An object-oriented design for distributed knowledge-based systems

Many management information systems have requirements that are inherently distributed, either logically or physically. An architecture for distributed knowledge-based systems (DKBS) is presented which satisfies these requirements. A distributed knowledge-base management system (DKBMS) is described which manages the metaknowledge necessary to coordinate multiple local KBSs. The authors propose an object-oriented design for implementing the DKBMS structure and the communication protocol which connects the DKBMS with each of the local KBSs. An example is described where the DKBS architecture is applied to planning research projects within a university. The resulting architecture is compared with previous research in related topics.<>