Project Title:

Fault-Tolerant Distributed Knowledge Bases

06.03-8265
Fault-Tolerant Distributed Knowledge Bases
ISX Corporation
501 Main Street, Suite 214
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
Scott Fouse  (805-495-8265)
ARC -- NAS2-12777

Abstract:

	 As organizations have increased their dependency on computers, many databases have
been developed, and the computers containing the databases have been linked together
via networks. The innovative aspect of this project is to extend the capabilities
of a formalized, knowledge-representation substrate, which is capable of supporting
existing and developing knowledge representation techniques, to handle distributed
data storage and information processing. The project objectives are to create algorithms
to perform remote procedure calls, to access distributed databases, to maintain consistency
of distributed databases, and to balance the load of the processing activities of
a computer network.
	Phase I has shown that the use of data-driven programming techniques is appropriate
for distributed processing applications. The proper method for maintaining both the
consistency and redundancy of information in a distributed environment is by using
demons that encapsulate a "behavioral law" which reacts to changes in the database.
There is no single appropriate method for distributing information in a network.
The use of a rule-based system is a good way to implement the load-balancing strategy
for a distributed database.
	Note: ISX Corporation has acquired the rights to continue Phase II of this project
from Teknowledge Federal Systems, who received the Phase I award.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Application: A general software tool for the management of distributed,
fault-tolerant, intelligent systems is in wide demand for applications where reliability
is crucial and intelligent behavior is needed, e.g., Space Station and autonomous
systems.