In order to have a mental picture of what framework based solution might look like while we describe the various elements of the concept, the figure below illustrates at a relatively high level the kinds of components that might be applied and a typical way they might be employed. The basic concept of the framework is a collection of reasoning nodes and a number of infrastructure elements. Each of the reasoning nodes consist of some form of processing technology wrapped in a common interface for operation within the framework. The infrastructure elements are comprised of an ontology support mechanism, a service oriented process flow for defining and controlling the relationships between the processing elements, and an external interface for supporting integration with other systems or a presentation (UI) capability.
