Component Reconfiguration in the Presence of Conflicts

International audienceComponents are traditionally modeled as black-boxes equipped with interfaces that indicate provided/required ports and, often, also conflicts with other components that cannot coexist with them. In modern tools for automatic system management, components become grey-boxes that show relevant internal states and the possible actions that can be acted on the components to change such state during the deployment and reconfiguration phases. However, state-of-the-art tools in this field do not support a systematic management of conflicts. In this paper we investigate the impact of conflicts by precisely characterizing the increment of complexity on the reconfiguration problem

Component reconfiguration in the presence of conflicts. Technical report of the Aeolus project

Components are traditionally modeled as black-boxes equipped with interfaces that indicate provided/required ports and, often, also conflicts with other components that cannot coexist with them. In modern tools for automatic system management, components become grey-boxes that show relevant internal states and the possible actions that can be acted on the components to change such state during the deployment and reconfiguration phases. However, state-of-the-art tools in this field do not support a systematic management of conflicts. In this paper we investigate the impact of conflicts by precisely characterizing the increment of complexity on the reconfiguration problem

Aspects of Assembly and Cascaded Aspects of Assembly: Logical and Temporal Properties

Highly dynamic computing environments, like ubiquitous and pervasive computing environments, require frequent adaptation of applications. This has to be done in a timely fashion, and the adaptation process must be as fast as possible and mastered. Moreover the adaptation process has to ensure a consistent result when finished whereas adaptations to be implemented cannot be anticipated at design time. In this paper we present our mechanism for self-adaptation based on the aspect oriented programming paradigm called Aspect of Assembly (AAs). Using AAs: (1) the adaptations process is fast and its duration is mastered; (2) adaptations' entities are independent of each other thanks to the weaver logical merging mechanism; and (3) the high variability of the software infrastructure can be managed using a mono or multi-cycle weaving approach.Comment: 14 pages, published in International Journal of Computer Science, Volume 8, issue 4, Jul 2011, ISSN 1694-081

Reliability analysis of distribution systems with photovoltaic generation using a power flow simulator and a parallel Monte Carlo approach

This paper presents a Monte Carlo approach for reliability assessment of distribution systems with distributed generation using parallel computing. The calculations are carried out with a royalty-free power flow simulator, OpenDSS (Open Distribution System Simulator). The procedure has been implemented in an environment in which OpenDSS is driven from MATLAB. The test system is an overhead distribution system represented by means of a three-phase model that includes protective devices. The paper details the implemented procedure, which can be applied to systems with or without distributed generation, includes an illustrative case study and summarizes the results derived from the analysis of the test system during one year. The goal is to evaluate the test system performance considering different scenarios with different level of system automation and reconfiguration, and assess the impact that distributed photovoltaic generation can have on that performance. Several reliability indices, including those related to the impact of distributed generation, are obtained for every scenario.Postprint (published version

Achieving Robust Self-Management for Large-Scale Distributed Applications

Autonomic managers are the main architectural building blocks for constructing self-management capabilities of computing systems and applications. One of the major challenges in developing self-managing applications is robustness of management elements which form autonomic managers. We believe that transparent handling of the effects of resource churn (joins/leaves/failures) on management should be an essential feature of a platform for self-managing large-scale dynamic distributed applications, because it facilitates the development of robust autonomic managers and hence improves robustness of self-managing applications. This feature can be achieved by providing a robust management element abstraction that hides churn from the programmer. In this paper, we present a generic approach to achieve robust services that is based on finite state machine replication with dynamic reconfiguration of replica sets. We contribute a decentralized algorithm that maintains the set of nodes hosting service replicas in the presence of churn. We use this approach to implement robust management elements as robust services that can operate despite of churn. Our proposed decentralized algorithm uses peer-to-peer replica placement schemes to automate replicated state machine migration in order to tolerate churn. Our algorithm exploits lookup and failure detection facilities of a structured overlay network for managing the set of active replicas. Using the proposed approach, we can achieve a long running and highly available service, without human intervention, in the presence of resource churn. In order to validate and evaluate our approach, we have implemented a prototype that includes the proposed algorithm

Context-aware adaptation in DySCAS

DySCAS is a dynamically self-configuring middleware for automotive control systems. The addition of autonomic, context-aware dynamic configuration to automotive control systems brings a potential for a wide range of benefits in terms of robustness, flexibility, upgrading etc. However, the automotive systems represent a particularly challenging domain for the deployment of autonomics concepts, having a combination of real-time performance constraints, severe resource limitations, safety-critical aspects and cost pressures. For these reasons current systems are statically configured. This paper describes the dynamic run-time configuration aspects of DySCAS and focuses on the extent to which context-aware adaptation has been achieved in DySCAS, and the ways in which the various design and implementation challenges are met

Component-based simulation for a reconfiguration study of transitic systems

This paper is organized as follows. Part A presents the context of reconfiguring transitic systems and the main idea in implementing the decision step. It comprises sections 1 to 3. Section 3 presents an example that illustrates the concepts presented in the next sections. Parts B and C express the models and principles used to simulate transitic systems, the result of which will be helpful for choosing the new configuration. Part B focuses mainly on models. It comprises sections 4 to 6. Part C focuses mainly on simulation principles. It comprises sections 7 to 10