Description Logic in Practice: A CLASSIC Application

Descr ipt ion logic-based configurat ion applications have been used w i t h i n A T & T since 1990 to process over two and a half b i l l ion dollars wor th of orders. Whi le this fami ly of applications[4] has widely acknowledged importance, it is di f f icul t to use for pedagogical purposes since the typical product configured is a highly interconnected, complicated technical piece of equipment like the DACS IV -2000 . 1 We have developed a smaller-scale configurat ion appl icat ion that has analogous reasoning processes but a more approachable domain—that of bui ld ing home theater systems. Th is appl icat ion provides a p la t form for expla in ing how Descr ipt ion Logic-based Systems (DLSs) work, in our case the C L A S S I C knowledge representation system[ l ] , and how they can support industr ia l applications like conf igurat ion.