E-DEVICE: An Extensible Active Knowledge Base System with Multiple Rule Type Support

This paper describes E-DEVICE, an extensible active knowledge base system (KBS) that supports the processing of event-driven, production, and deductive rules into the same active OODB system. E-DEVICE provides the infrastructure for the smooth integration of various declarative rule types, such as production and deductive rules, into an active OODB system that supports low-level event-driven rules only by a) mapping each declarative rule into one event-driven rule, offering centralized rule selection control for correct run-time behavior and conflict resolution, and b) using complex events to map the conditions of declarative rules and monitor the database to incrementally match those conditions. E-DEVICE provides the infrastructure for easily extending the system by adding a) new rule types as subtypes of existing ones and b) transparent optimizations to the rule matching network. The resulting system is a flexible, yet efficient, KBS that gives the user the ability to express knowledge in a variety of high-level forms for advanced problem solving in data intensive applications.