DYNAMIC ASSET MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT USING A CONTINUOUS EVENT PROCESSING PLATFORM

• US 20120005220A1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schindlauer, Roman, Raman, Balan Sethu, Grabs, Torsten W., Sezgin, Beysim
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2255 Hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24568 Data stream processing; Continuous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

The disclosed architecture leverages realtime continuous event processing (CEP) to address using a general input interface framework to import a dynamic set of event types (e.g., assets), and using a declarative, expressive query model to implement monitoring and management tasks on an asset level. This is in contrast to looking separately at single values from static databases and/or realtime streams as is common conventionally. The architecture uses the CEP data model to model assets as realtime event types. Thus, queries can be formulated per asset and not just per single stream. The architecture uses the query capabilities of CEP to formulate asset management and monitoring tasks as standing, declarative queries, and uses the input interface of a CEP platform to correlate data from different data sources with different dynamic properties.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented realtime event processing system having computer readable media that store executable instructions executed by a processor, comprising:

an access component that accesses heterogeneous data sources of event data, for a query expecting a specific event type;

a synchronization component that synchronizes realtime event data and static event data associated with the event type as obtained from the heterogeneous data sources; and

a realtime merge component that merges the synchronized realtime event data and static event data into a realtime event stream.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a conversion component that converts the realtime event stream into a format suitable for a consumer application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the event type is an asset having static asset properties as the static event data and realtime asset properties as the realtime event data, the asset queriable as a single event type in a continuous event processing platform to return multiple related asset items.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the query is a standing declarative query.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a change detection component that signals the access component of a change in information related to the event type.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component synchronizes the realtime event data and static event data in time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component includes an emittance module that ensures actual values of the realtime event data are obtained for the same point in time for each individual asset.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the realtime merge component includes a join operator that merges realtime event data and static event data of corresponding event types into a single composite realtime event stream and a union operator that merges realtime event data and static event data of different assets of the same type into a realtime event stream.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a timing component that clocks input of the query to achieve a predetermined output frequency.

10. A computer-implemented realtime event processing system having computer readable media that store executable instructions executed by a processor, comprising:

an access component that accesses heterogeneous data sources of event data, for a query expecting a specific event type for an asset;

a synchronization component that synchronizes realtime event data and static event data associated with the event type as obtained from the heterogeneous data sources;

a realtime merge component that merges the synchronized realtime event data and static event data into a realtime event stream; and

a conversion component that converts the realtime event stream into a format compatible with a consumer application.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the event type corresponds to an asset having static asset properties as the static event data and realtime asset properties as the realtime event data, the asset queriable as a single event type in a continuous event processing platform to return multiple related asset items.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a change detection component that signals the access component of a change in information related to the event type.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the synchronization component includes an emittance module that ensures actual values of the realtime event type data are obtained from a same point in time.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the realtime merge component includes a join operator that merges realtime event data and static event data of corresponding event types into a single composite realtime event stream and a union operator that merges realtime event data and static event data of different assets of the same type into a realtime event stream.

15. A computer-implemented realtime event processing method executable via a processor, comprising:

receiving a declarative query over an asset type;

accessing event data associated with the asset type from heterogeneous event data sources for the query;

synchronizing realtime event data and static event data associated with the event type in time as obtained from the heterogeneous event data sources;

merging the synchronized realtime event data and static event data into a realtime event stream;

inputting the realtime event stream into the query to output a result stream; and

converting the result stream into a format for consumption by a consumer application.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising detecting a change in status of a static asset property of an associated data source related to membership of the static asset property in a group of asset properties being monitored.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising retrieving actual values of the realtime event data at a same point in time.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising importing a specific set of event type properties into the query at a point in time.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising obtaining output of the query according to at least one of results from a data source issued at least every predetermined number of time units, results from a data source issued exactly according to a predetermined time unit, or results issued from a data source according to a latency threshold relative to a changed data source value.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising merging synchronized realtime event data and static event data of different assets of the same type as a union of corresponding realtime and static event data into a single realtime event stream.