Predicting the response time of OPS5-style production systems

This paper focuses on the response time analysis problem: the problem of determining a priori the maximal response time or response time upper bound of a given program. We study this problem in the context of OPS5 production systems. The response time of a program is investigated in two respects: the maximal number of rule firings and the maximal number of basic comparisons made by the Rete network during the execution. The execution of a program always terminates in bounded time if this program satisfies one of certain conditions. The present four of these conditions for OPS5 production systems. An algorithm used to compute an upper bound on the number of rule firings is given. Furthermore, to have a better idea on the time required during the execution, we present an algorithm to compute the maximal time required during the match phase in terms of the number of comparisons made by the Rete network