Predit: A temporal predictive framework for scheduling systems

Scheduling can be formalized as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). Within this framework activities belonging to a plan are interconnected via temporal constraints that account for slack among them. Temporal representation must include methods for constraints propagation and provide a logic for symbolic and numerical deductions. In this paper we describe a support framework for opportunistic reasoning in constraint directed scheduling. In order to focus the attention of an incremental scheduler on critical problem aspects, some discrete temporal indexes are presented. They are also useful for the prediction of the degree of resources contention. The predictive method expressed through our indexes can be seen as a Knowledge Source for an opportunistic scheduler with a blackboard architecture.