TCP-UDP Conversations by Message Count

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The TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count viewer Layout for Charts provides a summary of the top Transport Layer conversations that took place within the time boundaries of a set of trace results. The summary data is provided in a Table grid visualizer component to expose message details and useful statistics for the top Transport Layer conversations that took place in a set of trace results. The data is sorted in descending order from the highest to lowest message count, per conversation. The grid layout contains the following data columns:

  • Network — contains the IPv4, IPv6, and Ethernet addresses of the computer nodes that exchanged messages in each conversation in a set of trace results.

  • Transport — contains the TCP or UDP ports that carried the conversations.

  • Count — specifies the number of messages that were exchanged in each conversation.

  • Bytes — based on the payloadLength property of any module that defines this field, the values in this column specify the total payload byte volume of all messages (containing this property) that are associated with each conversation.

  • KBs — provides an indication of the data transmission rate in kilobytes-per-second.

  • Duration — specifies the delta between the StartTime and EndTime values, which calculates the duration of each conversation in a set of trace results.

  • StartTime — specifies the time at which the first message in a conversation group began.

  • EndTime — specifies the time at which the last message in a conversation group ended.

  • BPS — provides an indication of the data transmission rate in bytes-per-second.

  • K — a chart constant to facilitate calculation of the KBs values.

Using the TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count Layout

To maximize analysis effectiveness at the Transport Layer, the Transport Layers TCP/UDP Viewpoint has been applied to this Layout by default, which removes all messages above the Transport Layer. You can observe evidence of this background configuration in the Viewpoints drop-down list on the Filtering Toolbar, where you will see that the Layout ViewPoint item is selected, that is, after you display the TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count Layout. As a result of this applied Viewpoint, the values in columns such as Count, Bytes, KBs, and BPS, will be based on top-level TCP and UDP messages only. For example, the Count column will then indicate the number of top-level TCP or UDP messages in each conversation, while the Bytes column will indicate the number of TCP or UDP payload bytes exchanged in each conversation. Note that you can also isolate conversations by TCP or UDP messages if you apply a TCP or UDP Viewpoint, respectively.

Statistics that you can obtain from this Layout that are useful in troubleshooting the Transport Layer include:

  • TCP message volume per conversation

  • Payload volume per conversation

  • Data transmission rates per conversation

  • Duration per conversation

Interactive Analysis
The TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count view Layout for Charts is intended to work with the Analysis Grid viewer and Grouping viewer Layouts that are configured in all of the Performance Top Down and Network Monitor Profiles. These Profiles create an interactive and integrated analysis environment for data that exists in various trace file types, for which Profiles are configured. For example, the Performance Top Down Profile for *.cap files uses the following data viewers and Layouts to create an integrated analysis environment.

  • Analysis Grid viewer — uses the Performance Top Down Layout in this Profile.

  • Grouping viewer — uses the Process Names and Conversations Layout in this Profile.

  • Chart viewer — uses the TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count Layout in this Profile.

You will be able to correlate the data most effectively if you have these viewers and Layouts displayed. For example, you can interactively drive the display of messages associated with a particular TCP conversation into a new instance of the Analysis Grid viewer by double-clicking any table-grid row in the TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count Layout. The results enable you to achieve a focused analysis of the messages associated with a particular conversation. The Process Names and Conversations Layout for the Grouping viewer also enables a greater interactive context with additional enhancements to the analysis process.

More Information
To learn more about the integrated analysis environments that are created by the Profiles that use the TCP/UDP Conversations by Message Count view Layout for Charts, see the Performance Top Down and Network Monitor Profiles in the Working With Message Analyzer Profiles topic. Note that you can also review related usage scenarios and analysis examples for the Profiles in this topic.

See Also

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