BiCA-LI: A Cross-Attention Multi-Task Deep Learning Model for Time Series Forecasting and Anomaly Detection in IDC Equipment

To accurately monitor the operational state of Internet Data Centers (IDCs) and fulfill integrated management objectives, this paper introduces a bidirectional cross-attention LSTM–Informer with uncertainty-aware multi-task learning framework (BiCA-LI) for time series analysis. The architecture employs dual-branch temporal encoders—long short-term memory (LSTM) and Informer—to extract local transient dynamics and global long-term dependencies, respectively. A bidirectional cross-attention module is subsequently designed to synergistically fuse multi-scale temporal representations. Finally, task-specific regression and classification heads generate predictive outputs and anomaly detection results, while an uncertainty-aware dynamic loss weighting strategy adaptively balances task-specific gradients during training. Experimental results validate BiCA-LI’s superior performance across dual objectives. In regression tasks, it achieves an MAE of 0.086, MSE of 0.014, and RMSE of 0.117. For classification, the model attains 99.5% accuracy, 100% precision, and an AUC score of 0.950, demonstrating substantial improvements over standalone LSTM and Informer baselines. The dual-encoder design, coupled with cross-modal attention fusion and gradient-aware loss optimization, enables robust joint modeling of heterogeneous temporal patterns. This methodology establishes a scalable paradigm for intelligent IDC operations, enabling real-time anomaly mitigation and resource orchestration in energy-intensive infrastructures.