# System Basics
The overall goal of our ArdenSuite software is to offer tools for the representation and processing of medical knowledge based on a standardized syntax. For this purpose, we developed the ArdenSuite Engine. The ArdenSuite Engine fully implements Health Level Seven (HL7) International's Arden Syntax specification, and executes so called medical logic modules (MLMs) written in Arden Syntax. The ArdenSuite Server is built around this engine in order to enable service-oriented access for arbitrary client applications. Additionally, the ArdenSuite Server allows easy management of MLMs and compiled knowledge files using our Arden Syntax compiler, which is part of the ArdenSuite.
The ArdenSuite Server can be further characterized by the following features:
- Concurrency: The ArdenSuite Server can handle concurrent calls from outside by executing the respective MLMs in parallel or by scheduling them according to priority.
- Multiple executions: The ArdenSuite Server permits the execution of multiple MLMs with a single call.
- Asynchronous calls: A requesting instance may use the ArdenSuite Server to call an MLM and retrieve the results of the execution later.
- Programming language independence: By providing an external interface that communicates with the environment via standardized web-service protocols, our implementation is programming-language-independent.
We developed several connectors for the ArdenSuite Server (Database Connector, FHIR Connector, OpenEHR Connector). These connectors allow to access data from different types of data sources from within MLM files using curly brace expressions.
Via our REST, SOAP, and CDS Hooks web service interfaces, MLMs and events can be triggered and MLMs are provided with input parameters. Thus, the ArdenSuite Server can be easily integrated into existing infrastructure, regardless of the used programing language. Institutions can therefore simply add CDS components to their systems using the ArdenSuite. The figure below illustrates communication using SOAP with an MLM deployed on the ArdenSuite Server:
