Seeing Through Black Boxes : Tracking Transactions through Queues under Monitoring Resource Constraints

The problem of optimal allocation of monitoring resources for tracking transactions progressing through a distributed system, modeled as a queueing network, is considered. Two forms of monitoring information are considered, viz., locally unique transaction identifiers, and arrival and departure timestamps of transactions at each processing queue. The timestamps are assumed available at all the queues but in the absence of identifiers, only enable imprecise tracking since parallel processing can result in out-of-order departures. On the other hand, identifiers enable precise tracking but are not available without proper instrumentation. Given an instrumentation budget, only a subset of queues can be selected for production of identifiers, while the remaining queues have to resort to imprecise tracking using timestamps. The goal is then to optimally allocate the instrumentation budget to maximize the overall tracking accuracy. The challenge is that the optimal allocation strategy depend...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Animashree Anandkumar, Ting He, Chatschik Bisdikian, Dakshi Agrawal
• Keywords: CORR 2010, Education, Identifiers, Imprecise Tracking, Optimal Allocation