LARGE-SCALE EVENT EVALUATION USING REALTIME PROCESSORS

• US 20120158783A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nice, Nir, Sitton, Daniel, Kremer, Dror, Feldman, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Large-scale event processing systems are often designed to perform data mining operations by storing a large set of events in a massive database, applying complex queries to the records of the events, and generating reports and notifications. However, because such queries are performed on very large data sets, the processing of the queries often introduces a significant delay between the occurrence of the events and the reporting or notification thereof. Instead, a large-scale event processing system may be devised as a large state machine organized according to an evaluation plan, comprising a graph of event processors that, in realtime, evaluate each event in an event stream to update an internal state of the event processor, and to perform responses when response conditions are met. The continuous monitoring and evaluation of the stream of events may therefore enable the event processing system to provide realtime responses and notifications of complex queries.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating events received from an event source according to an evaluation plan on a computer having a processor, the method comprising:

executing on the computer instructions configured to;

for respective evaluation stages of the evaluation plan, generate an event processor having a state and at least one response having a response condition and configured to;

upon receiving an event, update the state of the event processor; and

upon the state of the event processor satisfying a response condition, perform the response;

interconnect the event processors to generate an event processor set covering the evaluation plan; and

connect the event processor set to the event source.

2. The method of claim 1, respective event processors configured to:

receive an incoming event set;

process the incoming event set according to the evaluation plan; and

generate an outgoing event set that is smaller than the incoming event set.

3. The method of claim 1, the response comprising:

generating a notification of an event.

4. The method of claim 1:

at least one event comprising a query received from a user; and

the response comprising;

providing a report to the user in response to the query.

5. The method of claim 1:

the computer having access to a data store; and

the response comprising;

storing at least one event in the data store.

6. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to generate an evaluation plan using at least one evaluation goal specified by a user.

7. The method of claim 6:

the user specifying an evaluation result derived from the events, and

the evaluation goal comprising;

evaluating the events to generate the evaluation result.

8. The method of claim 6:

the user specifying a topic, and

the evaluation goal comprising;

identifying events associated with the topic.

9. The method of claim 6:

the user specifying a topic, and

the evaluation goal comprising;

identifying other topics associated with the topic.

10. The method of claim 1:

the event processor set configured to store at least one event in a data store; and

the instructions configured to;

mine the data store to identify at least one evaluation goal, and

suggest the evaluation goal to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to, upon receiving an updated evaluation plan, reconfigure the event processor set according to the updated evaluation plan.

12. The method of claim 11, reconfiguring the event processor set comprising:

identifying at least one updated event processor that is updated by the updated evaluation plan; and

while connecting the event processor set to the event source, updating only the updated event processors.

13. The method of claim 11, the instructions configured to, after reconfiguring the event processor set, connect the event processor set to a historic event set comprising at least one historic event.

14. The method of claim 13:

the updated evaluation plan associated with at least one updated event processor; and

the historic event set comprising historic events associated with at least one updated event processor.

15. The method of claim 13, the instructions configured to generate the historic event set by selecting, from a historic event source, historic events matching at least one historic event parameter.

16. The method of claim 15, the instructions configured to:

estimate a computational cost arising from connecting the event processor set to the historic event set; and

before connecting the historic event set to the event processor set, verify the computational cost with a user.

17. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to:

upon receiving from a user a presentation request to present a state of at least one event processor in response to an event involving the user, present the state of the event processor; and

upon receiving from a user an adjustment request to adjust the state of at least one event processor, adjust the state of the at least one event processor.

18. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to store an event processor set snapshot comprising the states of the event processors of the event processor set.

19. A system configured to evaluate events of an event source, the system comprising:

an evaluation plan specifying at least one evaluation stage of an evaluation of the events;

an event processor generating component configured to;

for respective evaluation stages of the evaluation plan, generate an event processor having a state and at least one response having a response condition and configured to;

upon receiving an event, update the state of the event processor; and

upon the state of the event processor satisfying a response condition, perform the response; and

an event processor set generating component configured to;

interconnect the event processors to generate an event processor set covering the evaluation plan; and

connect the event processor set to the event source.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computer having access to a data store, evaluate events received from an event source by:

mining the data store to identify at least one evaluation goal;

suggesting the evaluation goal to a user;

generating an evaluation plan using at least one evaluation goal selected by the user;

for respective evaluation stages of the evaluation plan, generating an event processor having a state and at least one response having a response condition and configured to;

upon receiving an incoming event set comprising at least one event;

process the incoming event set according to the evaluation plan; and

update the state of the event processor; and

upon the state of the event processor satisfying a response condition;

perform the response including generating an outgoing event set that is smaller than the incoming event set; and

store at least one event in the data store;

interconnecting the event processors to generate an event processor set covering the evaluation plan;

upon receiving an updated evaluation plan;

identifying at least one updated event processor that is updated by the updated evaluation plan; and

reconfiguring the updated event processors according to the updated evaluation plan;

after reconfiguring the event processor set;

generating a historic event set comprising historic events selected from the data store matching at least one historic event parameter and associated with at least one updated event processor;

estimatinga computational cost arising from connecting the event processor set to the historic event set;

verifying the computational cost with the user;

connecting the event processor set to a historic event set comprising at least one historic event;

upon receiving from a user a presentation request to present a state of at least one event processor in response to an event involving the user, present the state of the event processor;

upon receiving from a user an adjustment request to adjust the state of at least one event processor, adjusting the state of the at least one event processor; and

storing an event processor set snapshot comprising the states of the event processors of the event processor set.