Decomposing and Distributing Configuration Problems

In the present work the issue of decomposing and distributing a configuration problem is approached in a framework where the domain knowledge is represented in a structured way by using a KL-One like language, where whole-part relations play a major role in defining the structure of the configurable objects. The representation formalism provides also a constraint language for expressing complex relations among components and subcomponents. The paper presents a notion of boundness among constraints which specifies when two components can be independently configured. Boundness is the basis for partitioning constraints and such a partitioning induces a decomposition of the configuration problem into independent subproblems that are distributed to a pool of configurators to be solved in parallel. Preliminary experimental results in the domain of PC configuration showing the effectiveness of the decomposition technique in a sequential approach to configuration are also presented.