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MicrosoftPatent applicationNetworks & wirelessInterest 6/10

Microsoft patents method to spot cloud outages by checking individual user traffic

Microsoft describes a system that monitors cloud services by predicting normal network traffic patterns for each individual customer, or tenant. If a tenant's actual traffic deviates from this prediction, the system flags them as unhealthy. By counting how many tenants are flagged, the system determines if the entire cloud service is experiencing a connectivity problem.

Why it mattersThis approach helps cloud providers identify widespread network issues faster by aggregating small anomalies from many individual users rather than relying on single-point failure alerts.

In the filing’s own words

The techniques describe effective detection of network connectivity issues for a cloud service operating in a distributed computing environment. To detect the network connectivity issues, a system first projects network traffic patterns at the tenant level (e.g., on a tenant-by-tenant basis) and compares a tenant’s current network traffic to the projected network traffic pattern. If the comparison yields that the current network traffic for the tenant is closely following the projected network traffic pattern, the tenant is deemed healthy. However, if the comparison yields that the current network traffic for the tenant is not closely following the projected network traffic pattern, the tenant is deemed unhealthy. Once the system has made these binary health determinations for various tenants on a tenant-by-tenant basis, the system is configured to aggregate the unhealthy determinations across a group of tenants to determine whether the cloud service is experiencing network connectivity issues.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method comprising: generating, by a processing system, a tenant-specific model that projects a pattern by analyzing a training dataset including values associated with a signal for a tenant over a training time period, wherein: the signal is associated with a service offered by a cloud provider; and the pattern establishes a threshold value; determining that a current value associated with the signal is inconsistent with the threshold value; in response to determining that the current value associated with the signal is inconsistent with the threshold value, designating the tenant as an unhealthy tenant; determining that a total number of unhealthy tenants is greater than a predefined threshold number of unhealthy tenants; and determining that the service is experiencing an issue based on the total number of unhealthy tenants being greater than the predefined threshold number of unhealthy tenants.

Facts

Company
Microsoft (MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC)
Official title
DETECTING CLOUD SERVICE CONNECTIVITY ISSUES THROUGH ANALYSIS OF TENANT NETWORK TRAFFIC SIGNALS
Publication number
US20260270134A1
Application number
19666765
Filed
May 4, 2026
Published
Sep 10, 2026
Inventors
6
Claims
20

Classified under

H04L 41/0627 Electricity & electronicsH04L 41/16 Electricity & electronicsH04L 43/16 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.