1. A method for monitoring microservice, the method comprising:

collecting relevant index data corresponding to a process in the application of the microservice;

counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data;

counting abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data, and determining abnormal data, wherein the abnormal data is used for indicating the times of abnormality per minute of each process;

and displaying the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

2. The method of claim 1, after collecting relevant metric data corresponding to an in-application process of the microservice, further comprising:

and collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a process state query instruction input by a user is acquired, searching request counting data, request time-consuming data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data based on the process state query instruction;

judging whether the request counting data, the request time consumption data and the abnormal data corresponding to the related index data accord with alarm rules or not;

if yes, outputting alarm information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining whether the request count data, the request time consumption data, and the abnormal data corresponding to the process meet the alarm rule further comprises:

determining a first number of times that the request time is greater than a first threshold based on the request time consumption data;

judging whether the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is larger than a first value or not, and whether the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is larger than a second value or not;

and if the ratio of the first times to the request counting data is greater than a first numerical value and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are greater than a second numerical value, outputting alarm information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the request count data, the request elapsed time data, the anomaly data, and the associated metric data comprises:

and packaging the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the related index data and the abnormal times to obtain a packaging module, and displaying the packaging module.

6. A microservice monitoring system, the system comprising:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring relevant index data corresponding to the in-application process of the microservice;

the first statistical module is used for counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data;

the second statistical module is used for carrying out statistics on abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data and determining abnormal data, wherein the abnormal data is used for indicating the times of abnormality per minute of each process;

and the display module is used for displaying the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

and the processing module is used for collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data after the related index data corresponding to the in-application process of the micro service is collected, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

the query module is used for searching for request counting data, request time-consuming data and abnormal data corresponding to the related index data based on the process state query instruction when the process state query instruction input by a user is obtained;

the judging module is used for judging whether the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal data corresponding to the related index data accord with the alarm rule or not, and if so, executing the alarm module;

and the alarm module is used for outputting alarm information.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium has stored thereon a program of service monitoring processing executable by one or more processors to implement the microservice monitoring method according to any one of claims 1-5.

10. A computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when run on a computer, make the computer perform the microservice monitoring method according to any of claims 1-5.

Background

With the rapid development of the micro-service, the monitoring data of the whole micro-service is often called in the existing high-performance HTTP and reverse proxy server nginx modes to know the state of the service in real time. As more services are used and the iteration speed of the services is increased, the call links between the services are increased. In order to improve the efficiency of data call between services, it is necessary to convert the call monitoring mode of HTTP into the call monitoring mode of the remote procedure call protocol rpc.

In the conversion process, the monitoring data called by rpc is easy to be lost, so that the whole micro service cannot be accurately monitored, and the fault state of the service cannot be timely found.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a system for monitoring a micro service, so as to solve the problems that the entire micro service cannot be accurately monitored and the fault state of the service cannot be found in time in the prior art.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiments of the present invention provide the following technical solutions:

the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention shows a micro-service monitoring method, including:

collecting relevant index data corresponding to a process in the application of the microservice;

counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data;

counting abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data, and determining abnormal data, wherein the abnormal data is used for indicating the times of abnormality per minute of each process;

and displaying the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

Optionally, after collecting relevant index data corresponding to an in-application process of the microservice, the method further includes:

and collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data.

Optionally, the method further includes:

when a process state query instruction input by a user is acquired, searching request counting data, request time-consuming data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data based on the process state query instruction;

judging whether the request counting data, the request time consumption data and the abnormal data corresponding to the related index data accord with alarm rules or not;

if yes, outputting alarm information.

Optionally, the determining whether the request count data, the request time consumption data, and the abnormal data corresponding to the process meet the alarm rule further includes:

determining a first number of times that the request time is greater than a first threshold based on the request time consumption data;

judging whether the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is larger than a first value or not, and whether the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is larger than a second value or not;

and if the ratio of the first times to the request counting data is greater than a first numerical value and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are greater than a second numerical value, outputting alarm information.

Optionally, the displaying the request count data and the request time-consuming data of each process in the microservice, the abnormal data and the related index data includes:

and packaging the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal times to obtain a packaging module, and displaying.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention shows a microservice monitoring system, including:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring relevant index data corresponding to the in-application process of the microservice;

the first statistical module is used for counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data;

the second statistical module is used for carrying out statistics on abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data and determining abnormal data, wherein the abnormal data is used for indicating the times of abnormality per minute of each process;

and the display module is used for displaying the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

Optionally, the method further includes:

and the processing module is used for collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data after the related index data corresponding to the in-application process of the micro service is collected, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data.

Optionally, the method further includes:

the query module is used for searching for request counting data, request time-consuming data and abnormal data corresponding to the related index data based on the process state query instruction when the process state query instruction input by a user is obtained;

the judging module is used for judging whether the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal data corresponding to the related index data accord with the alarm rule or not, and if so, executing the alarm module;

and the alarm module is used for outputting alarm information.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention shows a computer-readable storage medium, on which a program of service monitoring processing is stored, where the program of service monitoring processing is executable by one or more processors to implement the micro-service monitoring method shown in the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention.

A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention shows a computer program product, which includes computer instructions, when run on a computer, to enable the computer to execute the micro-service monitoring method as shown in the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention.

Based on the above-mentioned micro-service monitoring method and system provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the method includes: collecting relevant index data corresponding to a process in the application of the microservice; counting related data consistent with rpc index data in the related index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data; counting abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data, and determining abnormal data, wherein the abnormal data is used for indicating the times of abnormality per minute of each process; and displaying the requested counting data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. So as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. By monitoring the micro-service in the mode, the whole micro-service can be accurately monitored, and the fault state of the service can be timely found.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the provided drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a micro-service monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart illustrating another micro-service monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart illustrating another micro-service monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a microservice monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another microservice monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another microservice monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In this application, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. So as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. By monitoring the micro-service in the mode, the whole micro-service can be accurately monitored, and the fault state of the service can be timely found.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic flow chart of a micro-service monitoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes:

step S101: and collecting related index data corresponding to the in-application process of the microservice.

Optionally, the monitored component in the micro service, i.e., the process of the application, provides a corresponding HTTP interface for the service monitoring system prometheus, so as to access the monitored component in the micro service, i.e., the process of the application, to the service monitoring system prometheus.

In the process of implementing step S101 specifically, the service monitoring system prometheus periodically captures the monitored component in the microservice, that is, the running state of the process of the application, through the HTTP protocol.

Step S102: and counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data.

In step S102, the request count data includes the number of requests per process in the microservice, and the request time consumption data refers to the time consumption of each request.

Optionally, before performing statistics on request count data and request consumed time data, based on a monitoring point currently applying HTTP, defining a monitoring point of a distributed service dubbo of rpc, that is, defining rpc finger data, where rpc index data mainly includes service, interface information path, method, call type (provider/consumer), status (success/error, etc.), and other related parameters, so as to write an abnormal index into a monitoring index of a prometheus rpc monitoring index.

In the process of specifically implementing step S102, based on the interceptor called by rpc, the summary data type summery of the proxy is used to count the call information corresponding to the relevant parameters such as service, interface information path, method, call type (provider/consumer provider), status (successful success/error, etc.), etc. in the relevant index data, so as to obtain the request count data and the request time-consuming data.

Step S103: and counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data.

In step S103, the exception data is used to indicate the number of times each process has an exception per minute.

Optionally, before performing the statistics of the abnormal data, an abnormal index needs to be defined based on a dependent call of a current application to determine the abnormal data. The abnormal index includes information such as class, method, line, or level.

For example, determining state event information of an object representing an event in log information based on a log component of an open source log component logback; analyzing the event information to obtain information such as classes, methods, rows or level levels which can influence data abnormity, namely abnormity indexes; to write the abnormal index into the monitoring index of prometheus.

In the process of implementing step S103 specifically, statistics is performed on information such as a class, a method, a line, or a level of the applicable data exception in the relevant index data by using a count data type Counter of prometheus, so as to obtain exception data.

Step S104: and displaying the request counting data, the request time consumption data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

In the process of specifically implementing the step S104, the request counting data, the request time-consuming data, the abnormal data and the related index data are packaged into a jar packet and a module go module, that is, a packaging module, the visualization tool golang accesses the request counting data, the request time-consuming data, the abnormal data and the related index data quickly by introducing the module go module, and displays the request counting data, the request time-consuming data, the abnormal data and the related index data in real time through an http protocol by exposing an interface of an actuator/prometheus.

In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. So as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. The micro service is monitored in the mode, so that the whole micro service can be accurately monitored.

Based on the micro-service monitoring method shown in the embodiment of the present invention, referring to fig. 2 in combination with fig. 1, a schematic flow diagram of another micro-service monitoring method shown in the embodiment of the present invention is shown, where the method includes:

step S201: and collecting related index data corresponding to the in-application process of the microservice.

Step S202: and counting relevant data consistent with the rpc index data in the relevant index data based on an interceptor called by rpc, and determining request counting data and request time-consuming data.

In step S202, the request count data includes the number of requests per process in the microservice, and the request time consumption data refers to the time consumption of each request.

Step S203: and counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data.

In step S203, the exception data is used to indicate the number of times each process has an exception per minute.

It should be noted that the specific implementation process of the steps S201 to S203 is the same as the specific implementation process of the steps S101 to S103 in the above embodiments, and reference may be made to each other, and the description of this embodiment is not described.

Step S204: and collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data.

In the specific implementation process of step S204, the prometheus management service Daemon collects the collected relevant index data through the preconfigured tag data, and then cleans the collected relevant index data to filter out repeated data. And further storing the cleaned related index data.

Step S205: and displaying the requested counting data, the requested time-consuming data, the abnormal data and the related index data.

It should be noted that the specific implementation process of step S205 is the same as that shown in step S104, and reference may be made to this embodiment, and the description is not given.

In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. Collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data; so as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. The micro service is monitored in the mode, so that the whole micro service can be accurately monitored.

Based on the micro-service monitoring method shown in the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3, a schematic flow chart of another micro-service monitoring method shown in the embodiment of the present invention is shown, and the method includes:

step S301: when a process state query instruction input by a user is obtained, request counting data, request time-consuming data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data are searched based on the process state query instruction.

In the process of implementing step S301 specifically, when a process state query instruction input by a user based on an alert manager is acquired, relevant index data corresponding to the process state query instruction in prometheus is searched, and request count data, request time consumption data, and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data are determined.

Step S302: and judging whether the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal data corresponding to the process accord with alarm rules, if so, executing the step S303, and if not, not outputting alarm information.

It should be noted that, in the process of specifically implementing step S302, the following steps are included:

step S11: and determining a first number of times that the request time is greater than a first threshold value based on the request time consumption data.

In the process of specifically implementing step S11, for a process, first determining each requested consumed time in the requested consumed time data corresponding to the process, determining whether the requested consumed time greater than a first threshold exists in the requested consumed time data of the process, and if so, calculating a first number of times that the requested consumed time greater than the first threshold in the process.

It should be noted that the first threshold is set according to a plurality of experiments, and the first threshold may be 100 ms.

Step S12: and judging whether the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is greater than a first value or not, and whether the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is greater than a second value or not, if the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is greater than the first value and the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is greater than the second value, executing the step S303, and if not, not outputting alarm information.

In the process of specifically implementing step S12, first, a ratio of the first number of times to the request count data is calculated to obtain a first ratio; judging whether the first ratio is larger than a first value or not; determining abnormal data of the process corresponding to step S11; and judging whether the abnormal times in the abnormal data are larger than a second value or not, if the first ratio is larger than the first value and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are larger than the second value, executing the step S303, and if not, not outputting the alarm information.

It should be noted that the first value and the second value are set according to a plurality of experiments, such as: the first value may be 5% and the second value may be 10 times per minute.

For better understanding of the contents shown in the above step S302, the following description is made.

Suppose the process S, the request consumed time data corresponding to the process S includes 10 request consumed times, the first threshold is 100ms, and the 10 request consumed times are 101ms, 140ms, 104ms, 83ms, 57ms, 82ms, 65ms, 63ms, 20ms, and 42ms, respectively. The first number is 5% and the second number is 10. The number of times of abnormality in the abnormal data corresponding to the process is 15 times/minute.

Firstly, determining each request consumed time in the request consumed time data corresponding to the process S, judging that the request consumed time which is greater than a first threshold value exists in the request consumed time data of the process S, wherein the request consumed time is 101ms, 140ms and 104ms, and calculating the first time of the request consumed time which is greater than the first threshold value in the process S to be 3.

The ratio of the first number of times 3 to the request count data 10 is calculated to obtain a first ratio of 30%.

And determining that the first ratio is 30% larger than the first numerical value by 5%, and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are 15 times/minute and 10 times/minute larger than the second numerical value, and notifying the alarm information to an application responsible person through a short message.

Step S303: and outputting alarm information.

In the process of implementing step S303, the application responsible person is notified of the warning information by means of a short message or other information.

In the embodiment of the invention, when a process state query instruction input by a user is acquired, request counting data, request time consumption data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data are searched based on the process state query instruction. And judging whether the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal data corresponding to the process accord with alarm rules, and if so, outputting alarm information. By monitoring the micro-service in the above way, the fault state of the service can be found in time.

Corresponding to the micro-service monitoring method shown in the above embodiment of the present invention, the embodiment of the present invention also discloses a micro-service monitoring system, as shown in fig. 4, which discloses a schematic structural diagram of the micro-service monitoring system correspondingly, and the system includes:

the collection module 401 is configured to collect relevant index data corresponding to an in-application process of the microservice.

The first statistical module 402 is configured to perform statistics on relevant data in the relevant index data that is consistent with the rpc index data based on the interceptor called by rpc, and determine request count data and request time-consuming data.

A second statistical module 403, configured to perform statistics on the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the relevant index data, and determine abnormal data, where the abnormal data is used to indicate the number of times that each process has an abnormality per minute.

A display module 404, configured to display the request count data, the request time-consuming data, the abnormal data, and the relevant index data.

Optionally, the display module 404 is specifically configured to package the request count data, the request time-consuming data, and the abnormal times to obtain a package module, and display the package module.

It should be noted that, the specific principle and the execution process of each unit in the micro service monitoring system disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention are the same as those of the micro service monitoring method implemented in the present invention, and reference may be made to corresponding parts in the micro service monitoring method disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention, which are not described herein again.

In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. So as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. The micro service is monitored in the mode, so that the whole micro service can be accurately monitored.

Based on the micro-service monitoring apparatus shown in fig. 4, and as shown in fig. 5 in conjunction with fig. 4, the micro-service monitoring apparatus is further provided with a processing module 405.

The processing module 405 is configured to, after collecting relevant index data corresponding to an in-application process of the microservice, collect and clean the collected relevant index data by using pre-configured tag data, and store the collected and cleaned relevant index data.

In the embodiment of the invention, an interceptor called by rpc is utilized to count debugging data consistent with rpc index data in related index data, and request counting data and request time-consuming data are determined; and then counting the abnormal monitoring data consistent with the related index data to determine abnormal data. Collecting and cleaning the collected related index data by using the pre-configured label data, and storing the collected and cleaned related index data; so as to display the requested count data and the requested time-consuming data, as well as the abnormal data and the related index data. The micro service is monitored in the mode, so that the whole micro service can be accurately monitored.

Based on the micro-service monitoring device shown in the above embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, the micro-service monitoring further includes:

the query module 601 is configured to, when a process state query instruction input by a user is obtained, search for request count data, request time-consuming data, and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data based on the process state query instruction.

The determining module 602 is configured to determine whether the request count data, the request time consumption data, and the abnormal data corresponding to the relevant indicator data meet the alarm rule, and if so, execute the alarm module 408.

And an alarm module 603, configured to output alarm information.

In the embodiment of the invention, when a process state query instruction input by a user is acquired, request counting data, request time consumption data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data are searched based on the process state query instruction. And judging whether the request counting data, the request time-consuming data and the abnormal data corresponding to the process accord with alarm rules, and if so, outputting alarm information. By monitoring the micro-service in the above way, the fault state of the service can be found in time.

Optionally, based on the micro-service monitoring apparatus shown in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention, the determining module 407 is specifically configured to: determining a first number of times that the request time is greater than a first threshold based on the request time consumption data; judging whether the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is larger than a first value or not, and whether the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is larger than a second value or not; and if the ratio of the first times to the request counting data is greater than a first numerical value and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are greater than a second numerical value, outputting alarm information.

In the embodiment of the invention, when a process state query instruction input by a user is acquired, request counting data, request time consumption data and abnormal data corresponding to the relevant index data are searched based on the process state query instruction. Determining a first number of times that the request time is greater than a first threshold based on the request time consumption data; judging whether the ratio of the first frequency to the request counting data is larger than a first value or not, and whether the abnormal frequency in the abnormal data is larger than a second value or not; and if the ratio of the first times to the request counting data is greater than a first numerical value and the abnormal times in the abnormal data are greater than a second numerical value, outputting alarm information. By monitoring the micro-service in the above way, the fault state of the service can be found in time.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores a program for micro-service monitoring processing, and the program for micro-service monitoring can be executed by one or more processors to implement the micro-service monitoring method.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer program product, which includes computer instructions, and when the computer program product runs on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the micro-service monitoring method.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product.

The embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from the other embodiments. In particular, the system or system embodiments are substantially similar to the method embodiments and therefore are described in a relatively simple manner, and reference may be made to some of the descriptions of the method embodiments for related points. The above-described system and system embodiments are only illustrative, wherein the units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and the parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both, and that the various illustrative components and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality in order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.