EVL: a typed functional language for event processing

Abstract: We define EVL, a minimal higher-order functional language to deal with generic events. The notion of generic event extends the well-known notion of event traditionally used in a variety of areas, such as database management, concurrency, reactive systems and cybersecurity. Generic events were introduced in the context of a metamodel to specify obligations in access control systems. Event specifications are represented as records and we use polymorphic record types to type events in EVL. We show how the higher-order capabilities of EVL can be used in the context of Complex Event Processing (CEP), to define higher-order parameterised functions that deal with the usual CEP techniques.