Configuration Management for Distributed Software Services

The paper describes the SysMan approach to interactive configuration management of distributed software components (objects). Domains are used to group objects to apply policy and for convenient naming of objects. Configuration Management involves using a domain browser to locate relevant objects within the domain service; creating new objects which form a distributed service; allocating these objects to physical nodes in the system and binding the interfaces of the objects to each other and to existing services. Dynamic reconfiguration of the objects forming a service can be accomplished using this tool. Authorisation policies specify which domains are accessible by which managers and which interfaces can be bound together. Keywords Domains, object creation, object binding, object allocation, graphical management interface. 1 INTRODUCTION The object-oriented approach brings considerable benefits to the design and implementation of software for distributed systems (Kramer 1992). Con..

A formalized object oriented user driven approach using business forms

Although object-orientation exhibits many promises, there exists many fundamental areas that need to be addressed. Two of these areas are the widespread acceptance of the object mindset, and interactive user involvement in the object oriented business system development process. First, the mindset must grow and be extended not only by the engineering industry but also by the ever expanding service industry. Second, effective, efficient, flexible user driven tools must be developed, in the form of development approaches to reduce the reliance on scarce human resources. In order to accomplish both areas, the technology user is the key element. This research in progress concentrates on the development of a formalized business form user-driven approach using an object oriented analysis view. The resulting analysis produces an initial conceptual object model that is used by the users and designers for further object analysis, object design, design evolution, and object oriented application domain identification

A diagnostic service tool using FMEA

The use of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as the basis for a Diagnostic Service Tool (DST) is discussed in the context of Design for Service. Designers are assisted in developing diagnostic service tools early in the design process rather than this being a post-production activity. A system for computerised interactive FMEA generation from FMEA elements has been created by enhancing an existing object-oriented FMEA model to generate the FMEA elements and Diagnostic FMEA. The use of an object-oriented FMEA environment and FMEA object libraries promotes the reuse of information and increases data availability for diagnostic tool development. The Diagnostic Service Tool (DST) uses existing failure mode data to determine further characteristics of the failure of parts. The prototype software has been evaluated in a field service application using four automatic transmission problem cases. There was significant difference in repair times between the use of conventional repair manuals and DST. The research has demonstrated that the prototype software is successful in providing effective field service tools and suggests a method of providing feedback to the designer. In this way knowledge sharing between engineering and field service can be continuous and provide a significant improvement in product development. The approach has validity across many domains but has so far only been evaluated in the context of automotive systems and in particular automatic transmissions. Application in other areas would require substantial efforts in knowledge acquisition but the same general methods would be used

Applications of agent architectures to decision support in distributed simulation and training systems

This work develops the approach and presents the results of a new model for applying intelligent agents to complex distributed interactive simulation for command and control. In the framework of tactical command, control communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), software agents provide a novel approach for efficient decision support and distributed interactive mission training. An agent-based architecture for decision support is designed, implemented and is applied in a distributed interactive simulation to significantly enhance the command and control training during simulated exercises. The architecture is based on monitoring, evaluation, and advice agents, which cooperate to provide alternatives to the dec ision-maker in a time and resource constrained environment. The architecture is implemented and tested within the context of an AWACS Weapons Director trainer tool. The foundation of the work required a wide range of preliminary research topics to be covered, including real-time systems, resource allocation, agent-based computing, decision support systems, and distributed interactive simulations. The major contribution of our work is the construction of a multi-agent architecture and its application to an operational decision support system for command and control interactive simulation. The architectural design for the multi-agent system was drafted in the first stage of the work. In the next stage rules of engagement, objective and cost functions were determined in the AWACS (Airforce command and control) decision support domain. Finally, the multi-agent architecture was implemented and evaluated inside a distributed interactive simulation test-bed for AWACS Vv\u27Ds. The evaluation process combined individual and team use of the decision support system to improve the performance results of WD trainees. The decision support system is designed and implemented a distributed architecture for performance-oriented management of software agents. The approach provides new agent interaction protocols and utilizes agent performance monitoring and remote synchronization mechanisms. This multi-agent architecture enables direct and indirect agent communication as well as dynamic hierarchical agent coordination. Inter-agent communications use predefined interfaces, protocols, and open channels with specified ontology and semantics. Services can be requested and responses with results received over such communication modes. Both traditional (functional) parameters and nonfunctional (e.g. QoS, deadline, etc.) requirements and captured in service requests

A mobile-programmable smart mirror for ambient IoT environments

© 2017 IEEE. The purpose of this paper is to present a smart interactive mirror interface. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a futuristic mirror that offers simplified and customisable services to the home environment. On a par with the recent advances in the Internet of Things standards and applications, the mirror is designed to enable residents to control the household smart appliances and access personalised services; ensuring convenience in accessing these services with the slightest possible user intervention. The multipurpose user-friendly functionalities of the proposed mirror interface provide users with the versatility needed for better management and integration of daily tasks. A service oriented approach is adopted in the architecture of the proposed system. It consists mainly of two mobile applications devoted to the customisation of user profiles, which are displayed on the smart mirror interface once successfully paired. Moreover, in the proposed system, emphasis is particularly given to the user profile personalisation, as well as planned system interactivity and adaptability. Hence, the proposed system is set apart from others for its ease of use as well as its provision of various customised information services for user profile generation

An Interactive Approach of Ontology-based Requirement Elicitation for Software Customization

Software product lines allow reusing a collection of related software engineering assets to develop custom-made high quality software with reduced time and cost. In this thesis, an interactive approach of requirement elicitation for software customization is presented. It first adopts an ontology-based requirement model to represent the commonalities and variabilities among a group of related requirement artefacts. The development of a dialogue system further enables users to interactively customize software products by means of text-based dialogue. While the ontology model directs the dialogue system to perform requirement elicitation, its instantiation is accomplished with the support of decomposition-based requirement refinement in Service-Oriented Architecture. Besides the design details, a case study is presented to demonstrate how customizing an online book shopping system could be achieved with interactive requirement elicitation. Finally, the reliability and efficiency of the proposed method are evaluated with experimental comparison

Content-driven design and architecture of E-learning applications

E-learning applications combine content with learning technology systems to support the creation of content and its delivery to the learner. In the future, we can expect the distinction between learning content and its supporting infrastructure to become blurred. Content objects will interact with infrastructure services as independent objects. Our solution to the development of e-learning applications – content-driven design and architecture – is based on content-centric ontological modelling and development of architectures. Knowledge and modelling will play an important role in the development of content and architectures. Our approach integrates content with interaction (in technical and educational terms) and services (the principle organization for a system architecture), based on techniques from different fields, including software engineering, learning design, and knowledge engineering

Managing evolution and change in web-based teaching and learning environments

The state of the art in information technology and educational technologies is evolving constantly. Courses taught are subject to constant change from organisational and subject-specific reasons. Evolution and change affect educators and developers of computer-based teaching and learning environments alike – both often being unprepared to respond effectively. A large number of educational systems are designed and developed without change and evolution in mind. We will present our approach to the design and maintenance of these systems in rapidly evolving environments and illustrate the consequences of evolution and change for these systems and for the educators and developers responsible for their implementation and deployment. We discuss various factors of change, illustrated by a Web-based virtual course, with the objective of raising an awareness of this issue of evolution and change in computer-supported teaching and learning environments. This discussion leads towards the establishment of a development and management framework for teaching and learning systems

A SERVICE-ORIENTED APPROACH FOR INTERACTIVE COMPUTING

ABSTRACT The introduction of new technologies leads to a more and more complex interactive systems design. In order to describe the future interactive system, the human computer interaction domain uses specific models, design processes and tools in order to represent, create, store and manipulate models. The aim of our work is to provide a theoretical conceptual approach to facilitate the work of model designers and project managers by helping them in choosing processes, models and modeling environments adapted to their specific needs. This paper details the use of a service-oriented approach for model management. Our proposals are related to three different abstract levels: the operational level to choose the appropriate modelling tool, the organisational level to select a design process and the intentional level to define modelling goals. Keywords: HCI, model, service, model management, modeling tools, modeling services. Un enfoque basado en servicios para sistemas inform\ub4aticos interactivos RESUMEN Un enfoque basado en servicios para sistemas inform\ue1ticos interactivos La introducci\uf3n de nuevas tecnolog\uedas conduce a un dise\uf1o de sistemas interactivos cada vez m\ue1s complejo. Para describir el futuro sistema interactivo, el dominio de la interacci\uf3n humano-computador usa modelos espec\uedficos, procesos de dise\uf1o y herramientas para representar, crear, almacenar y manipular modelos. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es proporcionar un enfoque te\uf3rico-conceptual para facilitar el trabajo de los dise\uf1adores de modelos y jefes de proyectos, ayud\ue1ndoles en la selecci\uf3n de procesos, modelos y ambientes de modelado adaptados a sus necesidades especificas. Este art\uedculo detalla el empleo de una propuesta a base de servicios para la gesti\uf3n de modelos. Nuestras proposiciones se fundamentan sobre tres niveles de abstracci\uf3n: el nivel operacional para escoger la herramienta de modelaje adecuada, el nivel organizacional para seleccionar un proceso de dise\uf1o y el nivel intencional para los objetivos de modelaje. Palabras claves del Autor: Interacci\uf3n humano-computador, gesti\uf3n de modelos, herramientas de modelaje, servicios de modelaje.<br