Formalizing Complex Event Processing Systems in Maude

Complex event processing (CEP) is a cutting-edge technology for analyzing and correlating streams of information about events that happen in a system, and deriving conclusions from them. CEP permits defining complex events based on the events produced by the incoming sources, to identify complex meaningful circumstances and to respond to them as quickly as possible. Such event types and patterns are defined using event processing languages. However, as the complexity of CEP programs grows, they become difficult to understand and to prove correct. This paper proposes a formal framework for the specification of CEP applications, using rewriting logic and Maude, to allow developers to formally analyze and prove properties of their CEP programs. Several case studies are presented to illustrate the approach, as well as a discussion on the benefits of using Maude and its toolkit for modeling and analyzing CEP systems.