Microsoft Corporation
Artificial creation of dominant sequences that are representative of logged events

Abstract:

Dominant sequences that are representative of logged events can be artificially created. Initially, a graph comprising multiple nodes and edges between pairs of nodes is generated from logged information. The weights, or values, associated with edges are incremented as the log data reveals a temporal relationship between two nodes. Subsequently, a set of candidate trajectories, with each candidate trajectory representing a sequence of events, are generated by repeatedly traversing the generated graph in a random manner by commencing at randomly selected nodes and then proceeding in a random manner to subsequent nodes in accordance with the edge values, for a random quantity of steps. The candidate trajectories are filtered to eliminate those that are impossible or improbable based on a comparison between individual candidate trajectories and the quantity of occurrences within the logs. Scoring is based both on a quantity of occurrences as well as a quantity of steps.