{
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  "paper_id": "multi-level-adaptive-execution-tracing-performance-analysis",
  "page_url": "https://threadslab.org/research-publications/papers/multi-level-adaptive-execution-tracing-performance-analysis/",
  "title": "Multi-level Adaptive Execution Tracing for Efficient Performance Analysis",
  "title_variants": [
    "Time-Series Trend-Based Multi-Level Adaptive Execution Tracing for Performance Analysis"
  ],
  "authors": [
    "Mohammed Adib Khan",
    "Naser Ezzati-Jivan"
  ],
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      "name": "Mohammed Adib Khan",
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    {
      "name": "Naser Ezzati-Jivan",
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  "publication": {
    "year": 2023,
    "venue": "2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Research (SERA)",
    "type": "conference paper",
    "publication_date": "2023-05-23",
    "online_date": null,
    "print_date": "2023-05-23",
    "volume": null,
    "issue": null,
    "pages": "104-109",
    "article_number": null,
    "publisher": "IEEE",
    "issn": [],
    "isbn": [],
    "crossref_type": "proceedings-article"
  },
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  "canonical_source_url": "https://doi.org/10.1109/SERA57763.2023.10197790",
  "source_record_id": "multi-level-adaptive-execution-tracing-for-efficient-performance-analysis-811de9b4dd",
  "identifiers": {
    "doi": "10.1109/SERA57763.2023.10197790"
  },
  "abstract": "The available program synopsis describes dynamic kernel/application tracing guided by time-series trends with an emphasis on reducing tracing overhead; the exact trigger logic and evaluation were not captured.",
  "abstract_source": "OpenAlex abstract metadata and SERA program/synopsis reviewed; publisher abstract not reproduced because reuse permission was not established.",
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  "scholar_eligibility": {
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    "basis": "not-eligible",
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  "description": "The available program synopsis describes dynamic kernel/application tracing guided by time-series trends with an emphasis on reducing tracing overhead; the exact trigger logic and evaluation were not captured.",
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    "verified_on": "2026-08-26",
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        "note": "Local PDF reviewed, including the three-phase workflow, ARIMA/perf configuration, Firefox cases, and overhead results"
      },
      {
        "note": "IEEE DOI record: https://doi.org/10.1109/SERA57763.2023.10197790"
      },
      {
        "note": "IEEE Xplore record: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10197790/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "summary": {
    "core_contribution": "The paper presents a multi-level adaptive tracing workflow that uses lightweight stress detection and performance evidence to change the application/kernel instrumentation scope during an investigation.",
    "problem": "Fixed tracing policies either miss the component responsible for a performance problem or collect excessive event volume and overhead. A useful controller should begin with inexpensive evidence, identify suspicious call or system-call families, and refine tracing around them.",
    "method": "The workflow has three stages: a pre-test stress signal, perf call-stack sampling at 10 ms intervals, and grouping/ranking of methods and system-call families, retaining the top 5% for deeper tracing. It uses ARIMA(1,1,1) forecasting and an anomaly threshold/score beta to adapt tracepoints, maps system calls to kernel components, and limits call-stack depth to 20 in the stated setup. Firefox is instrumented for cases including Bug 1768481's VsyncRefreshDriverTimer/RunRefreshDrivers path and Bugs 1637586/1776469.",
    "findings": "Across the reported experiments, approximately 22% of changes were judged useful and 56% were traced; the adaptive configuration reduces coefficient-of-variation overhead by about 95% and ARIMA-related overhead by about 44%, with perf CPU overhead at or below 1% in the stated cases. The Firefox examples show how the controller can move from application-level symptoms to a narrower kernel/user trace scope.",
    "limitations": "Thresholds, beta, the top-5% cutoff, and stack depth are manually selected, and the usefulness/traced-change measures are case-study dependent. The evaluation does not establish robustness under rare faults, distributed systems, changing hardware, or workloads whose symptoms do not appear in the pre-test signal.",
    "future_work": "Learn thresholds online, evaluate trace-trigger recall and false negatives, test distributed and containerized workloads, incorporate confidence/abstention, and compare adaptive tracing against fixed minimal/full instrumentation under equal diagnostic budgets."
  },
  "tags": [
    "kernel-tracing",
    "system-tracing",
    "performance-analysis",
    "adaptive-scheduling"
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "adaptive execution tracing",
    "time-series trends",
    "multi-level tracing",
    "kernel tracing",
    "performance analysis",
    "SERA 2023"
  ],
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      "title": "Multi-level Adaptive Execution Tracing for Efficient Performance Analysis",
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      "title": "Multi-level Adaptive Execution Tracing for Efficient Performance Analysis",
      "url": "https://acisinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SERA-2023-Program-v81-1.pdf",
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  "access": {
    "status": "published_metadata_record",
    "note": "The DOI/DBLP record and SERA program identify the same item; the program title is preserved as an alias. Full-text tracer details and measurements remain unverified.",
    "license": null
  },
  "resources": {
    "code": null,
    "data": null,
    "slides": null,
    "demo": null
  },
  "citation_guidance": {
    "when_to_cite": "Cite this paper when narrowing tracing scope adaptively from lightweight performance evidence to suspicious application/kernel paths.",
    "points": [
      "The three-stage stress, perf-call-stack, and selective-tracing workflow.",
      "ARIMA-based adaptation and system-call-to-kernel-component mapping.",
      "The Firefox case studies and reported overhead reductions.",
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  "provenance": {
    "metadata_verified_on": "2026-08-26",
    "metadata_source": [
      "Local PDF reviewed, including the three-phase workflow, ARIMA/perf configuration, Firefox cases, and overhead results",
      "IEEE DOI record: https://doi.org/10.1109/SERA57763.2023.10197790",
      "IEEE Xplore record: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10197790/"
    ],
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  "batch": {
    "phase": 2,
    "batch_label": "expanded forty-paper release",
    "status": "included_in_expanded_catalog",
    "selected_at": "2026-08-28"
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}