CHAPTER 3
First Concepts in Event Processing
This chapter introduces some of the most basic concepts in event processing:
- Events
- Event clouds
- Layers of events
- Event streams
- Three terms in event processing: EP, ESP, and CEP
- Patterns of events
- Event hierarchies
- Complex event processing
Complex event processing (CEP) is the logical and obvious next step in the applications of event processing that are described in Chapter 2 and illustrated in Figure 2.7. CEP is a set of concepts and principles for processing high-level events—business events, for example. It describes the kind of modern event processing that is needed to support the management levels of today’s business enterprise. There are many different ways to implement these concepts by means of tools and applications.
This chapter is about some of the basic concepts of CEP, how they were first used in the early commercial applications, and examples of how they are being applied commercially today. We also introduce two other common terms used in referring to the processing of events today, EP and ESP.
New Technology Begets New Problems
By the late 1980s, communication by higher-level events had become the basis for running enterprises everywhere—in business, in government, and in the military. Any large enterprise had linked its applications across the networks from office to office, sometimes around the globe. It now operated on top of what was referred to as “the IT layer”—a layered system of software and hardware for transporting ...
