A Knowware Based Infrastructure for Rule Based Control Systems in Smart Spaces

Abstract

Many software systems are designed for realising some business logics which can be captured and represented as a set of logic rules, such as the logic rules for controlling devices in smart spaces. These logic rules in traditional software systems are usually coded in procedural style and interweaved with other elements of software such as the interface implementation etc. As we know, the logic rules are usually needed to be changed or updated frequently according to changing environment conditions and software requirements. However, mix of the logic rules and other elements makes it difficult to change and update the logic rules. Therefore, we propose a new infrastructure to separate the logic rules from the interweaved elements. In our infrastructure, the logic rules can be encapsulated as a knowware. The knowware is deployed in a reasoner as an independent component, which can interact with other parts of the system. By this way, the logic rules can be easily changed or updated as an independent component of the software system according to changing environment conditions and software requirements.