Method and apparatus for situation-based management
First Claim
1. A method for providing situation-based management, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a collection of events by an event correlator process running on a machine;
reducing multiple occurrences of identical events in the collection of events into a single representative event of the identical events;
assigning additional contextual information to the single representative event to indicate multiple occurrences of the identical events;
inferring a new event or a new quality of an event from the collection of events by the event correlator process;
providing the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event to a situation manager process running on a machine;
determining, with the situation manager process, if an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event;
when an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event, updating the existing situation with information from the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event; and
when an existing situation does not correspond to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event;
creating a new situation based, at least in part, on the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event by the situation manager process, wherein creating the situation includes matching the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event with a collection of situation templates in a situation template library, selecting one or more situation templates from the collection of situation templates, and populating the one or more selected situation templates with information from the collection of events and the inferred new event or the new quality of an event to create the new situation; and
organizing the situation template library to include the new situation.
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for situation-based management of natural and artificial systems using event correlation and a situation manager. Input is provided from multiple sources in the form of a collection of events. A first level of processing performs event correlation over the collection of events and infers new events and new qualities of events. A second level of processing manages situations based on the collection of events, where situations are recognized, maintained, and given a degree of confidence. Situations are periodically updated based on incoming events. The assertion of a situation may call for information from external sources, provide information for external sources, and provide control instructions to external sources. Given a current situation, past, and possible future situations are inferred. Additionally, a method and apparatus for bi-directional communication between the event correlator and situation manager.
45 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for providing situation-based management, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a collection of events by an event correlator process running on a machine; reducing multiple occurrences of identical events in the collection of events into a single representative event of the identical events; assigning additional contextual information to the single representative event to indicate multiple occurrences of the identical events; inferring a new event or a new quality of an event from the collection of events by the event correlator process; providing the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event to a situation manager process running on a machine; determining, with the situation manager process, if an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event; when an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event, updating the existing situation with information from the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event; and when an existing situation does not correspond to the collection of events and the new event or the new quality of an event; creating a new situation based, at least in part, on the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event by the situation manager process, wherein creating the situation includes matching the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event with a collection of situation templates in a situation template library, selecting one or more situation templates from the collection of situation templates, and populating the one or more selected situation templates with information from the collection of events and the inferred new event or the new quality of an event to create the new situation; and organizing the situation template library to include the new situation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 16)
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6. An apparatus comprising:
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a memory to store a collection of situation templates; and a first processor running an event correlator process to infer a new event or a new quality of an event from a collection of events; and a second processor running a situation manager process operatively coupled to the event correlator process to receive as an input the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event provided by the event correlator process, the situation manager process including the operations of; determining if an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event; when an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event, updating the existing situation with information from the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event; when an existing situation does not correspond to the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event, creating a new situation based, at least in part, on the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event, wherein creating the new situation includes matching the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event with the collection of situation templates stored in the memory, selecting one or more situation templates from the collection of situation templates, and populating the one or more selected situation templates with information from the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event to create the new situation; wherein the event correlator process is further configured to cause the first processor to;
reduce multiple occurrences of identical events in the collection of events into a single representative event of the identical events and to assign context information to the single representative event to indicate the multiple occurrences of the identical events. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15)
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14. A situation-based management system comprising:
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at least one sensor to provide one or more events; and data processing equipment coupled to the at least one sensor to receive the one or more events;
wherein the data processing equipment infers a new event or a new quality of an event from the one or more events provided by the at least one sensor;wherein the data processing equipment is configured to determine if an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event; wherein the data processing equipment is configured to update the existing situation with information from the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event when an existing situation corresponds to the collection of events and the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event; when an existing situation does not correspond to the one or more events and the new event or the new quality of an event, the data processing equipment is further operable to create a new situation based, at least in part, on the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event by matching the inferred new event or the inferred new quality of an event with a collection of situation templates, selecting one or more situation templates from the collection of situation templates; and
populating the one or more selected situation templates with information from the one or more events and the new event or the new quality of an event to create the new situation;wherein the data processing equipment is further configured to;
reduce multiple occurrences of identical events in the one or more events into a single representative event of the identical events; and
assign context information to the single representative event to indicate that the identical events happened more than once.
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Specification