Transaction recognition and prediction using regular expressions

1. A method for identifying an occurrence of a transaction, comprising:

decomposing a set of one or more service request identifiers into at least one collection of service request identifiers expected to be an occurrence of a transaction, each service request identifier associated with a service request communicated between two network components and identified using a service request representation associated with the service request, each service request comprising at least a portion of a request by a first of the two network components for processing by a second of the two network components, each service request representation comprising a normalized service request to remove at least some service request-specific information from the service request, wherein the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers are ordered by time;

comparing a time interval between a second service request and a previous service request, wherein each of the second service request and the previous service request have a corresponding service request representation in the set of one or more service request identifiers, with a predetermined time interval to determine if the corresponding service request representation for the second service request and the corresponding service request representation for the previous service request are part of a same occurrence of a transaction; and

comparing one or more service request identifiers that are part of the same occurrence of the transaction with a predetermined regular expression characterizing the same occurrence of the transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sorting the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers based upon either or both of a source of a corresponding service request or a destination of a corresponding service request.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

assigning to a service request a unique identifier characterizing the service request, wherein said unique identifier is included in a corresponding service request representation for the service request.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the regular expression comprises one or more service request identifiers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers each have a unique identifier.

6. A system for identifying an occurrence of a transaction, comprising:

means for decomposing a set of one or more service request identifiers into at least one collection of service request identifiers expected to be an occurrence of a transaction, each service request identifier associated with a service request communicated between two network components and identified using a service request representation associated with the service request, each service request comprising at least a portion of a request by a first of the two network components for processing by a second of the two network components, each service request representation comprising a normalized service request to remove at least some service request- specific information from the service request, wherein the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers are ordered by time;

means for comparing a time interval between a second service request and a previous service request, wherein each of the second service request and the previous service request have a corresponding service request representation in the set of one or more service request identifiers, with a predetermined time interval to determine if the corresponding service request representation for the second service request and the corresponding service request representation for the previous service request are part of a same occurrence of a transaction; and

means for comparing one or more service request identifiers that are part of the same occurrence of the transaction with a predetermined regular expression characterizing the same occurrence of the transaction.

7. A system for recognizing an occurrence of a transaction, comprising:

a transaction analyzer operable to:

generate a set of one or more service request identifiers and decompose the set of one or more service request identifiers into at least one collection of service request identifiers expected to be an occurrence of a transaction, each service request identifier associated with a service request communicated between two network components and identified using a service request representation associated with the service request, each service request comprising at least a portion of a request by a first of the two network components for processing by a second of the two network components, each service request representation comprising a normalized service request to remove at least some service request-specific information from the service request, wherein the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers are ordered by time; and

compare a time interval between a second service request and a previous service request, wherein each of the second service request and the previous service request have a corresponding service request representation in the set of one or more service request identifiers, with a predetermined time interval to determine if the corresponding service request representation for the second service request and the corresponding service request representation for the previous service request are part of a same occurrence of a transaction; and

a regular expression matcher operable to compare one or more service request identifiers that are part of the same occurrence of the transaction with a predetermined regular expression characterizing the same occurrence of the transaction.

8. Software for identifying an occurrence of a transaction, the software encoded on at least one computer readable medium and operable when executed to:

decompose a set of one or more service request identifiers into at least one collection of service request identifiers expected to be an occurrence of a transaction, each service request identifier associated with a service request communicated between two network components and identified using a service request representation associated with the service request, each service request comprising at least a portion of a request by a first of the two network components for processing by a second of the two network components each service request representation comprising a normalized service request to remove at least some service request-specific information from the service request, wherein the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers are ordered by time;

compare a time interval between a second service request and a previous service request, wherein each of the second service request and the previous service request have a corresponding service request representation in the set of one or more service request identifiers, with a predetermined time interval to determine if the corresponding service request representation for the second service request and the corresponding service request representation for the previous service request are part of a same occurrence of a transaction; and

compare one or more service request identifiers that are part of the same occurrence of the transaction with a predetermined regular expression characterizing the same occurrence of the transaction.

9. The software of claim 8 , further operable to sort the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers based upon either or both of a source of a corresponding service request or a destination of a corresponding service request.

10. The software of claim 8 , further operable to assign to a service request a unique identifier characterizing the service request, wherein said unique identifier is included in a corresponding service request representation for the service request.

11. The software of claim 10 , wherein the regular expression comprises one or more service request identifiers.

12. The software of claim 8 , wherein a plurality of the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers each have a unique identifier.

13. A system for identifying an occurrence of a transaction, comprising:

at least one processor configured to:

decompose a set of one or more service request identifiers into at least one collection of service request identifiers expected to be an occurrence of a transaction, each service request identifier associated with a service request communicated between two network components and identified using a service request representation associated with the service request, each service request comprising at least a portion of a request by a first of the two network components for processing by a second of the two network components, each service request representation comprising a normalized service request to remove at least some service request-specific information from the service request, wherein the service request representations in the set of one or more service request identifiers are ordered by time;

compare a time interval between a second service request and a previous service request, wherein each of the second service request and the previous service request have a corresponding service request representation in the set of one or more service request identifiers, with a predetermined time interval to determine if the corresponding service request representation for the second service request and the corresponding service request representation for the previous service request are part of a same occurrence of a transaction; and

compare one or more service request identifiers that are part of the same occurrence of the transaction with a predetermined regular expression to characterize the same occurrence of the transaction.