Compare Input Messages with the Classifiers

The classifier list is at the heart of a CS. Each classifier is a string of characters that can be interpreted as a rule, cast in the form if condition THEN action . Following the style of Riolo s classifiers, we shall write a classifier as  

The condition part of the classifier is constructed from the ternary alphabet [o, l, ], so each of the following is a valid condition string  

A classifier (often) contains more than one condition and (rarely) contains more than one action, thus the most general form of a classifier is 

the input message 01101 matches each of the conditions 01101 oi i and but does not match mo. Note that the presence of the identifier tag at the start of a message and the requirement that this must match the corresponding digits in the classifier conditions means that some classifiers will match and, therefore, deal with only messages from a particular probe. 

Multiple condition classifiers are satisfied only when all of the conditions are met by messages on the current input list. It is not necessary that the different conditions are satisfied by different messages, although they may be. Thus, the message 11001 will satisfy both conditions in the classifier no, l 01/action. 

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