An event detection algebra for reactive systems

In reactive systems, execution is driven by external events to which the system should respond with appropriate actions. Such events can be simple, but systems are often supposed to react to sophisticated situations involving a number of simpler events occurring in accordance with some pattern. A systematic approach to handle this type of systems is to separate the mechanism for detecting composite events from the rest of the application logic. In this paper, we present an event algebra for composite event detection. We show a number of algebraic laws that facilitate formal reasoning, and justify the algebra semantics by showing to what extent the operators comply with intuition. Finally, we present an implementation of the algebra, and identify a large subset of expressions for which detection can be performed with bounded resources. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: EMSOFT
• Authors: Jan Carlson, Björn Lisper
• Keywords: Composite Event, Composite Event Detection, EMSOFT 2004, Reactive Systems