Managing uncertainty in location services using rough set and evidence theory

Uncertainty in service management stems from the incompleteness and vagueness of the conditioning attributes that characterize a service. In particular, location based services often have complex interaction mechanisms in terms of their neighborhood relationships. Classical location service models require rigorous parameters and conditioning attributes and offers limited flexibility to incorporate imprecise or ambiguous evidences. In this paper we have developed a formal model of uncertainty in service management. We have developed a rough set and Dempster–Shafer’s evidence theory based formalism to objectively represent uncertainty inherent in the process of service discovery, characterization, and classification. Rough set theory is ideally suited for dealing with limited resolution, vague and incomplete information, while Dempster–Shafer’s evidence theory provides a consistent approach to model an expert’s belief and ignorance in the classification decision process. Integrating these two formal approaches in spatial domain provides a way to model an expert’s belief and ignorance in service classification. In an application scenario of the model we have used a cognitive map of retail site assessment, which reflects the partially subjective assessment process. The uncertainty hidden in the cognitive map can be consistently formalized using the proposed model. Thus we provide a naturalistic means of incorporating both qualitative aspects of intuitive knowledge as well as hard empirical information for service management within a formal uncertainty framework.