AN INTEGRATED KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATION-NETWORK DESIGN

In this paper we provide the design of a knowledge-based system (KBS) for integrating the communication network design problem. The most important part of network design is requirements engineering. The KBS uses expert judgment and past experience of the analyst to provide default values for systems parameters. The default parameters can be overridden by the customer and the analyst, using the menu-driven interactive user interface in the KBS. The KBS also consists of expert judgments to choose from among several optimization tools for designing and analyzing the network once the user requirements are known. The architecture of the system is hierarchical using a combination of rules and frames-and-slots.