# US 2025/0156401 A1 · Auto Computation of Counters and Last-N features across High Cardinality Dimensions in Distributed Systems > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2025/0156401 A1 - Document ID: US20250156401A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 18/945,371 - Filed: 2024-11-12 - Published: 2025-05-15 - Earliest claimed: 2023-11-09 - Assignees: Elasticflash, Inc. - Applicants: Elasticflash, Inc. - Inventors: Darshan Bharatkumar Rawal; Naoki Iwakami; Pradeep Jnana Madhavarapu - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250156401A1 ## CPC - G06F 16/2379: {Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing} - G06F 16/2264: {Multidimensional index structures} - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Systems and methods for computing counters in a distributed system are described. One embodiment includes receiving a counter update request, that includes at least one counter entry each including a timestamp, an operation value, a first set of dimension values, and at least one counter value, writing to a counter ledger, where the counter ledger comprises an immutable table where each entry has a first timestamp, an operation, a first set of dimensions, and a first at least one counter state, each counter state restricted to numeric values, reading a latest counter snapshot from an immutable snapshot ledger, generating a new counter snapshot from the latest counter snapshot and selected counter entries in the counter ledger, where the new counter snapshot includes the second set of dimension values, a second timestamp, at least one snapshot counter value, writing the new counter snapshot to the snapshot ledger. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A counter server, comprising: a processor; a network interface; non-volatile memory comprising: a counter ledger comprising an immutable table where each entry includes values for fields of: a first timestamp; an operation, where the available values for the operation include at least “delta” and “set”; a first plurality of dimensions, each dimension restricted to values having a particular data type; and a first at least one counter state, each counter state restricted to values that are numerical; a counter analytics application that, when executed, instructs the processor to: receive a counter update request, where the counter update request includes at least one counter entry that each includes a timestamp, an operation value, a first plurality of dimension values, and at least one counter value; write the at least one counter entry to the counter ledger; reading a latest counter snapshot from an immutable snapshot ledger, where the latest counter snapshot has the most recent timestamp of counter snapshots in the snapshot ledger; select counter entries from the counter ledger for compaction given a second plurality of dimension values, where the counter entries are selected by having dimension values matching those of the second plurality of dimension values and having a timestamp after the time of the latest counter snapshot; generate a new counter snapshot from the latest counter snapshot and the selected counter entries in the counter ledger at a predefined time interval, where the new counter snapshot includes: the second plurality of dimension values; a second timestamp taken from the most recent timestamp of the selected counter entries; at least one snapshot counter value, where each snapshot counter value is calculated from corresponding counter state values of the selected counter entries and the latest counter snapshot; write the new counter snapshot to the snapshot ledger. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The counter server of claim 1, wherein the counter analytics application further instructs the processor to generate a second new counter snapshot at a next time interval. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The counter server of claim 1, wherein the counter analytics application instructs the processor to generate entries for a second snapshot ledger having less frequency of the snapshot ledger by: selecting counter snapshot entries from the snapshot ledger that fall within a larger time interval than the predefined time interval; compacting the selected counter entries for each larger time interval by summing the snapshot counter values for each counter state; and writing at least one second counter snapshot entry to the second snapshot ledger having the summed snapshot counter values and the timestamp of the latest selected counter snapshot entry. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The counter server of claim 1, wherein the counter analytics application instructs the processor to perform compaction to generate a first set of counter snapshots including a first dimension and a second set of counter snapshots including the first dimension and a second dimension by: compacting a plurality of counter entries that match dimension values for the first dimension and the second dimension to generate the set of second counter snapshots; compacting counter snapshots from the second set of counter snapshots that match the first dimension to generate each of the first set of counter snapshots. ### Claim 5 A counter server, comprising: a processor; a network interface; non-volatile memory comprising: a counter ledger comprising an immutable table where each entry includes values for fields of: a first timestamp; an operation, where the available values for the operation include at least “delta” and “set”; a first plurality of dimensions, each dimension restricted to values having a particular data type; and a first at least one counter state, each counter state restricted to values that are numerical; a counter analytics application that, when executed, instructs the processor to: receive a counter snapshot request from a client device, where the counter snapshot request includes at least a first plurality of dimension values; when the counter snapshot request does not include an “on the fly” flag: read a latest counter snapshot from an immutable snapshot ledger, where the latest counter snapshot has the most recent timestamp of counter snapshots in the snapshot ledger; send the latest counter snapshot to the client device; when the counter snapshot request includes an “on the fly” flag: reading a latest counter snapshot from a snapshot ledger, where the latest counter snapshot has the most recent timestamp of counter snapshots in the snapshot ledger; select counter entries from the counter ledger for compaction given a second plurality of dimension values, where the counter entries are selected by having dimension values matching those of the second plurality of dimension values and having a timestamp after the time of the latest counter snapshot; generate a new counter snapshot from the latest counter snapshot and the selected counter entries in the counter ledger at a predefined time interval, where the new counter snapshot includes: the second plurality of dimension values; a second timestamp taken from the most recent timestamp of the selected counter entries; at least one snapshot counter value, where each snapshot counter value is calculated from corresponding counter state values of the selected counter entries and the latest counter snapshot; send the new counter snapshot to the client device. ### Claim 6 A method for maintaining counters in a distributed system, the method comprising: receiving a counter update request, where the counter update request includes at least one counter entry that each includes a timestamp, an operation value, a first plurality of dimension values, and at least one counter value; writing the at least one counter entry to a counter ledger, where the counter ledger comprises an immutable table where each entry includes values for fields of: a first timestamp; an operation, where the available values for the operation include at least “delta” and “set”; a first plurality of dimensions, each dimension restricted to values having a particular data type; and a first at least one counter state, each counter state restricted to values that are numerical; reading a latest counter snapshot from an immutable snapshot ledger, where the latest counter snapshot has the most recent timestamp of counter snapshots in the snapshot ledger; selecting counter entries from the counter ledger for compaction given a second plurality of dimension values, where the counter entries are selected by having dimension values matching those of the second plurality of dimension values and having a timestamp after the time of the latest counter snapshot; generating a new counter snapshot from the latest counter snapshot and the selected counter entries in the counter ledger at a predefined time interval, where the new counter snapshot includes: the second plurality of dimension values; a second timestamp taken from the most recent timestamp of the selected counter entries; at least one snapshot counter value, where each snapshot counter value is calculated from corresponding counter state values of the selected counter entries and the latest counter snapshot; writing the new counter snapshot to the snapshot ledger.