Tim Bass
08-16-2008 02:11 AM
Sometimes we read some opinions about CEP where folks*opine that*”complex event processing” is really about processing “complex events” and not about “complex” “event processing”.** The truth be told, processing “complex events” requires “complex” “event processing” so there is really no difference between the two ways of expressing CEP.

You can not process complex events in some very simple way and expect to get accurate results.* You need knowledge, represented by*one or more*situational*models, to process complex events.

Some folks, like to say that a “complex event” is simply an event which is an aggregation of two more more event objects.*** If you follow this (flawed) logic, then counting integers is complex event processing; because 1 plus 1 is 2, and 2 is an aggregation of 1 and 1, so 2 is a complex event (not!).**

Since we know that counting is not a complex processing operation, then some folks would say that you can process complex events with very simple operations because you are processing complex events , in the case adding 1 to the previous number (counting), enriching an event object.

This is simply nonsense.

The logic flaw is that the basic definition of a “complex event” (used*by many*people)*is wrong.** A complex event is not simply an event object with two more more events as sub-components.*

A complex event is when two event objects are*combined (processed)*to*form a complex object*with a*higher degree of inference, or situational knowledge.** One plus one equals more than two in complex event processing, because the combination of event objects requires knowledge (e.g. a*situational model).

A Complex Event = Sum (EventsObjects) + Situational Knowledge

Let there be no mistake about it.****Complex event processing is the complex processing of complex events.***You cannot accurately process complex events with simple*event processing models.

The simple processing of complex events is not CEP, it is simple event processing (event track-and-trace, simple event object enrichment,*simple event object aggregation, and so forth).
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