Extending the RETE Algorithm by Temporal Reasoning

The RETE algorithm is one of the most commonly used algorithms for reasoning in rule-based (knowledge) systems. Although support for temporal constructs would be very convenient for many do- mains, implementations are not yet widespread. This paper is about several methods to expand the traditional RETE algorithms in order to gain basic support for temporal logic constructs. A few promising ap- proaches are discussed and compared with respect to efficiency, memory usage, and implemetation details. The paper is limited on the discussion of temporal logics in RETE networks and does not take temporal logic in other contexts into account.