage are approximately equal

for most large installations. An example

of this cost transition is shown for a FORTUNE 50 corporation in Table 1.

1970 1980

Perccnr Change CPU Configunlion 360/65J 360/40F 3033U8 3032U4 CPU MIPS 0.8 7.0 875 DASD Configuration 16 2314s 128 3350s

Byies (billions) 0.<6 42.0 9150 MRC Expcnst CPU $66,060 $134,400 203 DISK S12,360 $108,800 880

Raiio DISKyCPU 0.19 0.79 420

Floor Space 25,000 80,000 320 CPU 6,000 9,000 150 DISK 5,000 40,000 800 Table 1: Typical Installation Growth

1970 - 1980

In 1970, the monthly rental cost (MRC) of

the corporation's CPUs was six times greater

than the cost of secondary storage. Today,

these costs are approximately equal.

Although the corporation has witnessed a growth in CPU power of 880 percent, their

secondary storage space has grown by more

than 9,150 percent to 46 billion bytes.

Moreover, secondary storage now represents

the majority of the floor space, power and

cooling costs for the installation.

For users of smaller systems like the IBM 4331 or the IBM 4341, the cost transition

has been even more dramatic. It is not uncommon for the secondary storage costs of

a 4300 class system to be two or three times

the processor cost. Clearly, computer

performance evaluation (CPE) must address

the issue of secondary storage occupancy to control the costs of data processing in the

1980s.

CPE in the 1970s has primarily concentrated

on the measurement and modeling of the I/O

traffic between the central processor and

the secondary storage devices. Unfortunately,

very little effort has been expended on understanding how efficiently the space on these devices is being used. This tutorial

addresses the following topics relevant to

secondary storage occupancy issue:

MEASUREMENT. The available data and

design considerations for a secondary

storage occupancy measurement scheme will

be reviewed. Applications of data from a prototype system developed by the author

will also be discussed.

SPACE MANAGEMENT. In the past several years, a number of secondary storage

management systems (HSM, DMS/OS, ASM2, ... etc.) have evolved that allow

installations to automatically archive

datasets that have been unreferenced for a specified number of days. Modeling

techniques that allow users to predict the

behavior of a secondary storage management

system in their installation and to judiciously select the archiving criteria

will be discussed.

DEVICE ARCHITECTURE. Although the most

common statistic quoted by the vendors

about secondary storage devices is that

the cost per byte has steadily declined,

other statistics are somewhat more valuable. Beginning with the announcement

of the double density 2314, the 3330,

3330-11, 3350, and 3380 have represented a steady decline of the accessibility per

byte (i.e., maximum I/O power divided by

device capacity). In many installations,

it is not uncommon to find that only

thirty or forty percent of the datasets on the busiest packs are accessed even once per week. Therefore, any attempt to effectively use the remaining space on these devices may result in unacceptable

I/O scheduling bottlenecks. This problem

will require the development of dataset

placement algorithms that attempt to optimize an entire installation rather

than a single pack.

CAPACITY PLANNING. An approach to DASD capacity planning that incorporates

device occupancy, performance and

architecture considerations will be discussed. This approach is currently

being evaluated by the author.

The audience will also be invited to propose other topics for discussion.

325

MICRO-COMPUTERS IN OFFICE AUTOMATION

VJendell VI. Berry

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Office of Budget and Resource Hanagement

nockville, I©

Key v;ords: micro-computers, office automation.

This tutorial describes procedures followed in office automation projects and emphasizes the

significant part played therein by micro-computers. Applications are those experienced over

a six-year period of involvement in administrative automation within the national Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration, (KOAA) of the U.S. Department of Comr.ierce.

The administrative support environment of a service oriented agency broadly defines the

scope of autom.ation projects discussed. Criteria were developed to guide the institution of

and measure effectiveness of such projects. A systematic approach vjas adopted, and began by

defining functions of the specific target office.

Office functions and tools and procedures used to fulfill them. v;ere of immediate concern. These helped us in forming an ansv;er to the most important question - vjho was doing the

vjork, what skills and attitudes tovvard changes system, changes vjere present. Most functions

were found to have important inter-organizational aspects to thein. A basic management tool

became the categorization of functions into "administrative processes" that together define

the management of resources in the organization.

Finance, personnel, facilities, material, and general administrative services v/ere five

major groups defined. Administrative divisions and technical operating units contained

portions of these processes. A high degree of inter-relationship among the groups also

existed, and the integrated automation of all of them could be described as the ultimate

office automation goal.

V'ithin the macro structure that provided a dynamic system definition, individual objectives

were defined. Minimal system disruption and cost savings/avoidance v;ere often sited by

those initiating such projects. Tasks vjere scheduled based upon opportunity, politics, and an overall attempt to develop basic system, modules as a primary priority.

TxiTo basic methods of automation emerged. Integration of existing data into routine vrork procedures was the first. Data found in existing batch systems formed this basis.

Autom.ation of procedures not previously economical was the second.

The necessity of micro-computers in the above described scenario becomes clearer upon

consideration of their application. In their role as "personal" computers, micros provide

an interface betvjeen hum^ans and the power of computers, essential to the further development

of office automation. Following is an introduction into some areas of r..icro-conputer uses

in administrative computing.

327
Information Processing

1) VJord Processing - As price reductions and raarket competition begin to bring the

multi-purpose micro into the office and the horae, word-processing is becoming a specialized softvrare application, as opposed to a problem with a hardware dominated

solution. V/ord-processing is now introduced to many as a by-product of the acquisition

of a m-icro- computer system, rather than as an end unto itself.

2) Data-Entry - Exotic forms of rapid data entry are presently utilized in large

volume applications, where their cost m.ay be amortized over many thousands of source

documents. For other system.s, many key-punch operations still continue, and much data

is also keyed in an on-line environiaent into a raini-or maxi computer. The dis-economy

of using computers at human speed provide yet another opportunity for efficent use of

the micro-computer as a "front-end" device to other computers.

Information communication

1) Data Transmission - Within the last fev/ years, much research and development work

has been concentrated upon communication systems enhancements. The use of

micro-computers as part of an information communication network has emerged as result

of this emphasis.

2) Management Information Systems - Interactive graphics has been made available at an individual managers level on a practical basis by the micro-computer. The much talked

about "what-if" questions may by quickly and vividly ansvjered by graphics, and most

recently, in color.

3) Electronic Mail - Electronic mail netv;orks now exist on many mini and naxi

computers. The proliferation of v;ords in magnetic form allow micro's to perform the

function of a personal electronic filing cabinet. Off-line information storage on inexpensive media is required for large-scale comi.iunications via computer.

Self-Contained Systeras

1) General Development - Shared use of m.icro- systems has caused many small manual

systems to be automated. BASIC remains the dominant micro language, v;ith many

"dialects" in use. Pascal, Fortran and Cobol also compete for system use.

2) Micro DBnS - An answer to the language conflict and also a part of industry-wide

empahsis upon DBMS' , micro DBMS are now emerging. Mon-data processing professionals

nov; fcllov; a systematic approach to development of their systems.

Current Developm.ents

1 ) Human Engineering - Error detection produces perhaps 40fo of the total amount of

prograii! coding in many applications. Reducing screen scrolling and providing audio and

flashing screen error indications are examples of features designed v/ith the end user

in mind.

2) Increased coEiputatlonal power - More eight-bit micro's are nov; in use than all

other types of machines combined. Sixteen bit machines are now in many product lines,

and thirty-two bit chips are a reality. These v.'ill put mini-com.puter power on desktops

within a short period of time.

3) Increased storage - Hard disks have arrived for micro use, bringing with them

capacities measured in millions of bytes. Implications for future expansion of micro

usage are wide ranging, considering their projected capabilities.

4) New designs - Elicrocode im.plenentation in hardvjare to support the ADA language, and

the delegation of interrupt handling to subsidiary 16-bit processors in the new 32-bit

chips are an exar;iple of a significant departure from traditional architecture.

328
COMPUTER PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

IN THE ADP SYSTEM LIFE CYCLE

James G. Sprung

The MITRE Corporation

McLean, VA 22102

During the last ten to fifteen years, computer performance has evolved into a sophisticated manager-analyst interactive

process. The reason for this is the

recognition by government ADP managers, as well as non-government managers, that a need exists for doing computer performance

throughout the ADP system life cycle.

The manager continuously faces requests

from users and oversight agencies for computer resource availability data.

The goal of this tutorial is to provide the framework for a continuing

computer performance management program

throughout the ADP System Life Cycle. The

tutorial will include descriptions of:

1) The ADP System Life Cycle,

2) the types of performance

studies, and

3) the types of performance tools

The different tools will be described

along with how they can be used to support

the performance studies. The performance

studies will be described along with how

they should be used throughout the ADP System Life Cycle. Throughout the

tutorial, examples will be presented that

describe the use of each of the tools for

different types of studies during each

phase of the life cycle.

Computer Performance Management must continuously be of service to managers to be valuable as an agency function.

Therefore, the need of the CPE analyst to both perform studies and present

meaningful results is critical. The key

to the continuous aspect of the computer

performance function is the analysts

ability to recognize when the next stage

of the life cycle is occuring and to perform the studies that are appropriate

at that time. Therefore, the computer

performance staff needs to serve both a planning and monitoring function. The ADP

resource, to most agencies, is critical to the agencies existence and with the help

of a computer performance staff, the ADP resource can provide adequate capacity to meet the agencies needs.

329

SIMULATION TOOLS IN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Doug Neuse

K. Mani Chandy

Jay Misra

Robert Berry

Information Research Associates

911 West 29th Street

Austin, TX 78705

The selection of modeling tools for performance evaluation is discussed. Simulation and analytic tools are discussed and compared.

A simulation systeim designed to accept computer readable, pictureoriented models is described.

Key words: Analysis; performance evaluation; pictures; simulation;

tool s

.

1. Introduction

This paper is concerned with the

question of selecting the modeling tool most appropriate to a performance evaluator's

problems. We first compare simulation and

analytic methods. The advantages of each

method are discussed. We next study two common types of problems faced by performance

evaluators, and describe the method of choice

(simulation or analysis) for each type. The

important characteristics of good performance

tools are discussed next. The importance of ease of input to the modeling system is emphasized. A case is made for using

pictorial or diagrammtic representations of

computer systems as the input to simulation

systems. A simulation system that is designed to accept such (computer readable)

pictorial descriptions is described.

2. Modeling Methods:

Simulation Versus Analysis

There are two approaches to the modeling

of computer systems: simulation and analytic.

Analytic models consist of sets of equations,

usually derived from queueing theory.

Discrete-event simulation models simulate the

generation of transactions and the processing

of transactions over time. The tradeoffs

between simulation and analysis are described

next.

2.1 Advantages of Simulation

2.1.1 The simulation methodol ogy has

been validated over and over again. There is absolutely no question about the power of the

simulation approach. Given enough time and

enough measured data, it is possible to simulate any system to any required degree of

fide! ity.

2.1.2 In contrast, the analytic approach

is limited in power: there are no general

analytic techniques that apply to every situation. Different sets of equations have been

developed to model different systems. When

a set of equations yields, for one system,

predictions proven to be correct, our faith

in the ability of that one set of equations

to model the given system increases; however, our faith in the ability to model al

1

systems

by similar sets of equations should not increase. There is no way of validating a general analytic methodology because there is no general analytic methodology . Each

analytic model is usually a distinct set of

equations. At this time, there is no

331
tractable method to generate a set of equations to model any given system faithfully.

There are classes of analytic models, such as Markov models, that are very general. How- ever, such models are not always tractable

because the number of equations in a model may

be too large to be solved in a reasonable

amount of time.

2.1.3 Simulation is easily understood by

programmers. It is much easier to hire

programmers with some experience in simulation

than it is to hire analysts with expertise in analytic models.

2.1.4 Simulation is flexible. A simulation model can always be changed to track

changes in the system being modeled. An analytic model may work well for a system

initially, but poorly when the system is changed. It is not easy to change a set of

equations to model the effect of a new scheduling policy, for instance.

2.2 Disadvantages of Simulation

2.2.1 Simulations require much more computer time than analytic models.

2.2.2 There may be a paucity of measurement data from the system to be modeled. If we do not have the measurements to build a detailed model, there is no point in building

a detailed model. Analytic methods may work

as well as simulation for simple models.

Simulation models are justified when the data

to parameterize simulation models exists.

3. The Method of Choice

The method of choice -- simulation, analysis, or a hybrid approach combining simulation and analysis -- depends upon the problem

being solved. Consider different situations

in which models are used.

3.1 The Design of New Systems

Important characteristics of design

efforts include the following.

3.1.1 Designs often change before they are implemented. Models must be able to track

rapid, and sometimes radical changes in designs.

3.1.2 The model must be understood by

the designers. This point is very important.

If designers do not understand a model, they

are less likely to cooperate in the modeling

effort. Active cooperation from designers is an absolutely critical ingredient for a successful design.

3.1.3 It is difficult to validate a model when the design is still on the

drawing board. There is nothing to validate

against.

Simulation is the method of choice in designing new systems because of its

flexibility and ease of understanding.

3.2 Tuning and Capacity Planning

In this case, the systems being modeled

are well-defined. In most cases, the systems

have been on the market for some time and

documentation describing system behavior is provided by the system vendor. Systems on the market do not change as radically or as frequently as designs on the drawing board.

In capacity planning, the modeler knows what

is being modeled. The ability to measure

running systems gives the modeler the opportunity to carry out intensive validation

studies.

Analytic models can be used effectively

for tuning and capacity planning studies.

Validation against measured data should

provide credibility for the model. Analytic

models can produce output almost instantaneously, allowing the capacity planner to formulate and ask "what if" questions and get answers, interactively. Interactive dialogue

with the model is very helpful, especially if the model produces graphic output and English

language-like textual output. Analytic model

may be backed up by simulation models to enhance credibility and for very detailed

analyses. In this mode, analytic models are used to evaluate a wide range of options

rapidly, and simulation models are used for

detailed study of a small set of points.

4. Critical Requirements for

Modeling Packages

All good modeling packages must satisfy

the following requirements:

0 A model should be shown to validate

0 Ease of input. A model should be

described succintly and naturally.

0 Useful input. A model should

predict the performance metrics

desired by the modeler.

In fine-tuning and capacity planning,

most of the input to the model should come automatically from measurement and monitoring

packages. In designing new systems, model

input should come naturally from the descriptions of the designs. Since tuning and

332
capacity planning have been described at length, the remainder of this paper is focused on the user of simulation models in the design of new systems.

5. Simulation Languages

Most simulations are written in FORTRAN

(or some other general purpose language) or GPSS. GPSS has the advantage of providing

structures specifically for simulation,

whereas these structures have to be explicitly encoded in FORTRAN. GPSS is a general

purpose simulation system; it was not designed specifically for modeling computing

systems. SIMPL/1 is another general purpose

simulation language which is becoming popular

since it provides simulation facilities and

retains the capabilities of PL/1. In the

last decade, languages designed specifically

for simulation of computing systems have been

developed. ASPOL, QSIM, and RESQ are pioneering examples. We next describe a system called PAWS which has the same design

philosophy as QSIM and RESQ. The entire

design of PAWS is based on one key observation: computer professionals prefer to describe their systems by drawing pictures . The ideal simulation system should take

these pictures (or some representation of

these pictures) as input. In practice, a modeler using a general purpose simulation

system has to translate a graphical description of a computing system into a procedural

description. This translation is often

demanding of the modeler's time. The trans- lation process is also the source of several errors. PAWS is designed to take a (computer

readable) representation of a designer's

picture as input. There is little translation required.

The most important question for developing a simulation modeling system ought to be: how do computer professionals describe

computer systems to one another? We will

address this question in this paragraph.

Programmers and architects describe systems

by drawing diagrams which are usually in the

form of graphs. System resources are represented as nodes (vertices) in the graph.

Edges from one node to another show the

sequence in which transaction use resources. Usually, computer professionals use a hierarchy of diagrams to describe a system. At the

top level of the hierarchy, a system is blocked out into large aggregates of resources; for instance, the entire I/O

system may be represented by a single node in

a graph. The model is refined at lower

levels in the hierarchy. The description of

the model refinement is itself another

diagram. For instance, we may draw a diagram

for an I/O system, where the nodes (resources)

are channels, controllers, DASDs , etc., and

the edges show the sequence in which these resources are acquired and released.

Figures 1 and 2 show a hierarchical

series of diagrams describing a swap-based

time-sharing system [1]. Figure 1 shows a network with two resources: terminals and a "computer". Figure 2 shows a refinement of

the computer node, which represents an aggregate of system resources. The entry and

exit ports of the computer node in Figure 1 are shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows that

a computer really consists of CPU, I/O and

MEMORY resources. Jobs entering the computer

node acquire memory, then use the CPU and I/O

a random number of times, release memory, and

leave the computer node.

terminal

s

^ 1

— computer

Figure 1. A Simple Model:

Top Level of the Hierarchy

probability = 9/10

acqui re memory

CPU

I/O

subsystem

rel ease memory

probability = 1/10

Figure 2. A Model of the Computer Node: Next Level of the Hierarchy

If we wished to, we could refine the

description of the I/O subsystem further. The

important point to note is that in a system

engineer's mind, a model is a picture .

To analyze the model we need more information than the basic topology provides.

Specifically, we need to know the scheduling

disciplines by which the resources are managed, and the amount of each resource

requested by each user. Normally, when a systems programmer says, "the CPU is managed

according to a round robin fixed quantum

333
discipline with a 20 ms quantum," he expects

to be understood. Unfortunately, most modeling systems do not "understand" terminology

which is standard in the computing profession.

So, to build a model of a computer system

using a general purpose simulation system, the

modeler has to translate the discipline,

"round-robin-fixed-quantum," into a sequence

of small operations such as "acquire

processor," "hold for 20 ms," "release

processor," etc. It is this detailed translation procedure which discourages people from

using simulation models.

Memory is an important resource in computing systems, and most of the common memory management disciplines are described

in the literature. A systems engineer is likely to describe a system by saying "system

X has 512K words and uses a first-come-firstserved, first-fit discipline." The statement

is quite precise, but it may well require 300

lines of code in a general purpose simulation

language. Generating this code takes time and

may cause errors.

PAWS was designed to overcome these

problems. PAWS has a large collection of

routines to model most of the scheduling

disciplines and resources one comes across in computing systems. For instance, PAWS

"understands" the meaning of a "round-robinfixed-quantum" discipline, and the meaning

of 512K words of memory managed using a firstcome-first-served, first-fit discipline."

The input to a PAWS model is designed to represent the way in which one computer

systems designer describes a system to another

designer.

Resources modeled in PAWS include service

resources (such as CPUs), memory, "passive" resources such as channels and controllers,

and locks. Disciplines modeled in PAWS

include first-come-first-served, preemptive

priority, non-preemptive priority, roundrobin-fixed-quantum, and polling. Memory

management disciplines include first-fit,

best-fit, and budy system. PAWS also has

high-level language statements for generating

different kinds of transactions, modeling

parallelism (forks and joins), messages,

routing, and processor interference (as in CPU-channel interference for memory). Users

can also define their own types of resources

(by writing FORTRAN programs) and then create

PAWS models using these resources.

PAWS allows for succinct descriptions of

complex computer systems. Users are supplied

with documented PAWS source code which is also

written in FORTRAN. PAWS is not a black box. Users may study the library of PAWS routines

if they wish. Indeed, users are encouraged

to add to the library and are provided with

the facilities to do so.

6. Disadvantages of PAWS

PAWS was designed specifically for

modeling computing systems, office automation

systems, and information systems in general.

However, many valuable constructs and scheduling disciplines in PAWS do not have

application in modeling systems other than

information systems (though its interface to user-written FORTRAN code allows a great deal

of flexibil ity)

.

7. Summary

This paper is concerned with the

question, "what are the characteristics of a modeling package which performance evaluation

experts find most useful?" We showed that

there are two distinct kinds of performance

evaluation personnel: (a) those involved in designing conceptually new systems; and (b)

those involved in tuning and capacity management. We gave reasons why: (a) simulation

is the method of choice for those designing

new systems; and (b) analytic techniques

backed by simulation capability are the

methods of choice in the tuning/capacity

management situation. We emphasized that the

most important characteristic of any modeling

package is ease of user input. We observed

that systems designers described systems to one another by drawing pictures. We described a simulation system (PAWS) which

takes as input a representation of these

pictures. The user of the system can add new modeling contructs and thus tailor the modeling system to the user's unique needs. We think that each performance evaluation group

should adopt a convention for the pictorial

representation of the systems that it

evaluates. PAWS provides a convenient tool

for mapping the pictorial representation into

a running, accurate simulation.

References

[1] R. M. Brown, J. C. Browne, and K. M. Chandy., Memory Management and Response

Time," CACM , Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 153-165.

334
COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR QUEUEING

NETWORK MODELS

Charles H. Sauer

IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

A major objective of computing systems (including computer communication systems) development in the last two decades has been to promote

sharing of system resources. Sharing of resources necessarily leads to contention, i.e., queueing, for resources. Contention and queueing for resources are typically quite difficult to quantify when estimating system

performance. A major research topic in computing systems performance in the last two decades has been solution and application of queueing models.

These models are usually networks of queues because of the interactions of

system resources. For general discussion of queueing network models of

computing systems, see C.H. Sauer and K.M. Chandy, Computer System

Performance Modeling, (Prentice-Hall, 1981), and recent special issues of

Computing Surveys (September 1978) and Computer (April 1980).

In the fifties and early sixties Jackson showed that a certain class of

networks of queues has a product form solution in the sense that

P{n^,...,n^) =

where P{n-^,...,nj^) is the joint queue length distribution in a network with

M queues, X^(n^), m = 1,...,M, is a factor obtained from the marginal

queue length distribution of queue m in isolation and G is a normalizing

constant.

The existence of a product form solution makes tractable the solution

of networks with large numbers of queues and/or large populations, but

the computational methods are non-trivial unless the normalizing constant

itself is easily obtained. This tutorial surveys the most important computational methods for product form queueing networks.

335

PRODUCTIVITY IN THE DEVELOPMENT FUNCTION

Phillip C. Howard

Applied Computer Research

Phoenix, AZ 85021

Productivity in the development organization is a function of several influences.

Among these are influences which are strictly

external to the development group, and over which it has little control, the collection

of tools and techniques available to support

development personnel, and the set of management policies and procedures which control

the development function. The combination of

these influences create a development environment which yields some level of productivity. This tutorial will address each of the

key elements of this environment as depicted

in Figure 1: the characteristics of the development organization, outside influences,

tools and techniques, management control, and

finally, productivity and its measurement.

To understand productivity in a development environment, it is necessary to understand something about the split between maintenance and new application development, the

software development life cycle, and the allocation of effort to the various phases of

the life cycle. Most studies have shown that

an inordinate amount of effort is expended in

the test and integration stage, which is directly related to errors and their causes.

Various studies of errors, when and how they

occur, and how they can be minimized are discussed. This ties in with the life cycle and

the allocation of manpower to software projects. In addition, certain psychological

aspects impacting the programming task are also considered.

Outside influences on the development

organization are largely related to the na- ture of the interface with the user organization and the application itself. In particular, the experience of both data processing and user personnel in similar applications, and the availability of good requirements definitions (specifications) are critical to high levels of productivity. Another

important factor has to do with the complexity of the application. Numerous studies

have shown that there is a direct relationship between complexity and effort, and that

productivity declines as complexity increases.

Considerable attention is given to the question of complexity and how to keep it in

control

.

There are numerous tools and techniques

available to development personnel, ranging

337
from design languages to debugging and documentation aids. Vendors of these products

all claim significant productivity gains, but

the potential compounding effect of several

such tools never really seems to work out in

practice. The various categories of these

tools will be considered and some guidelines

given on how to evaluate them in the context

of a particular development environment. In addition, one of the special problems relating to the use of tools, that of properly integrating them into the working environment

and overcoming people's natural inertia, or resistance to change, will be explored.

The specific management procedures that

control the development organization also

have an important influence on productivity.

For example, project management not only allows for better control but entails a management discipline which contributes to improved

productivity. The basic elements of software

engineering have been shown to contribute to

both improved software quality and improved

productivity. Evidence is also shown to support the idea that structured programming and

the general class of "improved programming

techniques" can contribute to improved productivity as well. Problems of manpower allocation are discussed, including Brooks'

"mythical man-month" and some ideas on how to allocate manpower to development work.

All of those influences on the development organization—external influences, tools

and techniques, and management practices

determine the level of productivity actually

achieved. First, productivity as a ratio of

output to input is examined, with particular

attention to the problems of defining or measuring "output' from a development organization. Two possibilities are considered,

lines of code and "functions." Other types

of quantitative measures are also discussed

in the context of developing a productivity

or performance "data base " for the development organization.

338
ACQUISITION BENCHMARKING

Dennis M, Conti

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, DC 20234

Abstract

Benchmarking has traditionally been more of an art than a science, primarily because of the previous lack of wellestablished procedures for constructing and testing benchmarks.

As a tool for evaluating vendor performance during the competitive acquisition of computer systems, benchmarking has become

an accepted practice. However, in spite of the widespread use of benchmarking, especially within the Federal Government,

practitioners are still unaware of the sources of error that

affect the ability of a benchmark to represent a real workload.

This tutorial will explore the purpose of benchmarking

during the acquisition of computer systems, the sources of

error inherent in the benchmark process, and ten steps to constructing and testing benchmark mixes. These steps have

formed the basis for a recent NBS Federal Guideline in this

area, FIPS PUB 75.

339

SOFTWARE CONVERSION PROCESS AND PROBLEMS

Thomas R. Buschbach

Federal Conversion Support Center

Office of Software Development

General Services Administration

This tutorial will provide users with a basic understanding of the

software conversion process. The technical and management problems

which arise during a conversion project will be discussed. A brief

description of the Federal Conversion Support Center's capabilities

to assist agencies in the conversion process will be given.

1. Federal Conversion Support Center

The Federal Conversion Support Center

(FCSC) was established in May, 1980 as the

Federal Government's primary source for soft- ware conversion technology. The intended

effect of the FCSC is to ensure careful

consideration of software conversion factors

in ADP equipment and teleprocessing services

acquisitions. The FCSC provides Federal

Agencies with expertise, techniques and tools

to conduct conversion studies and accomplish

software conversions through the provision of reimbursable services.

2. Software Conversion Process

Conversion, as defined by the FCSC, is

the transformation, without functional change,

of computer programs or data to permit their use on a replacement or modified ADP system,

telecommunications system, or teleprocessing

service. Historically, Federal agencies have

underestimated the resources required for

software conversion due to a lack of understanding of the conversion process. A large

part of the problem is the failure to realize

all the tasks involved in a conversion. The

conversion process consists of the following

tasks: planning; materials preparation;

translation; unit, system, and acceptance

testing; maintenance changes; implementation.

To accurately estimate the cost of a conversion the following cost elements must also be

taken into consideraion; redocumentation , site

preparation, training, management, and tools.

The conversion planning task includes;

a complete inventory of current software,

selecting tools to automate the process,

defining standards for the converted programs

and files, and a software conversion study

which includes schedules and cost estimates.

Some of the problems associated with the

planning task include the large number of

tasks and the amount of material to be handled.

The materials preparation task involves

the generation and validation of test data,

and the formation of conversion work packages. A system for tracking the work packages from

the time they are formed until they are accepted back from the conversion contractor

must also be developed. The problems associated

with this task include the amount of test data required and its comprehensiveness.

The translation task encompasses the

translation of all programs, files, JCL, and

data bases. This would normally include a clean

compile and testing at the program level.

The maintenance change task is required to track and eventually incorporate changes to the

production software which occur during the

conversion process.

The implementation task includes; system

testing to ensure interoperability of programs,

acceptance testing to validate output from the

system, and cutover from the old to the new

software in the production environment.

341

RESOURCE MEASUREMENT FACILITY (RMF) DATA:

A REVIEW OF THE BASICS

J. William Mullen

The GHR Companies, Inc.

Destrehan, LA

Analysis and understanding of RMF measurement data

is a basic prerequisite to performance management in the

MVS environment. A basic approach to RMF analysis is

described for key measurement data elements often over- looked in the analysis process, how RMF measures these

values, and some rules-of- thumb based upon the author's

experience. Specifics in the areas of I/O, paging/

swapping, ISO, and analysis of cause and effect relationships of RMF measured data will be discussed.

Key words: Analysis; data elements; I/O; logical

swapping; measurement; MVS; paging/ swapping ; TSO.

1. Introduction

The reduction and analysis of RMF

data is a basic prerequisite to performance management and configuration

tuning in the MVS environment . A

considerable amount of material is

available on the meanings of the

measurement data reported by RMF and

some documents attempt to provide

basic ' rules-of- thumb ' to aid the

analyst in determining current performance levels for a configuration.

A more basic approach to analysis of

RMF data is the understanding of cause

and effect relationships between the

measurement data elements and the

approach to determining interaction

and subsequent courses of action to

alleviate performance bottlenecks

within the configuration.

Analysis of RMF data additionally

requires a basic understanding of the

System Resources Manager (SRM) and the

data collection process whose data

elements are subsequently reported by

RMF. Algorithms used by the SRM to

determine over and under utilization

of the MVS system should be understood

in general with constants in the algorithms that are applicable to the

hardware in the configuration. The

overall knowledge gained from study

and understanding of the SRM algorithms provides a base for cause and

effect analysis of RMF data. The SRM

algorithms are included in Appendix A

for reference.

Discussion of RMF measurement

elements addressed in this paper will

be done by RMF report type to provide

ease of reference for measurement data

elements

.

2. CPU Activity Report

Primary measurement elements

provided in this report are concerned

with the processor average utilization

during the specified m.easurement

interval, the minimum, maximum, and

average number of tasks for the three

types of processing (batch, timesharing, started task) and the minimum,

maximum, and average values for the

various queues within the MVS system.

343
A distribution of queue lengths is

provided by RMF to give the analyst

insight into the variances during the

measurement period. Information for

the CPU Activity Report is obtained

by the RMF CPU sampling module

MRBMFECP. This sampling module obtains the maximum, minimum, average,

and distribution values by sampling

the SRM User Control Block (OUCB) and

the ASCB queues which are anchored in

the Resource Manager Control Table

(RMCT) addressed via the CVT. Counts

and statistics gathered are stored in

the ECPUDT data area. A statistic of primary concern

to the analyst is the ' Out-And-Ready

'

average value. In most instances, an average value greater than 1.0 for the

measurement interval is usually

interpreted as an indication of over- initiation of the system. The analyst

should first investigate the data

elements used by SRM in the over- utilization algorithm from all RMF

reports (i.e. CPU activity, demand

paging, UIC, etc.) to determine if the

system is being operated in an over- initiated mode and there is a lack of

needed system resources. If no symptom appears from this analysis,

the analyst should then evaluate the

Installation Performance Specifications (IPS) designations for minimum

and maximum MPL of each Domain. This

can be accomplished utilizing the RMF

trace facility and specifying the

DMDTCMPL and Dl^lDTRUA trace key word

values. The analyst should look for

any domain that is consistently

running at its specified maximum MPL.

This could indicate an artificial

constraint on the SRM's ability to

raise the system target JIPL and

specifically the MPL for that particular domain. RMF trace values for the

DMDTCMPL and DMDTRUA trace key words

should be reviewed periodically to assure proper minimum and maximum MPL

designations in the IPS.

An additional consideration is

the 'Logical-Out-Ready' value and the

effect on TSO logical swap. Logical

swapping considerations will be

addressed later in the paper.

3. Channel/Device Activity Reports

The MVS Operating System provides information statistics for

physical and logical channels via the

Input/Output Supervisor (lOS) . The

RMF channel sampling module, ERBMFECH,

collects these statistics and provides information for both physical

and logical channel activity.

Primary interest in the physical

channel reports revolves around the

average service time for the channel.

This value is the calculated average

time required for the channel to

complete an I/O operation. Averages

for channel I/O operations tend to run in the 10 to 15 millisecond

range. As this value increases, a significant change may be seen in the

channel busy/CPU wait percentage

though the change may not be rapid

enough to attract attention. A more

significant indicator of channel and

I/O problems are the ' Average-QueLength' and '7o Request Deferred'

fields on the logical channel report.

MVS associates each physical channel

and each primary/optional channel

specification with a logical channel.

Of primary interest in the logical

channel report is the ' Average-QueLength' field. This field represents

the depth of I/O requests queued for

the logical channel. A value of .1 or greater for this field is an indication of possible channel overload.

Though a direct correlation may be seen between this field and percentage of channel utilization, channel

utilization is generally not the main

contributor to the problem.

The percentage of request deferred distribution provides the

major indication of the problem. If

requests deferred due to channel busy

is the high percentage, the device

activity report should be consulted

to determine the volume or volumes

receiving the highest I/O activity.

This will give a starting point to

determine if a volume move or data

set moves can be done to alleviate

the problem.

If the percentage of request

deferred due to control unit busy is

the high percentage, then three alternatives must be investigated. The

first is rerouting of channel through

alternate or additional control units.

This is usually not a viable alternative. The second option is the move- ment of DASD strings to other less

utilized control units. This can be

a very viable alternative in concert

344
with proper DASD segregation by workload at the DASD string level. This

effort will revolve around utilizing

the device activity reports to again

identify the volumes receiving the

most activity and making appropriate

volume or data set moves to distribute

I/O activity. The final alternative

is necessary if channel paths from more than one processor are routed

through the control unit pairs. Workloads on each processor must be evaluated with respect to their use of the

DASD devices on the strings serviced

by the control units to determine if

movement or combining workload processing between processors will allow

a better I/O distribution to the

channel paths being serviced by the

control units. A final consideration

is the channel algorithm (i.e. rotate,

LCU) being used on each of the processors. With proper DASD segregation

by workload at the string level , the

Last Channel Used (LCU) algorithm has

proved best for most installations

(assuming an MVS/SEl or higher environment) . Processors will tend to sort

channel and control unit paths out

between themselves which moves DASD

contention down to the string, and more specifically, the device level.

When device busy is the highest

percentage for deferred requests , the

device usage must be studied to determine which data sets are responsible

for the high activity level and con- sider either a consolidation of workloads to a given processor or duplexing the data set (s) involved.

Device busy contention will only occur

in a multi-processor environment.

The objective of analysis of RMF

channel/device activity is the identification of I/O overload conditions

and more importantly, the elimination

of contention in the multi-processor

environment. DASD contention at the

control unit level is most difficult

to resolve. Through workload segregation and use or proper channel algorithms , the analyst should attempt to

transfer any contention to the string

and device level. Once this transfer

is accomplished, the contention can

be alleviated through volume and data

set moves on existing DASD strings.

4. Page/Swap Data Set Usage

Resource Measurement Facility

collects information on page data

sets, swap data sets, and syster^

paging activity via the paging

sampling module ERBMFEPG. The

sampling module extracts the data from

two sources : the Paging Vector Table

(PVT) and the Auxiliary Storage

Manager Vector Table (ASMVT)

.

Analysis of the Page Data Set

Usage report and the Swap Data Set

Usage report should be directed toward

the following elements

:

o bad slot/swap set indications

for page or swap data sets;

o average service times for

allocated page and swap data

sets ; and

o allocated page/swap data set

slots and swap sets with

minimum, maximum, and average

slots/swap set indicators.

An increase in page data set service

times is usually caused by an increase

in cross system DASD contention.

Another cause of increases in service

times for local page data sets can be

a spill of swap activity, due to a shortage of swap sets and swap data

sets, into the local page data sets.

Increases in the number of logged-on

time-sharing (TSO) users is usually

the cause of swap data set spills.

The analyst should continuously review

the statistics on swap set usage. If

the maximum swap sets used is equal

to swap sets allocated for all in-use

swap data sets and is a frequent

condition, swap spill to local data

sets is probably occurring. This will

also be in concert with an increase in

average ended transaction times for

TSO transactions.

Bad slot/swap set counts for page

or swap data sets can indicate the

beginning of DASD volume problems and

induce intermittent abnormal task

terminations into the system. This is

particularly true if a bad slot indicator occurs for the PLPA page data

sets. If bad slot indications go

unnoticed for the PLPA page data set,

the potential for a spill of PLPA into

the common page data set is present

with system performance degradation

3U5
being the end result.

An additional consideration is

the size and placement of page data

sets. Analysis of the usage of the

page data sets from the usage report

will provide the analyst information

on page slots used with respect to

page slots allocated. Several page

(local) data sets should be used and

should be allocated with a minimum of

slots over the measured maximum slots

used. This reduces the seek activity

due to the spread of pages over slots

by the ASM slot sort routine.

A final point is the use of the

RMF trace facility to track page delay

time. The trace key word, RCVMSPP

,

provides the average page delay time

(excluding swap pages) in milliseconds

for transfer of pages during the

measurement interval. This value will

alert the analyst to paging problems

as an initial indicator and tends to

be less subtle than other indicators

discussed

.

5. Paging Activity Report

Paging can be the absolute

controlling factor in the performance

of an MVS system if the analyst does

not recognize the options available to

control the system paging rate. Two

values derived from the Paging

Activity Report are key in the SRM's

system control decision making

process

:

o Demand paging - number of nonVIO , non-swap page-ins plus

page-outs per second; and

o Page fault rate - number of

non-VIO, non-swap page-ins

plus page-reclaims per second.

The analyst should track these values

to determine if they are approximately

equal. In most MVS installations,

page- ins are the primary contributor

to each of these values. The third

parameter required is the page

unreferenced- interval- count (UIC)

average during the interval. This

value must be obtained through the RMF

trace facility by use of the RCVUICA

trace key word. The average UIC value

is a primary value used by the SRM to

determine system over-under utilization of the system and tends to be the

most erratic of the three variables

where systems are not memory (real)

overcapacitated . The demand paging

value is used in concert with other

variables in the SRM's decision making

process with only UIC and page-fault

rate being the stand alone variables

in the algorithm. The analyst should

evaluate the feasibility of changing

the SRM constant values to negate

the UIC value as a control and utilize

the page- fault rate (PTR) to control

system paging activity. This can be

accomplished by altering the SRM

constants located in CSECTIRARMCNS in

the nucleus for MVS/SE Release 1 or prior systems and in SYSl.PARMLIB

member lEAOPTXX for MVS/SE Release 2 and fWS/System Product (SP) systems.

The second portion of the Paging

Activity report displays statistics on system swapping activity during the

measurement interval. Logical swap

counts and their relationships will be

discussed under the section on TSO

logical swapping. Swap sequence

counts provide the total swapping

activity count for the interval and

averages for pages swapped in and out

during the interval. The primary

element here is the swaps per second

count. In a system with sufficient

swap data sets allocated, the analyst

should try to maintain a 1.0 swap per

second or less average. If this value

tends to be greater, the physical swap

counts section should be analyzed.

VJithin the physical swap counts

section, a primary element often over- looked is the 'detected wait' swap

count field. Many analyst simply

write this count off to system initiators going inactive. The analyst

should investigate the minimum, maximum, and average values for active

initiators from the CPU Activity

Report and determine if this is

actually the cause. If not, the other

major contributor to this parameter is

DASD wait time. If investigation of

paging activity and paging service

times appears to be within reasonable

bounds, the analyst should begin investigation DASD path and device

queueing. Normally this investigation

will show that a given path or device

(s) on the path are experiencing

significant I/O activity, cross system

contention, and queueing of I/O

request. The analyst can use SMF

records to determine the type of workload requesting I/O service to the

346
DASD in question, from each processor,

and begin attempts to provide better

workload segragation at both the

processor and DASD level.

Swap counts for unilateral and

exchange on recommendation value swap

counts are associated with IPS design

and parameters and are not in the

scope of this paper.

Additional swap reason counts

are self explanatory to the analyst.

Determining the workloads affected by

the above swap reasons can be accom- plished through use of the RMF background monitoring facility and reduction of RMF type 79 SMF records.

6. TSO Logical Swapping

The TSO logical swap or in

memory swap was introduced with the

release of the MVS/Systems Extensions

(SU50) . At swap out time (terminal

input or output wait) , the TSO user

is evaluated for logical swap. If

the criteria for logical swap is met,

the TSO user's fixed frames, recently

referenced working set frames and

LSQA remain in storage and the user

is placed on the out/wait queue to

await terminal input. If terminal

input is not received during a specified period (think time) , the TSO user is physically swapped out of

memory. If terminal input is

received within the specified amount

of time, the TSO user is moved to the

out/ready queue to compete with other

tasks waiting to be swapped in under

normal SRM control.

The control variable for TSO

logical swapping is a value known as 'think time' and is the amount of

time the user is allowed, after being

logically swapped out, to enter data

at his terminal and prevent being

physically swapped out. The maximum

default think time is 30 seconds and

is in the SRM constants table

(IRARMCNS) . An additional value used

in the logical swap decision is the

system average available frame count

(RCVAFQA) . Though the ASM queue

length is also part of the algorithm

for the logical swap determination,

it is negated due to default values

assigned which should not be changed

by the analyst.

Primary controls for raising or lowering the system think time are the

system average UIC (RCVUICA) and the

system average available frame count

(RCVAFQA) . If the system average LMC

is greater than 30 and the system

available frame count is greater than

300, the system average think time is

raised .5 seconds. If the system average UIC is less than 20, then the

system average think time is reduced

1 second regardless of the system

average available frame count.

Three problems are present with

the algorithm and the current default

values

:

o the system UIC can be some- what erratic depending upon

the workload mix processing

on the system;

o the UIC comoarison values

of 20 and 30 are high; and

o the available frame count

value of 300 is too high.

The analyst should review the

logical swap statistics from the paging

activity report to determine the degree

of logical swapping in the system. In

concert, the average available frame

count should be reviewed to determine

if the average available frames is

consistently greater than 100. If this

is the case, the analyst should consider

reducing the default compare value of

300 to 100 and evaluating the results

for logical svxap

.

After taking the above action and

reviewing results , the analyst should

trace the RCVUICA value for minimum,

maximum and average values to determine

UIC ranges under a represenative workload. If traces show the UIC value to

be in a range less than 30 but greater

than 10, the analyst should consider

reducing the default values of 20 and

30 for the UIC compare and again review

the effects on logical swap.

Tracing the system average think

time should be done in concert with

the above actions . If the system think

time remains high or at the maximum

value without an increase in the

percentage of TSO users being logically

swapped, the analyst must assume that

the user community has a large average

347
think time for the terminals in use. The analyst may want to consider

raising the default maximum system

think time to induce more logical

swapping into the system. This should

be done only if sufficient memory is

available and the increases in maximum think time are gradual with a thorough review on the effect to

logical swap.

The objective of increasing the

percentages of TSO users logically

swapped out and subsequently swapped

back in is to reduce the instruction

path length and the channel/device

overhead associated with physical

swapping. Care must be taken to avoid

inducing additional demand paging

and memory shortage overhead into the

system with TSO logical swap improvement s

.

7 . Summary

Analysis of RMF data requires an understanding of the cause and effect

relationships of those variables used

by the SRM to control the MVS system.

Direction for understanding these

relationships and analysis of the data can be gained through the following:

o review and understanding

of the SRM algorithms for over and under utilization

of the system;

o review and understanding

the TSO logical swap

algorithm

;

The SRM algorithms and TSO logic

swap algorithms are included for

reference

.

Over utilization(SRM)

:

( UICA < 2 ) or

( CPUA > 100 ) or

( ASMQ > 100 ) or

( PTR > 100 ) or

( MSPP > 1000 ) or

( DPR>DPRTH ) and (( CPUA> 987o or

( MSPP> 130)) or

(( lOUSE = 'I'B ) and ( CPUA < 98% ))

( TMPL > MINMPL ) for at least 1 Domain

.

TSO Logical Swap (think time increase)

IF ( UICA > LSCTUCTH (30) and

( AMSQA < LACTASTL (100) or

( AFQA > LSCTAFQH (300) then

LSCTMTES = MIN(LSCTMTEH,LSCTMTES + LSCTMTEI ) TSO Logical Swap(think time decrease)

IF ( UICA LSCTUCTL < (20) or

( ASMQA LSCTASTH > (100) or

( AFQA LSCTAFQL < (0) then

LSCTMTES = MAX(LSCTMTEL, LSCTMTES

- LSCTMTED )

o review and understanding

of the cause and effect

relationships discussed

in this paper; and

o utilization of the RMF

trace facility to obtain

the key values used in

the SRM algorithms and

analysis of the relationships in your system.

Exercising the above recommendations will give the analyst a substantial start in the RMF data

analysis process.

8. Appendix A.

348
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