Discovery of Frequent Episodes in Event Sequences

This work gives efficient algorithms for the discovery of all frequent episodes from a given class of episodes, and presents detailed experimental results that are in use in telecommunication alarm management.

Abstract

Sequences of events describing the behavior and actions of users or systems can be collected in several domains. An episode is a collection of events that occur relatively close to each other in a given partial order. We consider the problem of discovering frequently occurring episodes in a sequence. Once such episodes are known, one can produce rules for describing or predicting the behavior of the sequence. We give efficient algorithms for the discovery of all frequent episodes from a given class of episodes, and present detailed experimental results. The methods are in use in telecommunication alarm management.