Complex performance measurements with NICE (Notation for interval combinations and events)

This paper presents a notation for extracting complex performance measurements of parallel software from an event log. NICE defines a ‘complex interval’ as a sequence of events in the event log that match a rather general template using an interval monitor process (IMP). The IMP process model combines an extended FSM with parametrized event descriptors to provide a generalized description of a sequence of subintervals each one of which may be measured for duration. An interval matching algorithm provides a strategy for distributing the events in the log to multiple concurrent IMPs, thereby handling interval occurrences that overlap and/or share the same event. Practical issues of implementing and using NICE are addressed in a discussion of our performance monitoring tool called Finale.