United States Patent [191 Kung

[54] KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION FOR EXPERT SYSTEM 1

['15] [131

[211

[221

Inventor: Ching Y. Kung, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Assignee:

Appl. No.:

Filed:

Racal-Datacom, Inc., Sunrise, Fla.

802,113 Dec. 4, 1991 '

Related U.S. Application Data

[62] Division of Ser. No. 5,159,685, Oct. 27, 1992.

[51] [52] [58]

Int. Cl.5 ............................................ .. G06F 15/18

U.S. Cl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 395/75; 395/911

Field of Search ..................... .. 395/75, 76, 50, 12, 395/51, 911, 912, 914, 916

References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,752,889 6/1988 Rappaport et a1. ............... .. 364/513 4,763,277 8/1988 Ashford et a1. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 364/513

4,920,499 4/ 1990 Skeirik .............................. . . 364/513

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Gevarter, W. B., “The Nature and Evaluation of Com mercial Expert System Building Tools,” Computer,

[56]

-May 1987, 2441.

Illlllllllllll||||ll||lllllIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll USOO5295230A

Patent Number: 5,295,230 Date of Patent: Mar. 15, 1994

[11]

[45]

Johnson et 211., Expert Systems Architectures, Kogan Page Limited, Jun. 27, 1988. Slagle, J. R., “Applications of a Generalized Networ k-Based Expert System Shell,” Proc. Symp. on the Engineering of Computer-Based Medical Systems, Jun. 1988,,33-42. Na et al., “The Design of an Object-Oriented Modular Expert System Shell,” Proc. 1990 Symp. on Applied Computing, Apr. 1990, 109-118. Primary Examiner-Michael R. Fleming Assistant Examiner-—Robert W. Downs Attorney, Agent, or Finn-William A. Newton

[57] xnsrmcr An Expert System for providing diagnostics to a data communications network. Expert information is en tered using a user friendly User Interface which reduces need for the participation of a Knowledge Engineer. The User Interface including a template for entering a plurality of attributes for a hypothesis tree node. Among the attributes are an identi?er for identifying a second node connected to the hypothesis tree node by a branch of a hypothesis tree. If the second node has not been de?ned, it is added to and displayed in, a list of unde?ned nodes. Once all attributes for a template are completed, an identi?er for the hypothesis tree node is added to and displayed in a list of de?ned nodes.

16 Claims, 33 Drawing Sheets

UNDEFINED DEFINED , FIDD Rggg" NODES NoDEs NoDE INFO

OPY MODIFY m w 5on5 mm W, M“, ,, , , TYPE

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rs-n: Mm 1308/ TO LORD CHHNGE UPDRTE MODE-ID: M M TEST HLHRM lZUE-TO-OR-NODE: Mm WWW MODE HFIP IIJE-TO—CONDITIONS:(MMM)I __> M RUN YES-WEE: M / MW RUN ONE PRE-DESCRIPTION:"/\n/l~ M” 1304/ M B B

- LORD K.S. shqius RESUME

HHS-TE EVENT/ CONCLUSION-IF-TRUE: 131E HLHRM EXIT CONCLUSION-IF-FRLSE : STRTUS FORGET: \\ I'ELP: 1312 7\

HTTRIBUTES TEMPLHTE 1302

US. Patent Mar. 15, 1994 Sheet 4 of 33 5,295,230

FILHRM EVENT IN 135

_\ SCHEDULED BY Q) 1,38 CONTROLLER 4566

Q. 13? Q8324’

SUSPENDED - BY TEST MHNHGER

SUSPEND ED

RESUMED _BY OPERFITOR

PHUSED BY OPERFITOR

‘40 F I G . 4

US. Patent Mar. 15, 1994 Sheet 6 of as I 5,295,230

I FIDD NODE I’ 15B

19C] GET NHME OF NODE TO HDD ' W

192 GET TYPE OF NODE TO HDD I’

GET REMHINING HTTRIBUTES OF NODE OF SELECTED TYPE (GO TO 210)

194

196 IS NHME

ON LIST OF UNDEFINED

NODES YES

REMOVE NHME FROM LIST OF 198 UNDEFINED NODES

T UPDHTE POINTERS TO NODE 200

FIG.6

' US. Patent

210\

Mar. 15, 1994 Sheet 7 of 33 5,295,230

GET NODE HTTRIBUTES

-225\ re

SET HTTRIBUTE T0 HDUQESS OF POINTED-TO

POINTED T0 POINTED-TO

FIG.7 ' HDD POINTED-TO T0

LNDEFINED LIST

US. Patent Mar. 15, 1994

MODIFY N0DE 158 INFORMFITION

TO MODIFY GET NPME OF NoDE ‘255

_ OF NoDE DETERMINE TYPE ‘257

GET REMHINING 288 HTTRIBUTES OF NoDE

GO TO 152 {270

F I G . 8

MODIFY NoDE TYPE P159

TO MODIFY GET NRME OF N0DE ‘£84

GET NEN NoDE TYPE [288

NODE TYPE

296 RETURN

GET REMHINING HTTRIBUTES OF NEW 294

(GO TO 210)

FIG. 9

Sheet 8 of 33 5,295,230

FIG.10_ 16R DELETE N0DE|

GET NFIME OF NODE TO DELETE

310\

REMOVE NHME 318\ FROM LIST OF

DEFINED NODES

DELETE Ru. SUCH HTTRIBUTES

328% RETURN )

US. Patent 'Mar.15,1994 Sheet 9 of 33 5,295,230

‘ COPY NODE |/154

GET NHME OF NODE TO COPY (SOURCE 4/340

GET NHME 0F NODE TO COPY (THRGET) P345

SET THRGET FITTRIBUTES T0 SHME 354 VHLUES as SOURCE HTTRIBUTES

H'TTRIBUTES OF THRGET GO TO 210 TO ENFIBLE EDITING OF' I ,355

NF'lME ON LIST OF'

/360 REMOVE THRGET FROM LIST OF' UNDEFINED NODESI

UPDHTE POINTERS TO THRGET 352

FIG.11

US. Patent Mar. 15, 1994 Sheet 10 of 33 5,295,230

366

388

OR

MULTI-DROP CENTRFIL.

RLF 37C]

P-to—P CENTRHL. I I \

374 OR RLF ' I \

0 OR

OR

| % I 378

> i 380

382 CENTRFIL

YES RESEPONDS No

M5 384\ FIUTO TEST MFINUHL TEST

DCD DCD

FIG. 12