A Decentralized Solution for Combinatorial Testing of Access Control Engine

In distributed environments, information security is a key factor and access control is an important means to guarantee confidentiality of sensitive and valuable data. In this paper, we introduce a new decentralized framework for testing of XACML-based access control engines. The proposed framework is composed of different web services and provides the following functionalities: I) generation of test cases based on combinatorial testing strategies; ii) decentralized oracle that associates the expected result to a given test case, i.e. an XACML request; and finally, iii) a GUI for interacting with the framework and providing some analysis about the expected results. A first validation confirms the efficiency of the proposed approach

A theoretical and computational basis for CATNETS

The main content of this report is the identification and definition of market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. These build the theoretical foundation for the work within the following two years of the CATNETS project. --Grid Computing

Theoretical and Computational Basis for Economical Ressource Allocation in Application Layer Networks - Annual Report Year 1

This paper identifies and defines suitable market mechanisms for Application Layer Networks (ALNs). On basis of the structured Market Engineering process, the work comprises the identification of requirements which adequate market mechanisms for ALNs have to fulfill. Subsequently, two mechanisms for each, the centralized and the decentralized case are described in this document. --Grid Computing

Environmental analysis for application layer networks

Die zunehmende Vernetzung von Rechnern über das Internet lies die Vision von Application Layer Netzwerken aufkommen. Sie umfassen Overlay Netzwerke wie beispielsweise Peer-to-Peer Netzwerke und Grid Infrastrukturen unter Verwendung des TCP/IP Protokolls. Ihre gemeinsame Eigenschaft ist die redundante, verteilte Bereitstellung und der Zugang zu Daten-, Rechen- und Anwendungsdiensten, während sie die Heterogenität der Infrastruktur vor dem Nutzer verbergen. In dieser Arbeit werden die Anforderungen, die diese Netzwerke an ökonomische Allokationsmechanismen stellen, untersucht. Die Analyse erfolgt anhand eines Marktanalyseprozesses für einen zentralen Auktionsmechanismus und einen katallaktischen Markt. --Grid Computing

Decentralized Coalition Formation with Agent-based Combinatorial Heuristics

A steadily growing pervasion of the energy distribution grid with communication technology is widely seen as an enabler for new computational coordination techniques for renewable, distributed generation as well as for bundling with controllable consumers. Smart markets will foster a decentralized grid management. One important task as prerequisite to decentralized management is the ability to group together in order to jointly gain enough suitable flexibility and capacity to assume responsibility for a specific control task in the grid. In self-organized smart grid scenarios, grouping or coalition formation has to be achieved in a decentralized and situation aware way based on individual capabilities. We present a fully decentralized coalition formation approach based on an established agent-based heuristics for predictive scheduling with the additional advantage of keeping all information about local decision base and local operational constraints private. Two closely interlocked optimization processes orchestrate an overall procedure that adapts a coalition structure to best suit a given set of energy products. The approach is evaluated in several simulation scenarios with different type of established models for integrating distributed energy resources and is also extended to the induced use case of surplus distribution using basically the same algorithm