Patent ID: 7171400
Filing Date: 2007-01-30
Classification: G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A system for dynamically determining a set of relevant rule instances based on a set of context attribute values and a hierarchically organized rule data store, comprising: a directory server of rule instances having hierarchical structure; an attribute data store of said rule instances optimized to provide a set of hierarchically relevant context attribute values, based on the set of context attribute values; and a rules engine configured to provide the set of context attribute values to the attribute data store, and to determine a set of relevant rule instances, based on the hierarchically relevant context attribute values from the attribute data store, and to resolve conflicts between the set of relevant rule instances using directed acyclic graph(DAG) conflict resolution strategy comprising the steps: placing the set of relevant rule instances in a DAG based hierarchy based on a most significant role as determined by static role ordering wherein rule instances with identical role values will occupy an identical DAG node (multiple value node); for each DAG node having multiple values, forming the rule instances at that node repetitively according to a second most significant role until each DAG node possess either a single role value or multiple role values that are duplicates: for each DAG node having multiple duplicate values, forming a common child DAG node by applying duplicate resolution strategy; for each DAG having multiple parents, inserting a new parent DAG node creating a single child DAG node having a child DAG node value; and evaluating each parent DAG node beginning at the single DAG child node using recursive evaluation wherein recursive evaluation comprises combining parent DAG node values when there is more than one parent DAG node, and, when there is a single parent DAG node, combining a single parent DAG node value to the child DAG node value using inheritance resolution strategy.