Definition of configuration design
Configuration design can be viewed as the selection of components
and the composition of these components into a final artefact in
order to provide a required functionality of the constructed
artefact. Various predefined sets of components with given
characteristics are available. Only (some of) these components
can participate in the final artefact design. The components can
be interconnected in different ways, predefined in advance.
From the designer's point of view not all solutions providing the
required functionality of the artefact are equal. The designer
gives priority to the design which is the best from some
viewpoint,
i.e. it optimizes some function representing this viewpoint.
Configuration design problem structure
The structure basicaly consists of:
Solving configuration design problems
To solve the configuration design problem means to assign a value
to each active parameter in such a way that no active constraint
is violated. Basicaly, it represents searching in
state space
which can be carried out using different methods.