Rule management for integration of information systems

Abstract

This paper proposes an integration approach that extends a global operation model with the rules for integration of various information systems in an information-driven CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) environment. A declarative rule language, which follows the ECA (event, condition, and action) paradigm, is introduced. The rule language allows powerful event specifications and has rich rule execution semantics. Hence, active rules satisfying the needs of various applications such as business rules, integrity constraint management, access control, alerting and configuration management in a HAD (heterogeneous, autonomous and distributed) environment will enable integration of applications without semantic loss. A rule management system (RMS) architecture that extends the Object Management Group (OMG) object model, which is selected as the underlying global operation model, with the proposed rule language and a prototype system based on the architecture are also described. With the proposed rule language and RMS, heterogeneous information systems can be integrated along with the application knowledge. Further, passive and isolated information systems can be changed to active and integrated information systems through the reactive behavior of the rules supported by the proposed approach.