IP Library Granted Patent US 12,436,835
Granted Patent B2
US 12,436,835 · App. 18/359,288 · Granted Oct 7, 2025

Trigger point detection for online root cause analysis and system fault diagnosis

Inventors: Zhengzhang Chen (Princeton Junction, NJ); Haifeng Chen (West Windsor, NJ); Liang Tong (Lawrenceville, NJ); Dongjie Wang (Orlando, FL)
Assignee: NEC Corporation
G06F11/079G06F11/0709G06F11/076G06F11/3447
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,436,835
App. No.
18/359,288
Granted
Oct 7, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A computer-implemented method for detecting trigger points to identify root cause failure and fault events is provided. The method includes collecting, by a monitoring agent, entity metrics data and system key performance indicator (KPI) data, integrating the entity metrics data and the KPI data, constructing an initial system state space, detecting system state changes by calculating a distance between current batch data and an initial state, and dividing a system status into different states.

Claims (44)

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting trigger points to identify root cause failure and fault events in a microservice system, the method comprising:

collecting, by a monitoring agent, entity metrics data and system key performance indicator (KPI) data from the microservice system;

integrating the entity metrics data and the KPI data;

constructing an initial system state space;

detecting system state changes by calculating a distance between current batch data and an initial state;

dividing a status of the microservice system into different states;

learning a causal graph over the system state changes to detect pods and nodes most likely to cause the root cause failure and fault events using a disentangle graph learning-based incremental discovery framework; and

mitigating damage to the microservice system from the failure and fault events using the detected pods and nodes.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the initial system state space is constructed by using a time-lagged trajectory matrix.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the time-lagged trajectory matrix leverages non-linear kernel-based matrix decomposition to learn a robust subspace.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein, upon detection of a trigger point, the time-lagged trajectory matrix is updated.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein a cumulative sum chart (CUSUM) is employed to accumulate a distribution error until a threshold is achieved.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the system state changes are represented as:

D ( t )=|| Û T @X ( t−L+ 1: t )|| F 2 −c

where @ refers to a matrix multiplication, X (t−L+1:t) is a new batch of data, c is an adjustable parameter, and Û T is a robust subspace.

7. A computer program product for detecting trigger points to identify root cause failure and fault events in a microservice system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

collecting, by a monitoring agent, entity metrics data and system key performance indicator (KPI) data from the microservice system;

integrating the entity metrics data and the KPI data;

constructing an initial system state space;

detecting system state changes by calculating a distance between current batch data and an initial state;

dividing a status of the microservice system into different states;

learning a causal graph over the system state changes to detect pods and nodes most likely to cause the root cause failure and fault events using a disentangle graph learning-based incremental discovery framework; and

mitigating damage to the microservice system from the failure and fault events using the detected pods and nodes.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the initial system state space is constructed by using a time-lagged trajectory matrix.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the time-lagged trajectory matrix leverages non-linear kernel-based matrix decomposition to learn a robust subspace.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein, upon detection of a trigger point, the time-lagged trajectory matrix is updated.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein a cumulative sum chart (CUSUM) is employed to accumulate a distribution error until a threshold is achieved.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the system state changes are represented as:

D ( t )=|| Û T @X ( t−L+ 1: t )|| F 2 −c

where @ refers to a matrix multiplication, X (t−L+1:t) is a new batch of data, c is an adjustable parameter, and Û T is a robust subspace.

13. A computer processing system for detecting trigger points to identify root cause failure and fault events in a microservice system, comprising:

a memory device for storing program code; and

a processor device, operatively coupled to the memory device, for running the program code to:

collect, by a monitoring agent, entity metrics data and system key performance indicator (KPI) data from the microservice system;

integrate the entity metrics data and the KPI data;

construct an initial system state space;

detect system state changes by calculating a distance between current batch data and an initial state;

divide a status of the microservice system into different states;

learn a causal graph over the system state changes to detect pods and nodes most likely to cause the root cause failure and fault events using a disentangle graph learning-based incremental discovery framework; and

mitigate damage to the microservice system from the failure and fault events using the detected pods and nodes.

14. The computer processing system of claim 13 , wherein the initial system state space is constructed by using a time-lagged trajectory matrix.

15. The computer processing system of claim 14 , wherein the time-lagged trajectory matrix leverages non-linear kernel-based matrix decomposition to learn a robust subspace.

16. The computer processing system of claim 14 , wherein, upon detection of a trigger point, the time-lagged trajectory matrix is updated.

17. The computer processing system of claim 13 , wherein a cumulative sum chart (CUSUM) is employed to accumulate a distribution error until a threshold is achieved.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 19, 2025
From: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC.
To: NEC CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 072057/0249 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 26, 2023
From: CHEN, ZHENGZHANG; CHEN, HAIFENG; TONG, LIANG; WANG, DONGJIE
To: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC.
Reel/Frame 064389/0321 →
Continuity (3)
Provisional Application 63442155 · Jan 31, 2023
Provisional Application 63397955 · Aug 15, 2022
Related Publication 20240054043A1 · Feb 15, 2024
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