Research topic
This topic covers the collection and interpretation of runtime evidence needed to understand complex software systems. It links work on tracing, monitoring, dependency context, anomaly detection, adaptive evidence collection, and runtime governance for applications, services, cloud platforms, and agentic systems.
Related search terms: software observability · runtime observability · systems monitoring
20 papers in this topic, ordered newest first. The detailed paper records contain the evidence-grounded methods, tools, datasets, findings, and citation guidance.
2026 · Journal of Systems and Software
LMAT combines multi-task language models for kernel-event and event-duration prediction with online change detection, lightweight error-vector root-cause analysis, and adaptive tracing control.
Keywords: adaptive tracing · LTTng · kernel events · system-call sequences · event-duration modeling
2026 · Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE)
The tutorial presents an end-to-end AgentOps workflow that connects task intent and model decisions to tool calls, memory access, inter-agent communication, external side effects, and runtime-governance decisions.
Keywords: agentic AI · AgentOps · runtime governance · AI observability · software agents
2026 · SIGSOFT FSE Companion
The paper reframes performance debugging as collaborative reasoning over multiple evidence-grounded hypotheses rather than optimization for one supposedly best explanation.
Keywords: performance debugging · collaborative reasoning · AgentDebug · Reasoning Surface · hypothesis generation
2026 · arXiv / CoRR; arXiv page reports acceptance to ICSE 2026
TAAF combines time-indexed knowledge graphs with large language models to turn large execution traces into queryable, actionable explanations.
Keywords: TAAF · TraceQA-100 · time-indexed knowledge graph · natural-language trace queries · multi-hop reasoning
2025 · IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC)
The paper introduces a taxonomy of log-event characteristics that explains why different log parsers fail across systems and parser families.
Keywords: log parsing · log event characteristics · LEC taxonomy · LogHub · Drain
2025 · 2025 IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Advances in Software and COmputiNg (CASCON)
SynthLogAI benchmarks statistical, sequence, transformer, and prompt-based generative models for producing synthetic Linux logs while measuring fidelity, downstream utility, and privacy.
Keywords: synthetic Linux logs · generative AI · log generation · log evaluation · CASCON 2025
2024 · ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE)
ALS uses source-code features and reinforcement learning to recommend which Python functions to log and which log levels to use for performance-bug diagnosis.
Keywords: adaptive logging · ALS · reinforcement learning · log placement · log level selection
2024 · ACM/SPEC ICPE Companion
The paper identifies response-time variability in Alibaba microservice traces through critical-path extraction and variability analysis of service interactions.
Keywords: Alibaba microservice architecture · critical path · distributed traces · response-time variability · critical interactions
2024 · 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (ICSE Companion)
The paper derives a 30-item taxonomy of log event characteristics that induce parsing errors and quantifies the characteristics with the largest impact across eight parsers.
Keywords: log parsing · log event characteristics · LEC taxonomy · LogHub · open coding
2024 · Journal of Systems and Software
The paper releases a reusable Linux kernel-event and system-call artifact with controlled application workloads, injected resource noise, and analysis scenarios for software performance engineering.
Keywords: LTTng · Linux kernel events · system calls · kernel tracepoints · Elasticsearch
2024 · ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE) Companion
The paper applies graph community detection and service-graph clustering to expose recurring microservice communication structures in an Alibaba production-cluster snapshot.
Keywords: microservice networks · Alibaba production clusters · service call graphs · community detection · Louvain
2024 · 2024 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results (ICSE-NIER)
The paper proposes an adaptive tracing loop that combines language-model prediction of kernel-event sequences and event durations with change detection and root-cause analysis, so detailed tracing is activated only around significant behavior shifts.
Keywords: adaptive tracing · LTTng · kernel events · system-call sequences · event-duration modeling
2023 · IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC)
The paper classifies recurring log-parsing errors and connects them to token and event characteristics that can guide parser design and logging practice.
Keywords: log parsing · parser errors · Drain · AEL · Spell
2021 · Electronics
The paper combines Jaeger distributed traces with LTTng kernel and user-space events and extends critical-path analysis from threads to distributed requests so request latency can be related to low-level scheduling and resource behavior.
Keywords: distributed tracing · kernel tracing · cloud applications · cross-layer performance analysis · LTTng
2021 · Sensors
The paper presents a modular client-server architecture for large-trace storage, analysis, and visualization inside an integrated development environment.
Keywords: distributed architecture · Trace Compass · TraceScape · LTTng 2.10.3 · Trace Analysis Server Protocol
2021 · 2021 IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon)
The paper combines LTTng system-call monitoring with recurrent and Transformer-style models for malware and anomalous system-behavior detection.
Keywords: malware detection · system-call analysis · LTTng · Trace Compass · LSTM
2020 · Journal of Cloud Computing
The paper combines host-level user/kernel tracing with machine learning to detect intrusion behavior on constrained IoT and home-automation systems.
Keywords: IoT intrusion detection · host-based IDS · LTTng · barectf · Common Trace Format
2018 · IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE)
The paper correlates OpenStack Nova, QEMU/KVM, and host/guest kernel evidence to diagnose live-migration behavior across cloud-system layers.
Keywords: cloud tracing · high-level tracing · low-level tracing · cross-layer observability · OpenStack Nova
2012 · International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security
This survey organizes intrusion-response systems around automation, response cost, decision evaluation, adjustment, execution, attack paths, and risk assessment.
Keywords: intrusion response systems · response cost · automated response · NIDS · HIDS
2010 · Wireless Sensor Network
The paper proposes L-SYNCng, a time-synchronization protocol for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks that combines topology-aware clustering with convex-hull clock estimation.
Keywords: wireless sensor networks · time synchronization · L-SYNCng · convex hull · clock drift