Components Interoperability through Mediating Connector Patterns

A key objective for ubiquitous environments is to enable system interoperability between system's components that are highly heterogeneous. In particular, the challenge is to embed in the system architecture the necessary support to cope with behavioral diversity in order to allow components to coordinate and communicate. The continuously evolving environment further asks for an automated and on-the-fly approach. In this paper we present the design building blocks for the dynamic and on-the-fly interoperability between heterogeneous components. Specifically, we describe an Architectural Pattern called Mediating Connector, that is the key enabler for communication. In addition, we present a set of Basic Mediator Patterns, that describe the basic mismatches which can occur when components try to interact, and their corresponding solutions.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

Application-Layer Connector Synthesis

International audienceThe heterogeneity characterizing the systems populating the Ubiquitous Computing environment prevents their seamless interoperability. Heterogeneous protocols may be willing to cooperate in order to reach some common goal even though they meet dynamically and do not have a priori knowledge of each other. Despite numerous e orts have been done in the literature, the automated and run-time interoperability is still an open challenge for such environment. We consider interoperability as the ability for two Networked Systems (NSs) to communicate and correctly coordinate to achieve their goal(s). In this chapter we report the main outcomes of our past and recent research on automatically achieving protocol interoperability via connector synthesis. We consider application-layer connectors by referring to two conceptually distinct notions of connector: coordinator and mediator. The former is used when the NSs to be connected are already able to communicate but they need to be speci cally coordinated in order to reach their goal(s). The latter goes a step forward representing a solution for both achieving correct coordination and enabling communication between highly heterogeneous NSs. In the past, most of the works in the literature described e orts to the automatic synthesis of coordinators while, in recent years the focus moved also to the automatic synthesis of mediators. Within the Connect project, by considering our past experience on automatic coordinator synthesis as a baseline, we propose a formal theory of mediators and a related method for automatically eliciting a way for the protocols to interoperate. The solution we propose is the automated synthesis of emerging mediating connectors (i.e., mediators for short)

Mediating Connector Patterns for Components Interoperability

International audienceA key objective for ubiquitous environments is to enable system interoperability between system's components that are highly heterogeneous. In particular, the challenge is to embed in the system architecture the necessary support to cope with behavioral diversity in order to allow components to coordinate and communicate. In this paper we present the design building blocks for the dynamic and on-the-fly interoperability between heterogeneous components. Specifically, we describe an Architectural Pattern called Mediating Connector, that is the key enabler for communication. In addition, we present a set of Basic Mediator Patterns, that describe the basic mismatches which can occur when components try to interact, and their corresponding solution

Reasoning about and Harmonizing the Interaction Behavior of Networked Systems at Application- and Middleware- Layer

The CONNECT Integrated Project aims at enabling continuous composition of networked systems to respond to the evolution of functionalities provided to and required from the networked environment. CONNECT aims at dropping the interoperability barrier by adopting a revolutionary approach to the seamless networking of digital systems, that is, synthesizing on-the-fly the connectors via which networked systems communicate. The resulting emergent connectors are effectively synthesized according to the behavioral semantics of application- down to middleware-layer protocols run by the interacting parties. The role of work package WP3 is to devise automated and compositional approaches to connector synthesis, which can be performed at run-time. Given the respective interaction behavior of networked systems, we want to synthesize the behavior of the connector(s) needed for them to interact. These connectors serve as mediators of the networked systems' interaction at both application and middleware layers. During the project's first year, the work of WP3 led us to achieve the following preliminary results: the formalization of matching and mapping relationships for application-layer interaction protocols; the definition of the corresponding mediator generation algorithm; the analysis of the interoperability problems, and related solutions, that can occur at middleware-layer; and a model-driven approach to the automated elicitation of application-layer protocols from software implementations. All these achievements have been reported in Deliverable D3.1: "Modeling of application- and middleware-layer interaction protocols". In this deliverable, we go a step forward with respect to some of the previous achievements by delivering a unified process, and related artefacts, for the automated synthesis of mediators at both application and middleware layers, code-generation techniques to generate the actual code that implements a synthesized mediator, and a preliminary integration of QoS management in the synthesis process. During year 2, all the work has been validated through its application to several scenarios, in particular as part of WP1 and WP6. By selecting one of them as common scenario, in this deliverable, we also show the different methods/techniques at work on the scenario. All the steps of the devised synthesis process are described in detail and applied to the selected common scenario

Modeling of application- and middleware-layer interaction protocols

The CONNECT Integrated Project aims at enabling continuous composition of networked systems to respond to the evolution of functionalities provided to and required from the networked environment. CONNECT aims at dropping the interoperability barrier by adopting a revolutionary approach to the seamless networking of digital systems, that is, synthesizing on-the-fly the connectors via which networked systems communicate. The resulting emergent connectors are effectively synthesized according to the behavioral semantics of application- down to middleware-layer protocols run by the interacting parties. The role of work package WP3 is to devise automated and compositional approaches to connector synthesis, which can be performed at run-time. Given the respective interaction behavior of networked systems, we want to synthesize the behavior of the connector(s) needed for them to interact. These connectors serve as mediators of the networked systems' interaction at both application and middleware layers. In this deliverable, we set the scene for a formal theory of the automated synthesis of application- and middleware-layer protocol mediators. We formally characterize mediating connectors between mismatching application-layer protocols by rigorously defining the necessary conditions that must hold for protocols to be mediated. The outcome of this formalization is the definition of two relationships between heterogenous protocols: matching and mapping. The former is concerned with checking whether a mediator letting two protocols interoperate exists or not. The latter concerns the algorithm that should be executed to synthesize the required mediator. Furthermore, we analyze the different dimensions of interoperability at the middleware layer and exploit this analysis to formalize existing solutions to middleware-layer interoperability. Since the work on application-layer mediator synthesis is based on the assumption that a model of the interaction protocol for a networked system is dynamically discovered, we finally present an approach, based on data-flow analysis and testing, for the automated elicitation of application-layer protocols from software implementations. This approach presents similarities, but also several differences, with the work of work package WP4 (protocol learning). Furthermore, it allowed us to proceed in parallel with the work of WP4 and to state the requirements that the learning approaches have to satisfy to enable mediator synthesis. For this reason, we keep this work separate from the work on protocol learning and discuss it in this deliverable. All the approaches mentioned above are applied to several examples and scenarios

Open Source Based Deployment of Environmental Data into Geospatial Information Infrastructures

Today, scientists use local and closed geospatial solutions to run their models and store their results. This may limit their ability to share their models, and results with other interested colleagues. This scenario is changing with the advent of new factors such as the rapid growth and rise of open source projects, or new paradigms promoted by government organizations to manage environmental data, such as Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) directive, or the massive use of Web 2.0 techniques where users are looking for applications with a high degree of collaboration, interactiveness, and multimedia effects. Many authors address the versatility of Spatial Data Infrastructures where resources are shared and accessed via standard service according to complex specifications. In this context, the authors point out the need to merge the traditional building and maintenance of these infrastructures, driven by official providers, with these more participative methodologies where users can participate in creating and integrating information. It seems necessary to develop new geospatial tools which integrate these new trends. This paper proposes a unified solution offering to the scientific field an open development framework, based on standards and philosophies focused on new technologies and scientific needs

Experiment Scenarios

The scenarios proposed in this deliverable are intended to identify the multiple dimensions of interoperability, and also foster further discussions with other work packages (WP1 to WP5). These will be refined and extended as the project progresses. The scenarios have been grouped into three computing domains: Ubiquitous computing, Daily life support and Telco Web 2.0 & Cloud Computing. Although the scenarios are partitioned into domains, they all have common properties such as the presence of disparate devices, a large proportion of peer-to-peer traffic and disparate interaction patterns

A Formalization of Mediating Connectors: Towards on the fly Interoperability

Mediators stand as a core architectural paradigm for today's and future systems that increasingly need be connected. The mediator concept has been used to cope with many heterogeneity dimensions spanning: terminology, representation format, transfer protocols, functionality, and application-layer protocols. Still, a key challenge for today's systems architectures is to embed the necessary support for automated mediation, i.e., the connector concept needs to evolve towards the one of mediating connectors. In this paper, we concentrate on the issue of enabling automated protocol mediation. Building upon tremendous research work in the area over the past few years we introduce a formalization of mediating connectors. The proposed formalization paves the way for automated reasoning about protocol matching and mapping, and thus for the dynamic synthesis of mediating connectors to enable eternal networked systems, which we investigate as part of the CONNECT European project

Project Final Report Use and Dissemination of Foreground

This document is the final report on use and dissemination of foreground, part of the CONNECT final report. The document provides the lists of: publications, dissemination activities, and exploitable foregroun