Abstract
Computer networks are an essential tool for people in business, industries, government, and schools. With the rapid rate of change in network technology and products, and the emergence of highly sophisticated network users, network design has become an increasingly complex task. Although the computer society aims at agreeing to a series of international standards for describing network architectures, the design of a computer network remains an ill-structured problem that lends itself perfectly to expert systems solutions. We propose an expert system that is able to design local area networks meeting the requirements specified by the user. Rules and guidelines pertaining to local area network design are formulated and incorporated into the knowledge base. The system is built on an object-oriented paradigm. The object-oriented approach and the hierarchical rule structure paradigm are discussed. We also employ the blackboard technique through which rules can access dynamic objects conveniently.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
F. Halsall,Data Communication, Computer Networks, and OSI 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1988.
A.S. Tanenbaum,Computer Networks Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
W. Stallings,Data and Computer Communications 2nd ed., MacMillan: New York, 1988.
J. Giarratano and G. Riley,Expert Systems: Principles and Programming PWS-KENT: Boston, MA, 1989.
D.W. Patterson,Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990.
A. Barr and E.A. Feigenbaum,The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 4, Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1989.
P. Jackson,Introduction to Expert System Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1990.
J.L. Fillmer, J.M. Mellichamp, D.M. Miller, and S. Narayanam, “An expert system for wide area network component configuration,”Expert Syst. vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 3–10, 1992.
I.A. Ferguson and D.R. Zlatin, “Knowledge structures for communication networks design and sales,”IEEE Network vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 52–58, 1988.
L. Mantelson, “AI carves inroads: network design, testing and management,”Data Commun. vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 106–123, 1986.
K. Kai-li, “Expert systems in telecommunication network planning and design,” inProc. Ist Int. Conf. Appl. Artif. Intell. Eng. Prob. vol. 2, 1986, pp. 161–164.
Neuron Data Corp.,Nexpert Object User's Guide and Reference Manual, Palo Alto, CA, 1990.
N. Khan, P. Callahan, R. Dube, J. Tsay, and W. Van Dusen, “An engineering approach to model-based trouble-shooting in communication networks,” inProc. IEEE GLOBECOM '87, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 615–621, 1987.
S. Guattery and F.J. Villarreal, “NEMESYS: An expert system for fighting congestion in the long distance network,” inProc. Expert Syst. Gov. Symp., McLean, VA, 1985.
R.O. Yudkin, “ExT: An expert system tester,” inProc. IEEE Inforcom '87, San Francisco, CA, pp. 452–458, 1987.
T.L. Williams, P.J. Orgren, and C.L. Smith, “Diagnosis of multiple faults in a nation-wide communication network,” inProc. 8th Int. Joint Conf. Artif. Intell., Karlsruhe, Germany, pp. 179–181, 1983.
I.A. Ferguson, S. Rabie, J. Kennedy, and D. Peacocke, “A knowledge-based sales assistant for data communication networks,” inProc. IEEE Conf. on Communications, June 1987.
C.E. Clark, “A knowledge-based information display tool for network planning,” inProc. Workshop Integration Expert Systems in Network Operation—IEEE ICC'87, Seattle, WA, 1987.
J.B. Harris, M.W. Humes, J.M. Mellichamp, and O.-J. Kwon, “NESTOR: Network engineering system for topology and requirements,”Expert Syst. vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 134–142, 1988.
S. Bernstein, “DESIGNet: An intelligent system for network design and modelling,” inProc. Workshop Integration of Expert Systems in Network Operation—IEEE ICC'87, Seattle, WA, 1987.
W.D. Zhan, S. Thanawastien, and L.M.L. Delcambre, “SIMNETMAN: An expert workstation for designing rule-based network management systems,”IEEE Network vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 35–42, September 1988.
M. Santifaller,TCP/IP and NFS: Internetworking in a UNIX Environment Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1991.
D. Comer,Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1988.
ISO,OSI: Session Service/Protocol Specification. International Telecommunications Union: Place des Nations, Switzerland, 1985.
IEEE,Standard IEEE 802 Local Area Networks IEEE Publication Services: New York, NY, 1986.
A.V. Aho, J.E. Hopcorft, and J.D. Ullman,The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1974.
R.A. Sherman et al., “Object-oriented programming in AI,”IEEE Expert vol. 6, pp. 6–7, 1990.
M. Stefik and D.G. Bobrow, “Object-oriented programming: Themes and variations,”AI Mag. vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 40–62, 1986.
M.H. Ibrahim and S.W. Woyak, “An object-oriented environment for multiple AI paradigms,” inProc. IEEE Conf. Tools Artif. Intell., Herndon, VA, 1990, pp. 77–83.
D. Bobrow et al., “Common Loops: merging common lisp and object-oriented programming,” inProc. ACM Conf. Object-Oriented Syst. Lang. Appl., Portland, OR, 1986, pp. 17–29.
T. Bar-David,Object-Oriented Design for C + + PTR Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1993.
B. Liskov, “Data abstraction and hierarchy,” inProc. Conf. Object-Oriented Programming Syst. Lang. Appl., Orlando, FL, 1987.
V. Jagannathan, R. Dodhiawala, and L.S. Baum,Blackboard Architecture and Application. Academic Press: New York, 1989.
R.S. Englemore and T. Morgan,Blackboard Systems Addison Wesley: Reading, MA, 1988.
L. Zadeh, “Fuzzy logic,”IEEE Computer vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 83–93, 1988.
C.V. Negoita,Expert Systems and Fuzzy Systems Benjamin/Cummings: Menlo Park, CA, 1985.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, SJ., Wu, CH. A knowledge-based approach to the local area network design problem. Appl Intell 4, 7–29 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872053
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872053