A general approach to recognizing event occurrences in distributed computations

A generalized approach to the task of monitoring a distributed computation for event occurrences is presented that involves analyzing the characteristics of both the behavior to be recognized and the environment in which it can occur. The monotonicity of an event, which is a measurement of the stableness of its state, is the primary feature used in characterizing events. A general classification system for monitoring strategies is also presented. The classifications are based on the view of time used by the monitoring system, the delay between the occurrence of an event and its recognition, and the assertions that can be made about the system state at the point of recognition. The properties of an event and a computation can be used to determine the applicability of various types of monitoring strategies.<
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