eSPLAT™

Overview

eSPLAT™ is an enterprise solution software for enhancing system robustness through fault isolation, performance analysis and anomaly tracking.  Enterprise software systems are becoming increasingly important to companies as the networked business model becomes the norm. New systems are being developed and legacy systems are being enhanced to interact in the networked environment. As system complexity grows, efficient software testing, debugging and maintenance become increasingly difficult goals to achieve. 

The eSPLAT™ solution is a first-of-its-kind, innovative approach to enhancing the robustness and performance of enterprise software systems. eSPLAT™  is built upon a set of powerful software interfaces that allow evolving and legacy software systems to be quickly instrumented to provide a clear picture of the inner workings of the system, while it is running normally and in the event an anomaly occurs. The software is designed to support rapid deployment - providing immediate benefits with minimal developer effort. Advanced eSPLAT™ capabilities can be integrated over time providing an incremental evolution path that matches the needs of the enterprise. Data captured by the system may be used at runtime, analyzed in real time, or archived for later analysis.

System Concept

eSPLAT™ is more than simply a bug tracking system with an automated collection of program description and internal state information. It forms the basis for the evolution of adaptive software applications, applications that can adapt in real time to changes in system load, increases in network traffic, or even the occurrence of software problems. 

eSPLAT™ provides a full-featured set of software APIs to support data collection and analysis. These APIs include counters, value trackers, sensors, triggers, actuators, timers, callbacks, etc. The instrumentation is built to be extensible through the use of the Python object-oriented programming language. This allows customization of the data collection and access to both the eSPLAT™  APIs and the instrumented system's own APIs from scripts that can be written and run even as the system is executing. User interface building blocks to allow end-user augmentation of the data that is collected are also provided. This includes the capability to allow an end-user to initiate a system-state snapshot at the time of a perceived anomaly and/or to add arbitrary textual descriptions. Of course, system and software exceptions are automatically captured and logged.

Success Stories

eSPLAT™ instrumentation was first used to automate data collection and analysis in support of USAF verification and validation of virtual aircraft flight performance in the DARPA sponsored modeling & simulation program.

The eSPLAT™ approach to fault isolation and anomaly detection was demonstrated as a part of the DARPA Synthetic Theater of War (STOW) modeling & simulation project with more than 1.5 million lines code. It is used to generate large numbers of virtual military vehicles and personnel exhibiting realistic and coordinated behavior for use in networked war games utilizing hundreds of computers. Initial code instrumentation was developed and a working system was demonstrated in a matter of weeks.

Using eSPLAT, developers have been able to quickly correlate anomaly reports and focus on bug fixing in a way that was impossible without the software. In addition, automated analysis of the database logs was able to quickly identify exercise configuration problems that had resulted in system crashes across a network of over a hundred simulation systems, saving hours of manual effort. 

Future Upgrades

Upcoming versions of eSPLAT™ will support intra-system data fusion with networked instrumentation APIs that will allow coordination of data collection between multiple networked systems, adding a new dimension to the analysis of collected data.

Remote capabilities will be introduced allowing analysts the ability to inspect running systems in real time from remote locations. This will further ease the burden of diagnosing problems that may occur at customer sites.

Additional support tools are under development for future releases of eSPLAT™. This includes tools to support the development of predictive failure analysis modules and code instrumentation tools that will automate much of the manual work when enhancing a legacy system.

Further Information

eSPLAT™ is produced by KES Inc. Further information on this product may be obtained by calling 858-292-0922 Ext. 212, or by sending an email to: products@kes.com