A decentralized knowledge-based maintenance system for rural telephone exchanges

The authors describe a knowledge-based maintenance system for the Delft rural telephone system (DRTS), a nonhierarchical network of decentralized controlled interconnected nodes. They give an outline of the considerations that led to the implementation of a new approach to maintenance. First, the requirements for distributed diagnosis and control by means of a knowledge-based system are discussed. In the second part these requirements are translated to nodal hardware and software constraints and demands. Finally the present implementation and the future topics of development are reported on.<
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