The TIBCO Blog

Check out The Power of Patterns and The Power of Patterns – Part 2 before reading on to discover the third and final type.

Patterns of Events

Based on our experiences and skills, there are other patterns that we deal with naturally every day. As complex sequences of events unfold around us, we are able to reach conclusions about likely outcomes. For instance, this might be something as simple as when we are driving and see the lights ahead turn to green (an event), a large vehicle having difficulty accelerating up the hill (a series of events), while there are still 15 cars ahead of us and we know the green light time is usually 45 seconds (let’s call these type 3 patterns). Since we know the chances are we won’t make it through the green light, we are mentally prepared to slow down, rather than accelerate.

Now imagine the more complex situation of an electrical generation and distribution grid supplying power to millions of households and businesses. Events are being generated at every point in the network, from the household meter readings happening every 5 minutes or less; substations and transformers each recording and transmitting their current operating situations (load, temperature, etc.); power stations and wind turbine farms generating and sharing their current workloads. That’s, of course, not the end of it… numerous external factors are being monitored: current and projected weather conditions or a local sports team playing at 8pm and the #1 TV program showing at 9pm. [Read more...]